Sporting Life 10K race report - so close I could taste it

Race day dawned partly cloudy and not much wind, a change from the forecast on Friday. Bryden and I stayed at my parent's condo on Saturday night. Usually I eat some kind of yogurt or cheese or peanut butter to get protein in at breakfast, but Greek yogurt is next to impossible to find here and I forgot to ask my dad to buy PB. So coffee with milk, a whole grain pita with butter and Marmite, plus a pear for breakfast, and I ate it around 5:30 am, race start was 8:05. There was a water station with Gatorade at the start, and I am kicking myself for not having any. 

By kilometre 2, my head was spinning because my carby breakfast was a distant memory. By kilometre 5, I was still on pace for a PR, but I got a nasty side stitch. I've been getting stitches the entire post partum so far and I have no idea why. I took a short walk break. Stitch came back. Walked again at km #6. Walked through the water station at km 7 and had a sip of water but nothing made the stitch go away or even lessen, I should have just run through it for all the good the walk breaks did me. 

By km #8, the course flattened out (no more downhill flying) and my Garmin was showing 45 minutes and change. I knew there was no way in hell I would be able to run 2 kms at a 5:00 pace, so the PR was out the window. My next thought was, "run comfortably hard and go for the finish under an hour", which I did. Kilometre 9 it started to rain a bit..course went downhill again and when I realized I was in danger of missing my stretch goal of sub 1:00 with the finish line in plain view, I managed to dig a bit deeper, found my finishing kick and came in at 58:45...actually my 2nd best 10K time ever, but ultimately disappointing when it came down to a stupid nutrition mistake costing me the PR. 

And the icing on the poo cake was that I got a giant chafe from my HRM strap, which has only ever happened before during a marathon, when it is understandable. 

Field Placement: 6592 / 11913 (55.3%) 
Age group: 30 – 34 
Group Placement: 543 / 1221 (44.5%) 
Gender Placement: 2742 / 6684 (41%) 

At least I didn't pee through my clothes (damn PP incontinence!) and Bryden looks good wearing a medal.