Despite the slightly longer (~100m) in course and hotter weather (30min earlier start than before), The top 1% runners seemed to score equally well as before.
I was managed to start near to the front and started slow (from below chart you might found it the slowest start ever). It did not help. I could not speed up to 4:00 pace after 1km mark as I planned, and I could not even keep 4:10 pace, degraded to 4:30 at last, end up with 2min slower than last year. More shamefully, the heart rate was insanely high and it should not come from a runner claimed training with MAF method. It was out of my max heart rate!
Split -2011 Pace -2012 Pace -2012 HR -2013 Pace -2013 HR
1km 4:01 3:57 182bpm 4:37 185bpm
2km 4:03 3:52 190bpm 4:13 189bpm
3km 4:09 4:09 189bpm 4:21 191bpm
4km 4:33 4:23 187bpm 4:20 192bpm
5km 4:42 4:20 186bpm 4:32 193bpm
I could only attribute this to the temperature, the heat of the course that burnt my soles because I ran barefoot. I could not pump up sufficient blood stream to the leg muscles and use most to cool down the body and soles... I knew that was not the only reason. I was losing my peak speed, as a result of aging when I entering my 40s. Last month SAFRA inter-club road relay already shown a sign: I could not clocked sub-4min pace in a 2.4km run. If it was 3 years ago, I could do it in a 7.5km course with only 6 month after starting to run. So it's time for me to turn to longer distance, and ultra-marathon as other mid-aged runners did. Bye-bye speed, I'll get it in longer distance.
