HSR Spirit 10k
Race Information
- Name: HSR Spirit 10K
- Date: April 19, 2026
- Distance: 10 km
- Location: Bangalore, KA
- Time: 1:03’24
Goals
| Goal | Description | Completed? |
|---|---|---|
| A | Sub 55 minutes | No |
| B | Sub 60 minutes | No |
Splits
| Km | Pace |
|---|---|
| 1 | 5:52/km |
| 2 | 5:28/km |
| 3 | 5:48/km |
| 4 | 6:27/km |
| 5 | 6:47/km |
| 6 | 6:25/km |
| 7 | 6:21/km |
| 8 | 6:41/km |
| 9 | 6:19/km |
| 10 | 6:43/km |
Training/Pre-Race
It’s been a month since my NICE Road 10K and I wanted to test my legs after another month of training under my belt (shoes?). Put in a decent block of training over the last month with 3 sessions on the track (mix of tempo, interval, and V02 max) and consistent strength training throughout. Was feeling confident going into this race and thought sub-55 min was within my grasp as a reach goal.
Race
Reached the stadium at 5:15am on account of the race brochure having indicated 5:30 as the kick-off time. To my disappointment, the actual kick-off was at 6:30am, and the conditions were reasonably humid with the heat starting to kick in by the time the race finally started at 6:45 am. I’d taken a caffeine shot and a gel ahead of the anticipated kick-off at 5:30am, and spent an hour working off the nervous energy before the start.
The course is two 5k loops around the Atal Bihari Vajpayee stadium in HSR. I’d anticipated that the route would be relatively flat but that proved to not be the case. My Suunto GPS recorded 100m of elevation gain and 40m of descent but I’m not convinced this is accurate. Nonetheless, the route had rolling elevation throughout and wasn’t conducive to a fast pace.
My race strategy was to start at a somewhat comfortable 6:00 min/km pace and push to 5:30-45 min/km at the back end if I felt strong. Unfortunately, all of my planning was discarded immediately as I started the race at a fast clip and ran the first 3K well outside my aerobic capacity. I realised that I’d begun too quick and tried to moderate my pace around the 4K mark but I’d already burnt my matches and the rest of the race was about survival and hoping that I don’t come to a standstill.
I maintained an average pace of 6:15 min/km for the remainder of the race. I didn’t slow down majorly on any of the uphill sections but conversely didn’t have the legs to push on the downslopes. There were also only two aid stations on the course (with only water bottles and no food or electrolytes) so I wasn’t able to hydrate as I’d liked. The biggest factor however was the temperature and humidity which had become punishing at this point.
I reached the finish line and noticed my GPS showed only 9K. I continued outside the race course and jogged the last 1K to get my total distance to an even 10K. Consequently, even my fall-back goal of sub-60 min proved to be beyond my self today.
Post-race
I realised that I’ve built top-end speed and could conceivably get close to a 25 min 5K within a month or two - this is largely a consequence of my interval training and V02 max sessions on the track. However, I’ve largely neglected threshold/tempo work and that proved to be my undoing today.
Once I realised that I’d sabotaged my race strategy within the first 3K (ensuring that the remainder of the race would be hard and not controlled), I shifted my focus on getting experience pushing through a ‘bad’ session. I’m sure to have many more of these and today’s experience trying to salvage my race will come good at some point I’m sure.
I’ve also not managed to meaningfully ramp up my weekly LSD run - this needs to push towards 15-20K in order for me to extract my full potential in a 10K. I’ll look to test my 10K again in the next few months.