No car so bludged a lift with Baz.
We got there in good time to pick up chip, warm-up, etc. Bumped into Irish Paul and warmed up with him, Leigh and Irish Tom. Had a good chat, lots of banter; I will miss these races. Estimate 4km.
Lined up at the top of Olympic boulevard and soon we were off. The first km is slight downhill so got a bit carried away and that was reflected in the time as I reached the first km marker in 3:01. Concentrated on keeping the legs ticking over and the 2nd km was reached in 6:11. This was too quick and I was feeling it a lot. Tried to settle down and started to run with some small groups. I should have mentioned the conditions, very good, nice and cool with no breeze to speak of.
By 3km (9:28) I was running at target race pace so with the quick start I had some time in the bank and it was time to stay focused. The 5km marker was reached in 16:08 so that was way
ahead of plan. Just keep it going...
It started to drizzle a little, no problem. The downhill 6th km was a little disappointing (3:19) so that was a sign I was slowing. Plus I was aware that some runners were closing in on me. Sure enough I was soon passed by the Fossil and another guy. I tried to stick with them but didn't quite have it. At 7km my thoughts turned to hanging on. I knew I was slowing but tried to keep the legs motoring. The 8th and 9th kms were gritted out in 3:23's so more slowdown but come the 9th km I knew that any sort of decent last km would be rewarded with a new PB...
A last push up Olympic boulevard and sprinted to the line to finish in 32:49. A 41 second road PB and finally closes some of the gap on my track form.
Splits were 3:01, 3:10, 3:18, 3:19, 3:20 (16:08), 3:19, 3:19, 3:23, 3:23, 3:17 (16:41).
Finished with a 2km warm-down. All up 16km.
A happy bunny. Beer and pizza tonight!
No comments:
Post a Comment