Getting out of bed at 6am this morning was not pleasant. It was the coolest weekend we’ve had this year, 9 degrees is not my favourite temperature. Give me 25 + any day regardless of what I’m doing. After a quick breakfast of a toast with jam and a cup of tea with honey we were off to the race venue, luckily only a twenty minute drive.
In the morning I didn’t feel confident at all about the race. During the week I didn’t feel well, and last night my head throbbed. My last run or any training was five days earlier which did nothing for my confidence levels. But with so many people around, warming up, stretching, jogging back and forth, and Jarek by my side I was starting to feel better. We decided to run this one together, normally on the short runs Jarek would speed ahead and finish at least five minutes before me, but we figure that anything above 10km is better to run together for support and motivation.
At 7:30, the gun went off and we were racing. As we ran through the parking lot I managed to take off my jumper and quickly throw it my car, I had been cold but within a few hundred metres my body had warmed up. We started at an easy tempo towards the back of the pack.
The first five kilometres felt easy. We were keeping a good pace, although as we were running I thought we were going slower than my watch was telling me;
1 – 5:36
2 – 5:05
3 – 5:06
4 – 5:01
5 – 4:55
At this point my fingers were freezing and my arms were warm, they felt heavy. I had to straighten them out to let the blood flow through. The time was flying and we were getting through the race quickly.
6 – 5:10
7 – 4:58
8 – 5:06
9 – 5:11
10 – 5:12
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| Jarek after the race looking like he could run another 15k easily |
With only 5km to go I got a second wind of energy and felt like I could keep running and running. I didn’t want to push too hard but to keep the pace and be able to finish strong. Each kilometre felt good, having Jarek by my side reminding me to hold onto the pace when my body wanted to slow down was amazing. If I was running on my own that pace would be much slower.
11 – 5:11
12 – 5:01
13 – 5:03
14 – 5:04
15 – 4:52
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| Taking a rest in the shade |
There were moments when I felt myself slowing down and I realised that at the same time my running form was poor, being conscious of this and positioning my body correctly helped in picking up the pace. Just little things like controlled breathing, good posture and arm position can have an impact on the way we run.
My goal had been to run sub 1:20 and feel good at the end. Jarek and I crossed the finish line at 1:16:31 and felt fantastic finishing strong. I have to say it was probably one of the best races we’ve done in a while and I couldn’t be happier with the result.
RESULTS
Official time: 1:16:31
Distance: 15km
141/310 Total Finishers
54/177 Female Total Finishers
10/41 Age Group Finishers
* * *
Training in Review
This week’s training was pretty much non-existent.
Mon
30min run (5km) – outdoor with a few long hills added in
20 min yoga
Tue
30 min yoga
Wed – Fri
No training.
Sat
20 min walk
Sun
15km Fun Run
I’m a little disappointed for not keeping up with the yoga challenge this week but I am going to return to regular yoga training as of tomorrow.
