Sun - 7.5k in 27:33, 2k WU, 3k WD
Off all the scenarios I imagined might unfold on this cool Sunday morning with perfect running conditions, never did I imagine the race would descend into farcial chaos!!!
I got a decent nights sleep and felt ok during the warm up with the adductor feeling the best it had all week. The usual mad dash followed at the start of the race and whilst i was careful not to floor the accelerator, Matt R clocked a surprising 3:20 split for the first k dragging me along to a 3:26 in the process. I then eased back to 3:41 for the second k and said to myself I'm now 13 seconds under 36:40 pace. Another 3:41 followed - 'That's 12 seconds under 36:40 pace' I thought and planned to pace myself with 3:40's like this until the 8k mark. Already, I was beginning to reel in runners ahead of me, moving into about 15th place. Unfortunately at the 3.8k mark it appeared the leaders were incorrectly instructed to turn around early and naturally, myself and the rest of the field followed like Brown's Cows. A couple of hundred metres after the turnaround when no 4k marker had appeared, I had a sickening feeling that the race had gone to pot and so it was proved when a 5k marker appeared. As I bowled along at a high tempo, breathing heavily my mind was completely jumbled, depressed and confused - 'what am I racing for now, I asked myself?' In fifteenth place, facing a disqualification and with no chance of running a 10k PB it was difficult to remain focused.
Having experienced it, I can now tell you that there is nothing worse than running along at high speed knowing that your race has been relegated to a training run. It felt like I was running close to 3:40's for the 12 minutes that I was in no man's land without any kilometre markers to assess but as I became increasingly dispirited it's possible that I slowed down somewhat - we'll never know. I finished things off with a 3:35 for the last k but there was none of the sheer desperation to call upon to finish with a lung busting sub 3:30. Knowing that I needed this last hard race before the GC Marathon was the only thing that kept me going.
The majority of the field ran 8.8k's but to make matters worse, I was one of two runners not directed to take the loop next to the railway line and as such ended up covering about 7.5k's in 27:33. I was probably the first 10k runner to cross the line and felt like a fool doing so - thank God that I was a pretty obscure finisher amongst the 5k runners. It was bloody disappointing that a promising day ended in farcial circumstances for about 75% of the 10k field. I'll post some more thoughts when I've calmed down a bit more.
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3 comments:
Sorry to hear that Matty. That is really a shitty situation. As they say there is always another race.
But it's hard to take when you had your heart and mind set on a good race this time.
I thought you were kidding after the race, when you told me you had done 27 mins for the 10K. But now I know the full story.
Bad luck. Vent your anger and move on. Don't dwell on it, you now need to focus on the Gold Coast.
Can't help but feel sorry for you and the others in the crew who were primed for a good race.
I remember a few years ago the Women's Day 5k was about 200m short. I'd had a solid six months of speed work with Pat and was on target for a big PB. Funny thing was the next year it was long.
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