My 2025 Sporting Life 10K Race Recap
Coming off the heels of the Georgina Spring Fling Half Marathon on May 4th, I didn’t know what to expect from the Sporting Life 10K. What I did know was this:
- The course opens with a generous downhill.
- My right calf had been complaining all week.
- And my Drum Buddy was locked, loaded, and ready to fire.
So I did what any wise and wily runner would do:
I showed up. I let gravity be my co-pilot. And I kept the beat.
Cadence, Not Chaos
Instead of stressing over splits or fixating on pace, I synced up with my custom 180 BPM rhythm track—Drum Buddy, my unsung pacer. The goal was simple: move in time. Trust the rhythm. Let the body follow.
It worked.
- I started fairly conservatively hitting 165 is SPM then ramped up.
- My cadence stayed steady, hovering between 170–178 SPM.
- I didn’t force the pace—I followed the beat.
- I wasn’t thinking pace—I was thinking flow.
That mindset helped me avoid the classic trap of burning out too early on a fast course.
Elevation Hijinks & Heart Rate Truths
Now, I’m no stranger to a challenge, but something funny happened around kilometers 6 and 7.
TrainingPeaks data claims I gained 273m and 513m of elevation in those laps. (Spoiler: I didn’t scale Everest mid-race.) Still, it felt like work. And my heart rate backed that up:
- Avg HR rose from 141 bpm in Lap 1 to 173 bpm by the final push.
- Effort-wise, it was a crescendo. No redline too early—just a slow burn to the finish.
My rTSS and IF values also spiked in those middle kilometers, which makes sense. Whether it was real hills or just a mental dip, I held steady, regrouped, and made my move when it counted.
The Final Push
In the last 2K, I surged—not from ego, but from strategy. I had energy left, which meant I had timed this right.
- Lap 10 pace: 5:16/km
- Max pace: 5:28/km
- Cadence climbed to 172
- And then, like a proper showman, I hit the final .07 km with a flourish:
- 4:34/km pace
- Cadence: 180 SPM
- Heart Rate: 174 bpm
Yes, I sprinted to the finish. Because I could. Because I wanted to. Because after two races in two weekends, my legs still had something to say.
Recovery Like Never Before
The next day? No trash-can legs. No Walking Dead shuffle. In fact, I ran my second-ever recovery run, the first being the day after last week’s Georgina Spring Fling Half Marathon.
And to paraphrase Snoop Dogg…
I want to thank me.
For showing up.
For trusting the process.
For keeping the beat.
For listening to my body—not my doubts.
For believing that one week after a Half Marathon, I could find another gear.
Final Thoughts
Running isn’t just about fitness—it’s about feel.
It’s about pacing your hopes.
It’s about rising (or descending) to the occasion.
It’s about finding rhythm in chaos.
And above all?
It’s about being ready when the legs say Go.