10km @ Sports Super Centre

The third Runaway Bay Sports Super Centre Fun Runs was on again today and Jarek and I got up at 6am, packed our bags and headed for the centre. Waking up to silence was a relief, I was dreading the morning run as it had been pouring for the past thirty six hours and did not look like it was going to stop by morning. Fortunately, it did and it was lovely to see light streaming through the cloudy sky and halfway through the run the sun emerged.

Heading towards the start line…

a few minutes before the start…

At the start of the race I started getting a tummy ache. My breakfast before the race today was just a slice of toast with butter and a cup of tea with honey. I was also a little dehydrated, after Friday night drinking (birthday celebrations), and a slight hangover yesterday, I wasn’t expecting to feel marvelous on race morning.

The gun went off and we started running. The plan for today wasn’t to PR but to maintain the same pace for the entire distance of the race. Sure secretly I was hoping to get a good time also but during the entire run I was making myself not think about the finish line or even the runner in front of me. At times my mind wandered, yeah you can do a sub fifty, just get past this person and the next, just a little bit faster, I had to shut the thoughts out before they made me lose my pace by telling myself things like ‘Loosen up your arms, relax your shoulders’…‘this isn’t a race, it’s just a training session,’… ‘maintain this tempo and you’ll be right’…‘remember to breathe naturally.’

The mind talk worked. Even though I wanted to think about crossing the finish line I managed to maintain my energy levels throughout the race and ran the 10km just the way I wanted to. Sometimes it’s worthwhile to stick to the plan and be happy with the result.

I have to say the route was not the easiest. The obscene amount of rain throughout the night and day before did not help. The first lap was on the road which was fine, but the second lap was on footpaths and in a flood prone area. After the half way point there were lots of ankle deep puddles and running with saturated shoes is not desirable. My feet started to feel heavy, the sock on my left foot rolled up strangely and I thought that I would end up with blisters for sure, fortunately it rolled itself back to normal as I ran and there was no damage done. On both laps I saw a family of kangaroos enjoying the morning sunshine and staring at the few hundred of runners that passed them as they devoured grass and laid about. I’m sad to say I didn’t have my camera in hand as I would have loved to have taken a few snaps.

the effects of the previous nights rain

the finish line in sight

Finally at the 9km mark I gave myself permission to worry about the finish line. I tried to speed up a little but my body did not want to obey. But that’s ok, I crossed the finish line in sub 51 which is about two minutes slower than my PR but I did meet my goal of keeping an even pace over the distance:

1 –  5:11
2 – 4:59
3 – 5:01
4 – 4:59
5 – 5:06
6 – 5:05
7 – 5:07
8 – 5:03
9 – 5:08
10 – 5:05

Official Finish Time: 50:35:61