Supposedly quality conditions but a large headwind greeted us as we went out ontk the track. I was planning to go in the third heat based on the time I thought I'd run, but they were low on runners so I ended up in the second, with Sam and a bunch of elite looking devils, inciting a bit of nervousness. Hadn't tapered so wasn't expecting anything special.
I was put into lane 7. Quick start, slipped in behind Beau who was also in our race. But I was running too wide, went by Beau way into lane two, to lock in behind Sam along the home straight. Hung onto him until 350m to go where I started dropping.
Sam went by a guy and so did I with 200 to go. But Sam's gap on me was growing. Then 150m to go and the headwind. Brutal with no cover.
Even the arms were lactic by the end. I think I ran 2:06 or 2:07. Still not sure of the time. So damn painful though.
Cooled down with some of the others in the slower heat. The temperature did the same thing and it became pretty chilly as the sun went down.
Then warmed up again with Mahoney for the 5000m. I had offered to pace him round as that would be a great threshold run for me and it would help him run a lot faster, as I could cop the headwind and he could tuck in behind.
The instructions were 90 second laps and that would give us 18:45. This is the qualifying time to become an AFL umpire for 5km so I think the Marn wanted to break that.
We were spot on up until 2.5km where he let me know he was feeling good, so we stepped it up a touch. He hung right in there until 800 to go where we really started rolling. Last lap was even better, I ended up running 18:31 and the Marn came through in 18:32 so he's stoked.
I felt comfortable the whole time even when upping the pace slightly. Really enjoyed pacing though, I might sign up to do it in some more races as well. 12km all up, lots of warm ups and cool downs.
No comments:
Post a Comment