Qld Road Walk Champs

Its WINDY....not breezy....but WINDY.   I woke up at 3am and heard the wind whistling around outside and I thought then...oh dear this is going to make for a very interesting race.  Sure enough.....there were gusts up to 50km per hour and at the beginning of the race it was just continuous.

We were trialing a new course today and I have to say that I loved it.   It was nice and flat with a good wide smooth surface.   The 10 and 20km race was made onto a 2km loop and so they did have a rise in there but our 1km loop was fantastic.   Infact I will be putting it forward to the Racewalk Committee that we drop the Murarie course and use this one in its place.  I would happily walk 20km on this 1km loop.  But any how I have gone off topic......

We attempted to warm up and I took the juniors with me...as we were walking I offered up tips on how to walk into the wind - there is nothing much of each junior and they could easily be blown off the course.  YES it was that windy.  Australia is experiencing a big cold snap and for Queensland....this is very unusual.  Infact there has been reports of snow around the boarder!!  so for us to get 10 degs but feel like 4 degs.....makes us all very cold!

We lined up and our race got under way.   The 10km and 20km walkers had already set off an hour earlier.   With the wind behind us it was a fast 250m down to the first cone but when you turned the cone you really did feel like you were moon walking and just getting no where.   It was just a matter of hunkering down and punching through to get to the next turn cone 500m away.   I was chasing after a couple of the guys and Tenyka ... I picked off the guys and set my sights on Tenyka.  She can normally lap me on a 5km race but the wind was really making it a very hard race for her.

By 3 km I had caught her (17:16mins) I did call out to her to lengthen her stride and tuck in behind me but she was already too tired from struggling against it for as long as she had been.  With the wind the way it was I was expecting to get about 30mins if I was lucky.   By 4km I quickly calculated that I was going to under 30mins and if I can pick up the pace a little I might just break 29mins.   So I took full advantage of the tail wind and really pushed hard.....then it was just one last punch back into the wind to cross the line.  28:55 was my official time.  I hit the wrong button on my watch and didnt stop it... lol.

I pulled up well after this race but by the time I got home my nose was just pouring....and has remained so for two days.  Sigh..........its just what wind does to me.

5km data