Saturday, August 06, 2011

5km Club Champs

What a gorgeous day!! its 15 degs and wonderfully sunny. Perfect for a race!!!

Club Champs in Nelson is always a 5km walk or a 10km run. Usually the course has been out at Rabbit Island so I was really pleased to hear it has been changed to a course out from the Tahuna Beach Motor Camp. This is a really nice flat area....the only ugly part of the whole course was the 1km dog leg we had to do first. This was a small side road in the camp that has judder bars (speed bumps) every 30 metres along the road. So you have to pace your self and watch your feet so you land on them in the right spot.

I was really pleased to see that Wendy had turned up for this race. My coach had already said to me that he wanted me to go hard and race this one. We needed to see where I am at speed and fitness wise after a two week break. So knowing Wendy was racing meant that I would not slow down and would push for the whole race. To date I have not been able to beat Wendy in the shorter races and so I was very curious as to the out come.

We started off and the first 500m just felt so wrong...hopping up and over speed bumps and then turning and repeating it. Wendy was right on my heel and as we turned at the 1 km mark to head out on to the road section we were side by side. I checked my watch as it chirped 1 km....wow...this was fast and was really going to hurt if we kept this pace up. I figured that I needed to put racing Wendy out of my mind and just walk my own race. So I eased up a little and settled my breathing and got into my pace. I was able to pick up the pace again and we passed through the 3km in 15:35, holy cow that was so fast. By 3.5km Wendy started to drop back and could hear she was breathing hard so I guessed she had gone out a little quick. The thing that worried me was if I could keep this pace up myself for 2 more km.

Turning at the airport carpark we headed back the way we had come. So I was passing the other walkers and then the runners, it makes a good distraction as they call out to you. My glutes were really hurting now and the knot in my hamstring was making itself known. I had no idea how far behind me Wendy was and so I was trying hard to not ease up on my pace. I rounded the final corner and had about 400m to the finish line. I dug deep and picked up my pace and crossed the finish and hit stopped my watch.

I carried on walking for a bit to settle my breathing and my heartrate as I could feel my heart fair racing and banging away.

25:51...............Holy smokes...........this is a new PB!!!! I have never gone this fast EVER!!!! thanks to Wendy being out there and pushing me!


5km Club Champs

1 comment:

Tammy said...

Nice work!!!!! HUGE congrats to you! You deserve it! You would have been this fast at the 5K at WMA if not for the heat, I'm sure.

So...what was Wendy's time? Was she close? Ahhhh, wish I could have raced too. I'm sure my time would have been 27s, but still, would have been so fun to chase both of you.