I've been hoping to set a new 10km PB for some time now. The last one was at the Striders North Head race in July 2008 where I did 37:11. I got injured a month later and have never managed to make it back to that form since, running in the 38s for the last couple of years.
However I did the Striders North Head a couple of months ago on a very windy day as a warm up for the Sydney marathon, and I managed 37:25 without pushing to my limit, so I thought that now is as good a time as any to pick a race and push for a sub 37 PB. A lot of the HuRTS boys were talking about the Run 4 Fun being a flat and fast course out at Sydney Olympic Park, so I decided to skip the Striders Lane Cove run the day before and lock this one in.
Saturday absolutely bucketed with rain all day, but by Sunday morning it was blue skies, warm and not too breezy. Got a lift with Clem and Christian and was feeling really positive about the race. I had planned a long ride the day before, but because of the weather only managed a couple of hours on the indoor trainer spinning pretty lightly, which meant my legs felt in good shape.
We had a little warm up, said high to the massive Hurts contingent and positioned ourselves a couple of rows of people back before the line. Christian said he'd try to do about 3.39 min/kms and I thought that sounded like a good plan, so when the gun went I took off. I pushed hard the first couple of kms (as usual everyone goes mental at the start, before they all start dropping back). So after spending a couple of kms passing people the race seemed to settle down. I was running faster than I’d planned to run, but it was feeling good, my legs and lungs were handling it well and I thought I could keep it going, so I did. There were a few odd people to pass here and there, but in the main I found myself at the front of a little group, hearing a bunch of people breathing down my neck, but obviously not quite able to pass me. Then there was a few seconds gap to the group in front of me, which included John from Hurts, which try as I might I just couldn’t close down. A couple of times they looked like they were slowing and the gap was closing, but just as quickly they’d pull away again.
Most of the race passed uneventfully like this, running by myself trying to keep ahead of the chasers and trying to close the gap. It finished much the same way, into the stadium and onto the grass track to cross the line in exactly 36:30. I was utterly stoked by that result. A perfect race and a big 41 second PB!
I had wanted to get a long run in so had planned to run home afterwards. Christian was keep to join and I was very glad to have the company, so the two of us did another 20km afterwards back to McMahons Point. Top day all round really!
Second Half - 18.21 (3.40 pace) |
1 comment:
Good run Mike. Congratulations on the PB.
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