It was a glorious clear blue crisp late autumn morning, 11 degrees when I got in the car at home, which was just about right for a good run. I picked up Ben and Chris and we had an easy drive in discussing Gordon Ramsay's kitchen nightmares!
Huge turnout at Homebush, obviously the NSW Athletics thing boosted the numbers. Ran into Andy coming back for his first hit-out after Canberra and he was hoping for sub-40 (but on no running for 3 weeks and spending every day breaking his back renovating his house!), as well as Greg who was gunning for a PB (hoping to do 38:30 or less I think). We all went for a warm-up, with Ben ahead looking very focussed doing little surges. It paid off for him.
The start was packed, but then again the entire road width was available so it wasn't that bad pickng our way through. My plan was to stick with Greg and try to get through to low 38s together. I didn't feel ready to have a crack at a 10km PB 3 weeks after the marathon, although it retrospect I probably could have gone for it. I felt great and took off like a rabbit, but Greg was the voice of wisdom, letting me know that I was going out too fast and to slow it a bit. He was hoping for 3:45 min/kms and we didn't do too badly, sticking to a pretty even 3:50 for the first half of the race.
A couple of slow kms around the middle for some reason and Greg seemed to be struggling to hold the pace around this point. I don't think he'd had ideal preparation with long runs and a few weeks of bad flu, because he'd be able to hold that pace easily if things were all good.
Anyway at 7km I felt like I was still pretty fresh and had more left in my legs and if we wanted to get anywhere near 38mins we'd have to start pushing it. I sped up a little hoping Greg would stay with me, but after a few hundred metres he waved me on, so I let her rip a little bit and enjoyed the feeling of picking up the pace, feeling good and passing people. I held a comfortable pace and then just went that little bit harder for the last km to finish in 38:31
Happy with the race, I felt comfortable all the way through and never really pushing until the last km. I had no intention of trying for a PB, but I was pretty stoked that I could cruise to a 38:31 without any major effort. A good sign for me to go crazy and try to post a PB at North Head next month!
Km Splits:
1 3:50
2 3:49
3 3:52
4 3:48
5 3:58
6 3:57
7 3:54
8 3:52
9 3:48
10 3:40
Ben was absolutely flying, he did 37:17 and I reckon he'll go under 37mins soon. Greg, Chris and Andrew were a little disappointed, all ran well but felt they could have posted better times and clearly they will. I'm looking forward to next month, I reckon everyone will be on for PBs!
4 years ago
3 comments:
Nice run Mike - all bods well for Nth Head.
Mike - sounds too easy! Well done and look forward to seeing a sub 37:30 at North Head - big barrier as it is sub 6 min miles in the old language.
Nice run Mike - those greyhound sessions are really paying dividends, I think I may have to pull my socks up and join you.
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