Run for Rogers House 5km
Sat June 7, 4:15pm
========================
I prepped for a late afternoon, sunny and hot, race as best as I could. The night
before was none ideal with a dinner/dance at my church. I avoided dancing and staying
late, but the food was not what I would have pre-race. Day-of I chose my food
carefully, and drank lots, and stayed upstairs in my warm house so that the hot, humid
temps outside wouldn't be too much of a shock. But I still felt a little tired and
didn't have much jump or energy. I got down to the race site at 3:25pm and since I'd
already picked up my kit, I could focus just on my immediate race pre - a yoga routine
and then a 20min WU run. The WU run was slow and gentle, but still my HR got into the
170's easily. I felt tired and sapped of energy, and the couple of strides that I did
were not very energetic. I prepared myself mentally for this to be a very tough race.
Given the preponderance of non-racing people in the race, as race-time approached and
we moved to the start line, I tried to seed myself close to the start line, but still
not close enough, as when we started, I still had to move past people. But, due to the
narrow nature of the race course, the runners were spread back aot side-to-side and
there were few ahead of me, so within a few moments I had clear running room, and I
focused on just settling into my pace. I tried to hold myself back early on, as I knew
that the heat and humidity and wind would takes its toll later on in the race. I'm not
sure I succeeded in this. I saw Brian and Mel cheering from the sidelines. As the
race turned up Longfields Dr, I was settled into my pace, my HR was way up there, and
with the wind now behind us, I started to feel a little warm. And slowly it started to
get tough. My legs slowly started to feel tired and heavy. I saw the leaders coming
back the other way, and I was thankful, cuz I knew that the turn-around couldn't be too
far ahead. There were no km markers on the course, so it was hard to know where you
were. Through the water station, and I put water on me - it was warm so not very
refreshing - and I just focused on staying steady. At the turn-around, my legs were
now tired and heavy and dead, 14mins in, so I just focused on staying as steady as I
could. Going back down Longfields was tough, with the wind in our faces, and 2-way
traffic on the narrow course, and groups/clouds of runners coming at me pushing me to
the sides of the course. Heavy legs. The turn onto Berrigan finally came. I focussed
on the guy ahead of me as I saw I was catching him. He stopped to walk, and as he
started running again, I caught and passed him. I wasn't paying much attention to my
watch, but I was still hopeful for a sub-24min time. My HR was way up into Z5+. Into
the final stretch, and I was just hangin on how. I felt like I was plodding. Eyes
barely open as I put all effort and concentration in to just keeping going. I was
starting to border on the staggering stage. Stay strong, stay strong, nearly there.
Saw Mel and Brian. Around the final turns, looking to make sure no-one was making a
charge to pass me. No one was, and as I crossed the line, I just saw 24:00 on the
clock.
I was done. I could barely stand. Gasping for air, legs weak. I put out a 110%
effort, and it was really tough. I am happy with my effort and my time, it was the
best I could do. I knew going in that the original plan of this being a PB-attempt was
not going to happen, but I still wanted to do the best I could, and I did. I did not
"sluff it off cuz of the weather" although that would certainly have been excusable.
I'm glad that I wasn't running the 10km, as 24mins was long enough to be running in
those tough weather conditions.
official stats:
---------------
real time: 24:01.3
chip time: 23:53.3
Men 30 - 39 3/16
Men 10/93
overall 15/261
I didn't know I was 3rd AG as I didn't stick around for the awards ceremony (if there
was one). I don't think the short bike commute I did in the morning affected me much,
if anything. The weather was too much of a factor.
(
geocities.com/marathon13man/race_reports) (
geocities.com/marathon13man)