At 9:30 I was at the starting line of the 10th race of Barcelona firemen — Cursa Bombers 2008. I arrived early in order to get a good spot on the starting line and hence skip the traffic at the start of the race. The plan was to run the 10k in 50 minutes. For people like me — who have difficulties with dividing and multiplying — 50 minutes is a good goal for a 10k race. The fifth row in the multiplication table is easy. It is easy to calculate after each kilometer how the race is going compared ot the plan.

0:00 I ran over the starting line.

5:13 The first kilometer behind me. I was already 13 seconds behind my plan. Unfortunately I cannot blame the traffic. My pace was simply too slow.

10:16 Two kilometers behind me. The good news was that the second kilometer was faster than the first. The bad news was that I was still running a slower pace than planned.

15:16 Three kilometers behind me. Hurray! I managed to run a whole kilometer according to plan — in five minutes.

20:27 Four kilometers behind me. I celebrated too much at the last kilometer mark. Became sloppy. Lost my pace. Fell even further behind my plan.

25:29 Five kilometers behind me. I was half way through the race and almost half a minute behind my plan. I had to switch up a gear.

30:21 Six kilometers behind me. The switching of a gear was a success. I inched myself closer to my plan.

35:09 Seven kilometers behind me. Another kilometer under five minutes. I was not yet tired. Things looked good.

39:58 Eight kilometers behind me. Eight times five is forty. Hurray! I was ahead of plan. Perhaps time to switch gears again.

44:37 Nine kilometers behind me. Only one kilometer to go.

49:11 I ran over the finish line. The task of the day was achieved. I managed to run 10k below 50 minutes.

Despite having met my goal and improved my personal best by two minutes and a half, I was still a bit disappointed that I had not set myself a more ambitious goal. I had enough energy when I arrived at the finish line. 

It is of no use to think about the past. I will just set the goal higher for Cursa Bombers 2009. I will start preparing. I will start practicing the 4.5 row in the multiplication table. And perhaps I will go running every now and then.