BRRC 5k - SHOCKER!!!

BRRC 5k - 18:04 - 3:34, 3:38, 3:37, 3:38, 3:35 - 2nd place

I don't really feel like detailing my shocker in great detail. The short story is that I dropped the ball badly on Saturday. There were some dramas at work and I did not make the time to stop work and eat at 7am, 10am, 12:30pm and 3pm. And I did not eat all the carbo loading food I planned to. As such, I actually bonked during my 15 minute warm up on Sunday morning and felt quite weak and lacking in energy. In fact, I've never felt worse on the starting line of a race in my life.

All I could do was run as hard as I could and hope that somehow things fell into place and my breakfast of bananas, GU and my caffeine hit kicked in during the race. The 5k and 10k race started together at 6:30 which is annoying as you can only speculate on who is doing what if you don't already know. Race Director Clairie send the field on its way quite suddenly and a talented looking runner took the early lead kicking away from the fielf at around 3:20 pace and I pegged him as a likely 5k racer. I let him go and concentrated on my plan to do my first 3k in 10:45. The first k passed and I hadn't collapsed yet but I felt terrible. I managed to shake off a challenge from some bloke and drop him at the 1200m to move into outright second.

I went through 3k in 10:49, four seconds off the goal pace set by Coach Pat. The leader who I later found out was Alun Williams of Pine Rivers was pulling further and further away from me whilst I was widening the gap to two blokes battling it out for third. The plan called for me to hammer it in the last two k's but there was nothing left in the tank at this point and all I could do was keep plugging away. There were several moments when the weak side of my brain suggested I throw in the towel and use my poor eating and preparation the day prior as an excuse. However, the possibility albeit faint, that the leader was in fact a 10k racer and that I could win the 5k kept me going. I managed to pick up the pace ever so slightly in the last 400m to ensure my final split was the second fastest and finish in second place behind the comfortable winner.

So, it was an extremely disappointing day. My training times and my 17:56 5k effort in the BRRC 5 Champs in Oct all pointed towards a sub 17:40 time and possibly well under 17:30. I need to pull my finger out and take more time to prepare properly the day prior to a race. I've proven that I can carbo load and turn up for a big race brimming with energy - its the lesser races, time trials and key speedwork sessions where I need to get my act together. I don't care if its an important Monday meeting at work the day prior to a 3KTT. If the meeting runs too long, I'll be standing up and saying 'Sorry everyone - I have to leave now to eat a meal.'

This week - 57k
This month - 31k
This year - 340k