PCRG - 3KTT

3KTT - 10:14 (3:22, 3:39, 3:22)

After a disappointing past couple of days, I was keen to make amends at today's 3KTT. There was a fair bit of trepidation last night when I wasn't feeling that great (possible cold coming on) and had occasional minor shin discomfort. I started bracing myself for the possibility that my streak of three consecutive faster times (10:46, 10:29, 10:27, 10:20) at the 3KTT would be broken. I did everything right yesterday and last night to help me get to the start line - plenty of water, Vitamin C, extra multivitamins and antioxidants and no dairy or alcohol.

Fortunately, I woke up feeling pretty good and after showing some blistering pace on the third run through, I knew that I would be ok today and set myself a target of 10:19, one second faster than last months 10:20. After the usual mad dash for the first coupla hundred metres, Mark T, Andy C and James M accelerated away up front with a big gap to a pack of seven of eight. I was tacked onto the back of this pack which included Peter H, Mike R, Jamie, new boy Stevo and surprisingly, Big Mark who I thought had a PB in the high 10's. 'Hang on' I thought to myself. 'Where's Langy? He wants sub 10 today. Have I gone out too fast?' A glance to my left and there was Langy accelerating past me and then joining Pete at the front of the pack. It later transpired that Langy was slowly away and had been enveloped by other runners at the start.

The first k went by comfortably in 3:22 and it seems that some of the pack felt they had gone out too hard and decided to back off a touch. I immediately sensed the drop in pace as we moved onto the narrow footpath and fearful of getting caught in traffic, I immediately put on a surge, going past five blokes at once and settling into sixth place with Jamie - a little over five metres behind Langy and Pete. And there I stayed as I clocked a 3:29 split for the middle k. Thank God I wasn't caught napping when the pace slowed otherwise, I would have been in big trouble! As I ate up the metres in the run home, I calculated that I needed a 3:25 to meet my goal and as I went through 500m in 1:40 mins, I knew that a good time was in the bag. With plenty in reserve, I was able to yell out to Langy 10 metres in front of me to stop loafing and kick for home and I had a fair bit to say to others over the last 500m as I cruised home with a 3:22 k for a time of 10:14. Pete, Langy and Jamie weren't too far in front.

All in all, I am very, very pleased with today's run. I thought that I controlled my run very well and that my stride was even and efficient. The fact that I was able to cruise to the line over the last 500m, do a bit of talking and still record a 10:14 leaves me in no doubt that I could have done sub 10 had I absolutely shattered myself. But of course, with the problems of the last few days and Kurrawa a few days ago, a flogging was not on the agenda,

So, the remainder of this taper week sees me doing 80 minutes easy tomorrow morning, 40 minutes on Thursday with three k's at goal race pace and then 20-25 minutes easy on Friday. Bring on Kurrawa!!