VRR Princes Park HM

Quick progress report before I go to bed:

Training's been going really well. Legs were finding last week's scheduled 80km a little too easy, so I ended up doing 110k with a lot of hill reps and one really confidence inspiring 18k long run with the last 8k at 4:13/k (wasn't pushing either, it just happened).

Unfortunately the workload resulted in me winding up with a bit of a cold and I really struggled through this week. Had to do triples on Monday just to get my 15k in and was not feeling particularly good at all. By Saturday I still wasn't better and decided there wasn't any point running my body into the ground just for the sake of it, so I took it easy, got into carbo-loading mode for the half on Sunday and just did an easy 6k run with Dad.

I may perhaps have taken the carbo-loading a bit too far on Saturday night though. We were at my auntie and uncle's place to celebrate my cousin's first communion and I stuffed myself to the point where it hurt to walk! To make matters worse, when we got home at 11:30, I ate 6 pieces of toast just to make sure my glycogen stores were topped up;)

The predictable result was I still hadn't digested all of my feast by the morning of the race. There wasn't much I could do about it (I haven't quite reached the level of commitment necessary to stick a toothbrush down my throat:P), so I took two No-Doz caffeine tablets (probably not a good idea stomach wise, but I needed the caffeine!) and hoped for the best.

When the race started, I was actually feeling pretty good. It was a small field, and I soon found myself in second with a wide margin forming behind me. I had a moment's hesitation when I looked down at my watch and saw we were going 3:30/k, but it was feeling allright and I think the leader was having the same thoughts because he eased off a bit within 500 m or so. I did my best to stay with him, or at least keep the 50 m distance between us constant. It yo-yoed a bit, especially when we turned a corner and hit a wall of wind (it was apparently blowing up to 100 kph), but by the end of the first lap I was still comfortably with him.

In the second lap, third place caught up to me and I drafted off him into the wind before dropping him solidly up a hill and then blasting it through the start line where the 10k runners were just being let out. The comfortable winner (36:30) in that race overtook me rapidly even though I was doing 3:30/k (tailwind:D) and I stuck to his heels in the hopes of catching up to first place. I almost managed it, but when we hit the wind tunnel, it didn't seem like such a good idea anymore, so I let him go and got on board a bus of vets doing the 10 miler championship. They kept me going at a good intensity, and I was still within striking distance of the lead when we went through the course head again for the third time, but suddenly after 12k, my race started to fall to pieces.

Up until that point I was still comfortably in range for a low 80s finish time (even though I actually was not thinking about that at all and was just concentrating on staying an even distance behind 1st) but when the guy up front put on a burst down the back straight, I couldn't go with him and was struggling just to maintain 3:55/k. It wasn't a terrible fade, I still felt confident I'd be able to hold 4:00/k for the rest of the race, but at that point, my stomach decided to shut down. At regular intervals, the last night's fruit salad came back to haunt me, and I decorated the nature strip with little bits of yummy peach and pineapple.

It was hurting now, and I was happy to let second place slip out of my hands when third came past looking strong. For a while I was able to keep him in my sights with the help of one of the ten milers, who shielded me from the wind. It was his last lap though, and when I hit the back straight I was all on my own with no-one to pull me along. For a good km I completely gave up and wasn't even sure if I'd be able to finish. When fourth place got me, I couldn't respond at all.

When my watch beeped for km 18, I actually looked at my average pace for the first time. I had really slipped from comfortably running 3:45s to struggling to maintain 4:30/k, but it wasn't over yet. I calculated that I could still get sub 85 if I maintained 4:10/k for the final 3km of the race. That thought was enough to get me motivated again and I pushed hard into the wind, not able to do 4:10s, but giving it my best shot. With two k to go, I could see the finish line and pushed even harder, giving it everything I had up the hill and down the back straight, even though I could tell that everyone in front of me had already finished.

It was a little disappointing to end up with 1:25:30 when I knew I was easily on track for an 82-83 minute finish if it hadn't been for the stomach issues, but I'll definitely learn from the experience and it was still a 90 second PB. Plus, I ended up being awarded 2nd place open male (1st place getter strangely wasn't mentioned and third was a veteran) and got a spot prize of a Nike running skullcap to go with my silver medal:D

Not a bad day out in spite of the fairly awful weather conditions.