Wow, what a brilliant race this turned out to be. I am so glad I made the effort to run this one, as it was heaps of fun and I ran a surprisingly brilliant race. Until the day of the race, I had some misgivings about this event: with all the political shenanigans about road closures and so on, it looked as if this wouldn't be all that much fun to run at all. Particularly disappointing was the race information we were handed
after we had paid our money informing us that we would have to run on the footpath after the 3km mark, and that runners would be stopped to ease traffic congestion at the major city intersection. To be honest I only entered to honour my Dad, who passed away last year, and had won his age category (70-74) in this race back in 1991.
But run it I did. There were three events: 11km, 5.8km and 2.7km, all starting at the same time but from different parts of the city, and all finishing together at the local casino. Most people seemed to enter the 5.8km run, but there were several hundred of us there for a rather low-key start in the 11km under a grey sky with a rainbow backdrop and the threat of rain, which didn't eventuate. I wore my Dad's winner's medal and my only race plan was to start out nice and easy and to simply enjoy it.
Although it was labelled as a fun run, I still thought the organisers could have put out some kilometre markers. There being none, it was hard to guage my pace, but I started at the back of the pack and just went at a pace that seemed
extremely relaxed and comfortable ... and
slow. I didn't wear my heart rate monitor, but I'm sure my heart was barely ticking over for the first 3km, and that included the first of two hills, about a 1km slight climb that despite its relative ease saw me passing large numbers of people, and also despite the slow pace I was setting. When I got to a point which I knew was 3km from the start I saw my pace was around 5:40/km, and I was in cruise mode. Travelling very easy and feeling very comfortable. And I was enjoying it immensely!
At that point we started the longer hill climb of around 2km, and my training came to the fore and I passed a lot of people and still felt comfortable. Feeling strong at the 5km mark I cranked up the pace and began flying (for me that is, I was still well down in the pack of course).
I have to say the police were doing a fantastic job of managing the traffic and despite the warnings from organisers, they kept a lane open for our exclusive use for all but about one 400m stretch through the centre of the city, where we did have to run on the footpath, but otherwise no problems at all, and I had a non-stop run to the finish.
From the 5km mark I just opened up and ran it fast, but within myself. I kept pinching myself, but I wasn't dreaming, this was turning into a brilliant run for me, my best in nearly three years.
About 2km from the end we ran into lots of traffic, mainly hundreds of walkers from the 5.8km event. But even here it was great, with marshalls and police moving the walkers to the footpath (fortunately quite wide at that point), and keeping one lane of the road open for us runners. I was still passing other runners at this point and feeling great. Having now realised that a sub-60 minute run was not only possible, but quite
likely I cut loose and sprinted the last kilometre, still feeling great and crossing the line in 56:45, an average pace of 5:09, meaning I was well under 5 minute pace for much of the distance. I can only attribute it to lots of training, being quite relaxed about the race, and going out quite slow for the first 3km.
This means that my "secondary" goals for the year of PBs at 5km and 10km aren't so impossible after all. And the sub-2 half marathon looks closer as well. I still can't believe just how well this has all come together (touch wood).
My Dad never did see me run a race, but he was always encouraging, and I hope he got as much pleasure out of this as I did. And thanks to all you forumites for your continued encouragement too. I couldn't/wouldn't have done it without you guys, so thanks!
And Ana, the Kayanos worked very well for me. I'm still very happy with these shoes. And Sweder, I didn't have an mp3-player for this run, but track
du jour would be a jumbled concoction of Floyd I had running through my head for much of the race. Actually, Andy's warning about running with an ipod was almost bizarrely rammed home today, with one guy nearly run over by of all things, an ambulance. Unfortunately for him, he stopped for a walk right in the middle of the road, blissfully unaware of the ambulance right on his heels and the rest of the crowd peeling away to let it pass. Just as well the ambo driver had spotted the earpieces and hit the brakes.
Another great day in running land.
Manly May
