26 March 2009 - Myself and my coach travelled across to Wellington along with many other Nelson Athletes to compete at the NZ Nationals. We all represented Tasman Centre. For our track walk we had to first qualify to be able to enter and as luck would have it both my self and stephen did at the NZ Masters.
Wellington put on a gloreous day - by Wellington standards. Sunny but windy!! I was very nervious entering this as it is my first time competing in the Open class. So I was up against women half my age and size.
The gun goes off and all my plans go out the window as I get caught up with the first bunch. Sadly for me the first bunch seem to just steam away from me as if I was walking backwards but I was the leader of the next bunch of ladies. After 3 laps I settled into a steady pace with 3 competitors hard on my heels. Eventually the group made a break past me but did so in the group of three. I couldnt follow as they stayed two wide so I couldnt get past with out going 3 lanes wide. They were also working together and helping the middle girl (who I found out later was in the Open Women and not Under 19's) As I rounded the last lap (7.5 in total) I decided to give chase to the girl who had passed me as her group had carried on and left her behind. She was 40mt ahead of me and I picked up pace 100mt from the finish. I almost caught her as we went across the finish line. She beat me by 1 sec!! So I came 5th in the Open Women.
I had expected to do 17min and 20 secs but was most surprized to see I had finished 17min flat. That is 27 secs better than my best time. So I am thrilled with that.
My coach was just thrilled and was busy calculating my new training pace for the next couple of months.
1 comment:
Yep I'm thrilled too. Well done.
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