Mother's Day Classic 8km - Race Report

Well I've now had my first race since the Ironman. It didn't go too badly, especially since I the one and half days lead up involved vomiting and diarrhoea from food poisoning. The beef and green curry pie seemed like a good idea at the time.

Waking up Sunday morning I was feeling completely drained. Having taken in only water a a few dried biscuit the day before, there wasn't too much in the tank. If I hadn't already entered the race I probably wouldn't have gone. So I sipped through a coffee and managed some cereal without any repercussions.

Once at the race venue I started feeling better. There was a relaxing excitement in the crowd. A friendly atmosphere combined with good weather. My warm up felt reasonable. Not flash, but at least I was moving with any discomfort. Soon enough it was time to line up. I positioned myself towards the front, trying to line myself up so I wouldn't run over the top of the young kids that were being encouraged by their parents to stand in front of the faster runners.

The horn sounded.

I hit a reasonable rhythm. I thought it was best to be a little conservative. The risk of going out too hard just seemed to be bigger today. Soon enough it was onto to Anderson Street. This year we were climbing the less steep side, and I pushed it a bit more up and over the top. Then time let go down the steep descent. It feels good to gain so many places without much effort on the downhills.

Once back on level ground the next few kilometres just blurred into one. There wasn't any spring in my step, I didn't have that bit extra today, but I wasn't exactly suffering. I was still running well. Before I knew it I was into the second lap, then onto Anderson Street again. Uphill my body half suggested that taking a nap was the preferable option, but it really didn't take too much extra concentration to keep the pace up. In fact, I was fairly close to being on autopilot.

Coming off the descent, there was only about 1.5km before the finish. While I tried, I just couldn't lift the pace above what I was already sitting on. There wasn't any substantial pain in my legs, I wasn't overly tired. There was just a certain threshold in speed I couldn't cross.

The finish line came soon enough. Crossing in 31:15 (according to my watch, official result will be out in a couple of days). The first 4km lap was in 15:30 and the second was 15:45, with the my heart rate sitting consistently around the 91-94% of HRmax. Nothing to feel bad about at all. Looking back over the race, even without the food poisoning, I would still be very happy with my first race back. Now its time to build on it.

Comments

  1. Mike12 May 2008 at 15:50

    Beef and green curry pie. mmm mmmmm.
    What were you thinking? :) haha

    Great race despite that.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous12 May 2008 at 20:18

    That is a good hit out for your first race back, well done :-)

    I ran with my sister and helped her manage 5:30s in the 4km, so a nice easy one for me.

    Bet it's a long time before you eat a pie again.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Tea13 May 2008 at 11:46

    What a great effort!!

    And thank you for your feedback. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Ewen17 May 2008 at 20:27

    31:16 and 23rd place is a good result Jason. I guess you'll be tapering a bit for the half next week?

    Take care with the lifting. We have a max of 16kg at work.

    ReplyDelete

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