Taupo Great Lake Relay and WTF was I thinking
Last night we had our first team meeting to go over next months event.
Our team consists of 12 runners and prior to last night, the only person (bar J) that I knew was Amy.
They seem like a friendly enough bunch, although they all talk like “actual” runners bandying around phrases like ppm (pace per minute) and tempo running, which is when you run at varying speeds for other reasons than you are just plain tired and need to walk.
During our fight over group discussion over who would do which leg/s one of our team members worked out that for our team to finish before the cut off time at 6pm Saturday 20th February, every single person on the team would need to run every single kilometer on their designated leg/s in 6 minutes (or less) ..
Everyone nodded and started spouting off how fast they could run a kilometre – they were all sure they could keep up that pace for their leg/s – well that is, everyone except me sitting all the way over here in my little corner ..
Fark I haven’t run a 6 minute kilometer since I was actually a runner, you know, way back in 2012 and to be completely honest, I’m usually pretty impressed with myself if I can finish a run averaging a 7 minute kilometer! So yeah ..
On a positive note – I’ve been gifted Leg 16;
Leg Description; Very easy downhill for 6.0km followed by a steep downhill for 1.3km into Waitahanui. Flat for 600m to finish. Stage Classification; Easy.
And from the numbers been thrown around last night it sounds like we have at least a couple of speedsters so they will also make up time where I’ll be losing it BUT it doesn’t make me feel any less an impostor. #sigh
Out on my run this morning, (whilst dying at a pace much slower than a 6 minute kilometer) I kept imagining that my team would all hate me and I’d be running along with a van full of people screaming at me to run faster and then I’d get mad and stop (because that’s how I roll) and then they’d yell more and I’d have to make James get out of the van – because you know, he’d need to pick a side and well we are married and then we’d be stuck in middle of nowhere ..
See what happens we you don’t run with music? Your brain makes it’s own “fun”.
I did sit down and check those numbers and my calculations show that to finish 155km in the 16 hours allocated, each kilometre needs to be run in 6:19 which makes me slightly better.
I mean I can’t run a 6:19 but still … 😉
Till next time
