NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10km Race Report, 1/9/16

ByAnthony Chan
At a Glance

A spontaneous entry into the NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10K — NYRR’s first race of the year and my last as a 24-year-old — turned into a personal best 35:27, run as a negative split around a full loop of Central Park.

HIGHLIGHTS

  • Result: personal-best 10K of 35:27
  • Negative split: reached 5km in 17:48, then ran the back half faster
  • Full anti-clockwise loop of Central Park, including Harlem and Cat Hills
  • Perfect conditions: 41°F, 76% humidity, 10mph wind

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Races make great workouts: a spontaneous entry replaced a hard tempo session with a PB
  • Negative splitting delivers: holding back early set up a strong, faster finish
  • Know the course hills: cadence naturally dipped on Harlem and Cat Hills
  • Start the year sharp: an early-season PB is a confidence-building springboard

My last race as a 24-year old

This 10km was probably my most spontaneous action of the year, thus far. (sort of anti-climactic…) Knowing that I would be out of town for business for the majority of the week, my opportunity to effectively run a hard tempo/threshold type workout was slim. I decided to run the NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10km race in Central Park, NY. This is New York Road Runner’s annual “first-race-of-the-year”, and that applied to myself as well.

Race conditions on race morning were perfect. Here’s what NYRR recorded:

“Weather:  41degrees, 76% humidity, E 10 mph wind”

The race started at 8am near the East 102nd street transverse going in an anti-clockwise direction. We did a full loop of Central Park, passed the start line and finished on the 102nd street transverse.

I had mile splits turned off my watch so the only data I could come up with was from the actual 10km split. According to WKO4, the run pace was consistent throughout. Cadence fell slightly during the climbs up Harlem and Cat Hills (mile 1 & 5), and heart rate gradually rose (and dipped a few bpm on the down sections of the rolling hills). Attached is a colorful graph exported from WKO4 with some data smoothing.

2016 nyrr joek wko chart

Although I don’t have mile splits, I recall seeing my 5km split at 17:48, which means that I negative splitted the second half of the race. Thank you to CPTC-NB for the cheering out on course! I really enjoyed the race, and it felt amazing to start 2016 with a personal best 10km time of 35:27.

Full results can be found here

Next up is the Los Angeles Marathon on February 14th!

Thanks for reading! – Anthony

P.S. – I didn’t get a chance to take photos, but if I stumble upon some race pics, I’ll be updating this blog with some more visual content. Until then, enjoy the graph!

Update: Found a couple of snapshots, courtesy of NYRR.

Screenshot 2016-01-09 16.42.20

Screenshot 2016-01-09 16.47.19

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