Id decided to change my fueling for this race I ate a good carb rich dinner the night before, and treated myself to a few chocolates and sweets while watching TV. Instead of breakfast, i just drank a couple of cups of fresh coffee, and took a gel 20 minutes before the start.
The start of the 15km is on the track just like the 10k however in the 10k the runners are split into two seperate races, in the 15k we all start together, So it means an even more crowded start, This time i only managed to get about 10m from the start line, and was standing over about lane 7.
The start came quickly, and it was very tight running for the first lap. I was forced to stay out in lanes 3 & 4, but at least this time the pace wasnt as sharp as in the 10k. I had to nudge my way past several runners that were clearly way out of their depth at the front of the field...but thats nothing new either.
I was hoping to run at a target pace of 4:05/km but the course was still very crowded, I guess there must have been about 200 runners ahead of me, the majority were runnign close to my goal pace, but there were still little blocks of people just off the pace, It made it very difficutl to judge my pace and also difficult to pass as i was frequently blocked in.... Still i guess thats not too bad as it sort of forces you to conserve yourself a little.
Once the race opened up a little i started to pick up places, Which is how i like to run races, slowly closing on someone ahead till i go past then selecting the next target... I was feeling good, id run a couple of 4:06's and a coupl closer to 4:00 and then a guy went past my shoulder going just a tick faster than me, so i slotted in behind him and matched his pace. It turned out to be just under 4:00 but in contrast to last week this week i was feeling really good.
I did wonder a few times if it would all come back to bite me in the last 5k, but i was breathing really well, and the legs were turning over nicely, i didnt feel like they were being flooded with lactate, so i decided to go with it. I ran a good 3 or 4km on his shoulder or just behind him, and the legs were still good, when coming upto 10km he started to fade a little.
It was around then that i realised i may be able to push on and have a shot at going sub 60... not really sure how much i could push and how much time i had to make up, I raised the effort a little, switching to a 3/2 breath pattern and from km 10 on i ran them all in under 4:00 typically around 3:56
About 2km out I passed a runner as i increased the effort a little more, he must have tucked in behind me as about 1 km out he came past me, although acording to the garmin i didnt actually run that km faster than the one before it. But when he came past i dug a bit deeper and started my final long kick, i went past him about 200m later and then a group of about 5 guys. I was running pretty much at what i felt was my limit at that point. We turned and came into the stadion.
With about 300m around the track to go. I heard the anouncer saying that there was 50 seconds left to get under 1 hour, I was trying to close on the guy ahead but the gap wasnt changing, I hear him saying 30 seconds, then 15 and i realise that its going to be close and from somewhere i managed to find a little bit more and put in a sprint finish.
I cross the line glance at the clock and im not sure, i fumble stopping my garmin the first time and then it reads 1:00:03 ... In the end the official results have me at 1:00:00 so 60 minutes flat. I could get hacked off at having missed the sub-60 but hey Since it wasnt even my goal until about km 9/10 Im more than happy with the result.
Its a major Improvement of over 2 minutes (2:16) to my 'old' PB which i set only 6 weeks earlier at the sylvesterlauf. This run was also significantly better than the 10k in the series 2 weeks earlier. Now im really looking foward to the Half Marathon in 2 weeks time.
Thanks for sharing about this race. I'm hoping to read an update about this.
ReplyDeleteJacob of running Philippines