A Looong Time Between Drinks

WEEK - 8K
MONTH - 23K
YTD - 240K

The day began at 4.20 am where I woke up feeling pretty excited and a bit nervous. This morning was my first run with the Pat Carroll group and on the schedule was the 3k TT. I had most things organised for work the night before so all I had to do was wake up and have some breakfast. I left fairly early as I dont know the city that well especially the south side, which turned out to be a good call. I ended up getting a little lost, unsure of the exact location of the start area, The Ship Inn. I eventually found it about 5 minutes before the start of the warm up.

I arrived the same time as Tesso and Clairie who introduced me to Pat, we hung around for a bit before heading off to West end which is the start of the TT. I carried out some stretches before Pat arrived who then began barking orders to begin some stride throughs. I am usually the one who pays off warm ups, however I do run and feel better when I have completed one. This morning I was certainly warm, the sweat was dripping off me quite a bit.

Before we headed off Pat introduced the newbies to the group myself included and also informed us of some of people who were acting as pacers. There were about 4 pace groups one for 13.30 another for 12.50 then 11.50 so Pat decided he was make things simple and said he was pacing for 10.50.

The aim today was to run under 11.15, I haven't ran this distance under race conditions for a few years so I was unsure what I would be able to do, so 3.45 per Km sounded good. The course is a 1k out a 1k back and then out again. Out and back courses always play with my mind, the fact that you know exactly what you have left is an obstacle in itself.

The start of the run was great, no-one got in my way and I had a clear run, too clear and to my suprise there were only about 7 people in front of me. I maintained this pace and felt good but still expecting a heap of people to pass me. One thing that scared me was that Pat was one person who was not in front of me, that meant only one thing, I'm an idiot and running some ridiculous pace that will end any minute now. The 1k turn around came quickly I glanced at the watch and saw 3.29. I was still feeling fresh so I kept going, by the 1500m mark I started to struggle a little which was the point where the 10.50 group passed me, however it was more like Pat and one other. I stuck right on his shoulder and reached the turned around for the last Km in 7.11 definetly a slower one 3.41.

I was feeling tired but certain that the 11.15 would be achieved, I remained on Pats shoulder, I have a tendency to let people go only to regret it later so I tried to stay with him. I thing I noticed was that throughout I was struggling to breathe while Pat who is a metre in front of me screaming out words of encouragement to people in the group, what a great motivator. At the 2.5k mark I started to get my second wind and noticed that the pace had stepped up a little, I was feeling smooth and very happy with the way I was going, a guy from beind me came sprinting past and I was thinking he was going a little early only to look up and see the finish line was all of 100m in front of me. I stepped the pace up a bit to finish off strong, the best I have felt for a long time.

When I crossed the line a time was read out, a time that I couldn't believe. 10.38 a PB (3.27 last km), not sure by how much but I cant remember breaking 11 mins before so at least 22 secs. I was so suprised, I haven't ran a PB for years it has been a long time between drinks and I am so glad I made it there this morning.

Also congratulations to Clairie and Allyson who also had awesome runs and gained PB's for their efforts.

I hope to make this a monthly ritual, not getting PB's, though it would be great, but making it for the TT, Im sure the boss want have a problem with it.