A number of folks from my running club, PCRG, were asking me last night at the annual PCRG dinner about my recent HM performance.
Came into the race feeling pretty good, had a lot of shorter, faster running under my belt & knew my endurance would be tested after 15 k. Managed to step into the front ranks at the start without any drama after a bit of a warm-up run, probably 2 ks & a few strides. Then had to keep warm for 25mins or so but a throw-away shirt came in handy as did body heat from the increasingly squeezy pack.
Went out quick but measured, didn't feel I was over doing it for 2x 3.30minute kilometres. So easily had a 1 min buffer up my sleeve & settled down into goal pace of 4min ks. Couldn't believe my consistent pace: the only time I looked at my watch was at the km marks & I was right on 4.00. Easy running, flat wide streets with slight rises over 5 canals.
Probably took on too much water - I had a sip or two at each station - a bit paranoid about dehydration after my only other HM at Brisbane in April 2006. But it wasn't needed, I don't normally drink that much in training & it started to show at 15k with a mild stitch developing. Uh-oh, I'd experienced that at last year's B2B & had to stop with 500m to go not able to breathe properly...Thankfully it didn't develop any further & I didn't drink after that.
Just as expected 15k blew out to 4.10 & I ran 4.15s or so for the rest of the race. I was pretty spent - haven't done enough long training runs. I'd been hearing shouts of encouragement from spectators every now & then "Go Jonesy" & finally the penny dropped as Jonesy (from PCRG) overtook me at 15k. I said G'day but there was no response - he was in the zone & ended up finishing about 20 seconds in front of me.
At about 19k I choked up a bit with emotion - knowing I was going to achieve my goal. Can't remember doing that before & had to settle my breathing down. No heroics in the last stretch, couldn't sprint if I'd wanted to, & no Buster waves to the crowd as I came in at 84.10. A 5 min PB.
