In her debut performance at Vancouver’s Eastside 10K, Lindsay Carson is proving that she’s on the right track heading into fall cross-country running season.

The 27-year-old Whitehorse runner was fourth in the women’s category at Saturday’s race, which also doubled as the B.C. 10K Road Championships.

Rain dumped on the runners, making the course, which looped around Vancouver’s downtown Eastside neighbourhood, quite slick.

“It was wet,” said Carson bluntly.

The rain didn’t make for ideal conditions, but Carson learned a lot about racing wet and while she said it wasn’t ideal, she got over it.

The lead group took off around the one kilometre mark as Carson settled into her pace and focused on staying in a good head space.

With around three kilometres to go, she and an American runner started to reel in Natasha Labeaud.

They both passed her and Carson kept pushing hard to the finish.

“I really dug in there,” she said, “and was able to come out on top.”

Carson was the fourth Canadian women to cross the line in 35:21, behind first-place Leslie Sexton (33:17), Dayna Pidhoresky (33:35) and Olympian Natasha Wodak (33:42).

It’s a season-best 10K for Carson, who ran a 36:53 at the Tamarack Ottawa race weekend 10K at the end of May, but is still off her personal best.

She struggled with a lingering injury during the race and dedicated her summer to training, instead of racing, to prepare for the fall’s cross-country circuit.

The strategy seems to have paid off.

At the Yukon 5K championships this summer, she won the race by about a minute and also ran to wins at the Yukon River Half marathon and the Pre-Skagway 10-Miler.

A lot of Carson’s cross-country competition was at the Vancouver race and it was a chance for Carson to see how she matched up.

“There was a lot on the line,” she said.

The runner was happy with her strong finish, but felt that she could have carried a faster pace throughout the race.

She has some new times to aim for in training.

“Let’s try to get faster,” she said.

The Yukon cross-country championships take place this weekend at Mount McIntyre.

Carson said she will likely race there, as well as an 8K in Victoria, the B.C. cross-country championships and cross-country nationals in Kingston later this fall.