Thursday, 4 September 2014

Meadows 5km Race and Another PB!!!

Yesterday (3rd September) I ran the latest Self Transcendence race at The Meadows.  This time it was the 5km distance and this time I ran another PB!

Official results are not in yet but I recorded my time at 20 minutes and 43 seconds.  That's 13 seconds faster than my PB for that distance set at the Park Run 2 weeks ago.

UPDATE:  Official results are in and they concur exactly with what I recorded, 20:43.

I'll accept please

It's also an amazingly round 2 minutes exactly faster than my previous time for this very same race on the 11th June 2014 when I finished in 22:43.  Not bad! :-)  It's an improvement of 25 seconds per kilometre.  

I actually didn't feel very good about this race beforehand.  We drove there and the traffic was terrible.  I had to get out of the car in the middle of traffic and leg it to the registration with 5 minutes to spare.  When I got there the registration had packed up their tables and stuff and were walking off. They kindly let me register anyway and took my money in exchange for a race number while walking towards the start.  I then had to jog to the start to get there ahead of the official starter.  Not ideal preparation mentally or physically.  I was overtaken a lot on the first lap because I think I started too fast (if that makes sense), probably in part due to my frazzled state of mind.  I didn't feel good in my hip or in my stomach (although I hadn't eaten) and I even checked over my shoulder to make sure I wasn't last!  

After about 2km it started to come together and I just got into the swing of things.  As I passed Kata (who was spectating and supporting) at the end of the second lap, she shouted at me, "Go Steve!  Catch David!".  I had no idea who David was but I surmised that he was the guy in the brown vest about 5 runners and 20 metres ahead of me. So I tried to catch David.  I actually passed him at 4.3km but he passed me again at 4.4km and found a new gear that I didn't have.  He beat me by some distance.  In the end it was probably trying to catch David that got me the PB so thanks to him and to Kata.  

Next target is to get under 20 minutes.  That's a big challenge but having knocked 2 minutes off my time in less than 3 months I think it's achievable.  Now that I have broken 21 minutes twice in a row and this time comfortably, I think I can confidently say that I cannot run 5km under 21 minutes without too much trouble.  I need to do some speed work to get under 20 minutes.  Must do speed work.  Maybe today?

Victory!  My "Beast" T-shirt is the source of my power.  

Oh yeah, and it looks like I am running as part of a team at the Men's Health Survival of the Fittest race with Kata, Brian, Rachel H, and A.N. Other on the 19th October.  As Brian said, it's maybe not running for the purist, but it should be a laugh.  

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