This race is a hard one with a big hill (about 150m high) to climb during the first 5k and then mostly downhill in the second half. The hardest past is represented by the constant terrain change, except for the first 2k and the last 2k, the surface is similar to a XC race, unpaved roads, dirt, rough concrete with holes and grass, mud and rocks, and both the climb and the downhill is broken in about 10 short walls followed by shorter downhill sections with a resulting constant uneven pace. The race starts at 5:30pm and for me this was a bonus, it rained all morning but it stopped early in the afternoon, so except for some mud, temperatures and overall conditions were great. This town is just 15 minutes drive from my house, after picking up the bib number I went for a short warm up and then I waited for the start of the race. I didn't have any goal time, just to go out and trying to stay with some fast people until the end. The race started on time, after 1k loop in town to thin the crowd we headed out of town to enter an unpaved road going up and up for the next 4k. Km 2 to 3 is the only constant steep climb, then the next 2k were a constant up and then down, for about 10 times. The downhill part was similar until km 7 when we reached the asphalt road and the terrain was more even. The last 1.3k started with a crazy downhill followed by a similar hill to climb and then the final down section to the finish line. I was with the fourth woman most of the time (a young 18 years old girl) that at km 7 on the asphalt took off, as she was just warming up up to that point, she passed the third woman that was about 100m from us and finished 1 minute ahead of me. I was very happy with my time and position, I finished just 8 seconds from my unofficial fast pacer (I have never finished so close to this guy), my k splits show perfectly where the hills and the downhills were located: 3:48, 4:16, 4:36, 4:46, 4:41, 3:36, 3:39, 4:07, 3:53, 3:43 + about 1 minute to cover the last 350m. This race is considered about 2-3 minutes slower than a flat 10k, the top three african guys finished within few seconds from each other in 30:19, it was unbelievable how fast they were going on those hills.
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