After racing the 5km only 3 days ago I knew it was not an easy race but I still had to give it a go. As I was always out of the country when this event happened I couldn't resist of lining up on the start line in my home town- it was awesome.
Of course there were different distances, but I was keen to see what my legs can do at the beginning of the season on a 10km run. There were a lot of good runners, but as I am rarely racing these 5/10km competitions I didn't know who was going to be fast. I met an old teammate where I know what he is capable of, but the rest was just a guess.
The gun went off and the pace was high from the beginning. I found myself in second position and my 5k from a few days ago kept me positive that I have some medium fast legs. After a few kilometers there were only a few contenders for the podium and I was one of them. One guy pushed the pace and left us behind, a few minutes later I also had to let another guy go running in position 3 now. I kept my pace nicely but I could feel that I wasn't doing any speed work since offseason.
Hundreds of people were running and cheering and the atmosphere was amazing. Home crowds are just the best to finish the race on the podium:
3rd Overall
2nd U30
1st in the city championships
Picture: the important peeps from Klosterneuburg