PCRG - 3KTT - Course PB

3KTT – 9:59 (3:21, 3:20, 3:16)

I arrived at the starting line for the monthly 3K TT with a queasy stomach and in general, felt quite ordinary – in other words, everything was perfectly normal as I usually feel that way before a TT!! What was abnormal however, was a strong sense of fatigue in the legs after having done the last of four Sunday 2hr 50 min runs on the weekend. Still, I’ve never been fitter and there was no reason why I couldn’t run a sub 10 or perhaps a 9:50.

After running exceptionally well in recent speedwork sessions when I did the first 500m at about five seconds per/km slower than goal pace, I ran my first 500m this morning spot on at about 1:42-1:43 and felt terrible. The lungs were clear but gees, the legs didn’t seem to have much in them!! And my usual partners in crime, Glenda, Pete and Mike were almost 20m ahead with Coach Pat, Matt R and Jason leading the way. This is not to mention another 10-15 runners in front of me! I briefly thought to myself ‘I may only have a 10:20 in me today’ but set off after them anyway! From, 500m to the hill behind the boatshed, I rounded up all the runners in front of me barring the leading six and then the hard chase began.

Shortly after going through 1k in a satisfactory 3:21, I shot past Glenda on the footpath and set my sights on Pete. Historically, my second k has been 5-8 seconds slower than my first k so I knew I would have to run the fastest middle k split of my life in order to go sub 10 today. With this in mind, I increased the tempo and moved past Pete just before the 1500m turnaround manned by Gaz. Mike was next on my hit list but he was really motoring and passing was going to be difficult because of the other Group members running towards us on the opposite side of the very narrow footpath. I didn’t want to risk passing Mike on the uneven, cambered and pothole ridden grass to the left of the footpath so decided to surge when a gap opened up on the other side. Fortunately, a 15m gap presented itself just as I caught up to Mike and I didn’t hesitate, flooring it right then and there. The surge felt good and as such, I kept the pedal down and was rewarded when I clocked a 3:20 PB for the middle k.

Now, I had to run at least a 3:17 final k for the sub 10 and having done 3:16 for my fifth and final 1k split last Friday, I was confident I could do it again as the heart and lungs were feeling great and the legs were finally feeling alive. I worked my way past Pat shortly after the 2k marker and then concentrated on running light on my feet as I went past Matt R up the hill behind the boatshed leaving only Jason in front of me with 900m to go. Such was my momentum and confidence at this point, that I really fancied my chances of mowing down the 30m lead he had on me! Alas, with 500m to go, I had made up only a smidgeon of ground on Jason and with the legs now starting to show some real signs of fatigue, I conceded that I didn’t have a Bernborough like finish in me today. Despite being unable to find any more speed in the legs, I was able to maintain my momentum in the run home, sneaking a glance over the shoulder to make sure I had my pursuers covered – Slash remains the only man ever to run me down from behind in the last 500m of a TT and I wasn’t in a mood to afford a second runner the opportunity J. I was stoked to cross the line in 9:59 for a course PB with Jason clocking a low 9:50’s. Pete charged home after rounding the 1500m mark, overtaking quite a few on his way to a bloody sensational 10:02!

I'm very pleased with the effort and will take a lot of confidence in running that well behind Jason who did 2:55 for the Canberra Marathon and 27:50 over 8k’s recently. It would have been nice to run a 9:50 but I know that will come another day on fresher legs so I’m very happy with my course PB – a course that is considerably harder than the one on which I set my 9:55 PB so I know that this is my best 3k run ever. Now, bring on the Doomben 10,000 on Sunday.