Albany Lakes Series – Race One = Done

Saturday in Auckland was hot and humid however I awoke Sunday morning (race day) to grey skies which I guess if you are planning on running is a good thing, as long as it didn’t rain Julia would be a happy camper although I guess that should be a happy runner/plodder type person. 😉

James and I turned up about 20 minutes before the start time of 8am. After a quick pit stop (and I mean quick no lines for the toilets – how awesome is that!) we headed down to the start line with the other 650+ walkers/runners/combination of bothers 🙂

All events were starting at the same time. James was going for a pb of under 40 minutes for the 10k run so he headed to the front.

I stayed at the back figuring I could weave my way through the walkers and find my rhythm easier than jostling for space with the runners since the start of the race followed a path around the lake so not much space for all those people!

My goal was to run the 5k in under 30 minutes. I had done my time trial in 29:10 but that course was flat. This one was hilly so a little sure on whether I could actually do it, but I thought as long as I get close I’ll be happy. Thankfully I found a pacer and where ever he went I followed. I managed to keep up for about 3k then we hit the hill section and I lost him

The last two k’s where hard! Because I had followed “Mr Pacer” step for step (and he had about a foot on me, so long legs) I did the first half in 13:58 which over a minute faster than my usual pace, which left not much in the tank for the second half *sigh* so I just gritted my teeth and went in a forward direction.

When I hit the bridge (which had the finish line at the end of it) I glanced at my watch and thought *shit I’m not going to do it* and I did my version of a sprint – which probably just looked the same as my jog in all reality, but I could only keep that up for about half the length of the bridge – if that.

I was consoling myself as I crossed the line and thinking .. it’s ok you’ll do it next time. Close is good. Then I looked at my watch.

I did it!  My official time was 29:52 and I came 12th in my age group.   Next race I’m going to aim for top 10 (going on yesterdays results I’ll need to shave off about 30 seconds).

I did say earlier I would do the 10k if I got under 30 minutes. But I don’t really think 8 seconds counts and I honestly am unsure whether I could run the entire 10k course at this stage just because of the hills.   I’ll see how I go next time and then may do the 10 for the last race in the series.

So I left pretty happy .. James?

Not so much.

He did the 10k’s in 42:26 which placed him 24th out of all entrants in the event and 6th in his age group. So now he is a man on a mission … I know this because I listened to him all afternoon lament about how useless he was (oh if only I could be that useless) 😉

Till next time