Sri Chinmoy Williamstown Running Festival Half Marathon 2010 - Race Report

A day that was cold when still, but almost pleasant when running. Always the threat of rain, without the follow through. Plenty of wind to to add an extra element. The Sri Chinmoy Fitness & Running Festival has been a regular on my calender for many years. It is getting bigger. A few slight changes to the course, because the athletics track was being resurfaced didn't seem to change anything.

Patience...

...was by far the most important principle to guide my race today. I stuck to my pre-race plan and made sure I wasn't going too hard at the start. Mentally this was more difficult than I thought it would be. Way too many runners for me to feel comfortable ran ahead over the first section. There were running styles that I didn't like being in front of me, but seemed to have the ability to stay there if I didn't pick things up.

The first 5km passed and I have kept everything between 4:06-4:25/km. The wind was strong enough to play quite a factor. Reassessing I felt I had gone out easy. My HR (157-160bpm) was relatively low for a half marathon, my legs felt good and my respiratory rate wasn't up. I could pick things up a bit.

Crosswind

With a 30km/hr wind blasting off the water across the track it made quite a difference. For the same intensity (HR 160-164) the pace was around 4:15/km with a part headwind, or close to 4:00/km when sheltered or lucky enough for a bit of a tailwind. This I maintained through the 16km mark.

What I have left

From 16km to the end, my one goal was to keep the speed up. In my head the best way to achieve this was to make the most out of each step. Keeping good posture, ensuring a proper push through without over striding and keeping the cadence up was the best way to achieve this. It was a good distraction from the pain trying to slow things down. Keeping a slight eye on my HR which seemed to now hang around the high 160's, I new I was at my maintainable limit.

What I found interesting was that my pace stayed somewhere between 4:03-4:07/km, but I gained a ridiculous number of places over the last 5km that it impossible to count how many. Maybe over 20 spots.

Result

My unofficial time was 1:27:50. Slower than last year's 1:25:18, but that was a different training regime. Someone mentioned 34th place as I crossed the line, but at this stage I have no idea how accurate that is. In the end I am quite happy with this result. It was a well executed race plan, and is pretty close the the best time I could get out myself based on my current fitness level. A good day, and a good starting point for a triathlon campaign.

Comments

  1. Unknown30 May 2010 at 20:44

    Well done Jason. Sounds like a much harder morning than last year. (Certainly much windier!) Cheers, Paul

    ReplyDelete
  2. Anonymous30 May 2010 at 22:14

    That was a great performance on a windy day, especially as you are currently in the early stages of triathlon preparation, whereas last year you were on your way towards a marathon target

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ewen31 May 2010 at 15:39

    Nice racing Jason. You paced it well. A half is a good fitness test.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Tea4 June 2010 at 00:40

    Great race! 2 minutes off last year's race. Sounds like not everyone was able to pace themselves as well as you did. :)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Richard13 June 2010 at 21:52

    intressting

    ReplyDelete

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