Maree 5km

A very warm day, the first proper day of summer! The race was a late start at 8pm, and by that time it had cooled a bit, and there was a bit of a breeze around.

I ran about 3kms warm-up, then lined up at the start. Just before the start I had a disagreement with a bramble bush and the bush won. Scratches all down my arm, not a good look...

The start itself warrants a mention. I can't remember such a bad start from myself. The race started and I stalled, my fault as I didn't have my watch ready and I was fumbling around trying to find the stopwatch. By the time I started running I had switched over to the stopwatch but then I needed to reset it. After fixing that I was way down on the leaders and I then had to start pegging people back. With hindsight this probably wasn't a bad thing...

After 400m I was in 3rd position. The first km was undulating and up front Gerry Ryan and Michael Shannon were taking it out really hard and I was a good distance back. I knew I was running hard so there was no point trying to catch them so I just focused on my own race. I decided not to look at my splits during the race as I didn't want any distractions.

The second km was much tougher. Some uphill drags and as I took a right hand turn, it was then time to run into the breeze which seemed like it had picked up. The third km was all downhill and I really started to feel good and was closing in on 2nd place. At the bottom of the hill it was another left turn and it was now pancake flat running down by the water. Through the 4th km and I was now just behind 2nd and it was time to make a move. I ran into second place and after a right turn, the last 800m was an undulating run in to the finish...

It was hurting but I managed a decent finish crossing the line in 15:33 for 2nd place. Gerry won in 15:12 so in our second meeting in 4 days he again beats me convincingly. Splits were as follows (last years times in brackets):

1km 3:00 (3:01)
2km 3:16 (3:25)
3km 3:08 (3:18)
4km 3:06 (3:15)
5km 3:03 (3:11)

Very happy with a 12 second road PB. I think the 3 days of easy running before the race made a big difference as I felt really fresh tonight.

3kms warm-down to make it 11kms for the day.

There was a legend of the running scene watching the race tonight - Steve Jones - what a class marathon runner he was during the 1980's. I think he was over on holiday as he now lives in America. My pace tonight doesn't even come close to his marathon pace!