We headed in to Brisbane with our destination being the UQ track and the university. Today we were racing in the Race Walking Queensland Track Championships - 5000m Open Women / Men
It was such a good turn out today. There were different races for the different age groups and so a nice turn out of walkers made for good fields and good racing. For me, I was finally going to race against Erika. Erika is new to walking and up until a year ago was the cheer squad for her daughter and always seen at each event cheering her on. But this year her daughter has taken a year off and so Erika has decided to give walking a try and turns out she is really good. The nature of her work has her very fit and very strong, so I knew I was going to have a very good race against her. Until now she has only been walking the 10km road walks and getting quicker and quicker each week being sub 60mins now.
Perfect weather for racing, with some low cloud to cover the sun - temp about 16 degs....just nice! We all lined up - was so good to see Dean back amongst us again too. Dave starts the race and Jess Pickles must have been told there was an open bar with free margaritas cause she just took off like she was on a mission, I followed suit and struck out with a nice quick pace, Pete and Iggy soon passed me as if I was hardly moving LOL..... and I could tell that Erika was not far behind me. First km was 5;30 and I felt really good. At the 2km mark Erika turns up the pace and with a great burst of pace passes me and gets a good 20m ahead of me. For the first lap the gap remained the same between us but the next lap I had halfed the gap and could see that she was getting tired. At the 3km mark I had caught back up and sat on her heel for 200m while I thought about what I was going to do. I decided that I needed to pass her but needed to do so with a good long burst, After the next bend I stepped out as we hit the back straight and punched it hard and kept going for the 100m pulling a good gap. I settled back into my pace and 300m later I did another quick burst. I continued to do this for the next couple of laps until I could no longer hear her foot steps behind me.
One lap to go and I really gave it my all.... I was hoping to get closer to 28mins today....seeing my time with one lap to go I knew I was not going to hit 28mins but I would be faster than the week before.....digging in deep to push hard for the finish line and crossing the line in 28:11
I am mega happy with this. 8 secs faster than last week ..... YAY!!! I loved racing Erika and I am really looking forward to having a few good tussles as I know she will train even harder now and be ready for a great 10km in two weeks. :D
5000m data
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