BRRC - 10k Handicapped race

Week - 10k
Month - 87k
YTD - 956k


I have never ran a 10k handicapped race at West end before and was really undecided if I wanted to. I was starting 29 mins 30 secs behind the first person, not that I minded about the time difference but today was said to be quite a warm one nudging 30 degrees and it would be good to begin earlier just to finsh before it was too hot. Secondly a few fellows from Pat's group had organised a couple of speedy people including Pat to pace a sub 40 min group, which would be good to be apart of.

6 am come around and I decided that I didn't feel like I was ready to run, lack of warm up and stretching so I decided that I would run off my handicap and see what would come off it. Hanging around it seemed like an eternity but it was good to not rush doing a warm up and enabled me to have a pit stop and watch how everyone was travelling.

My time was called with 30 secs to go, I retied the shoelaces and then I was off. I settled quickly into a nice relaxed stride and was feeling fresh. I passed the person who started 30 secs before me within 500m so obviously he wasn't going hard today.

For the first k I was unsure of my exact pace, I didn't wear the garmin as I tend to concentrate on it far too much so the stop watch was worn instead. I arrived at the first k marker in 3.52 and was happy with this. Now that I had a feel for the pace I could try and set an even pace and hopefully go under 40 mins.

The remainder of the first lap went well I was feeling relaxed but knew that the mean little man in my head that always talks me out of keeping up the pace would come in the next 2k. I find the 7 and 8k the toughest in a 10 k run and knew that it would be no different today.

Coming the down the long straight passing the start/finish line I grabbed my last drink just 200m before the 7k mark. I concentrated on keeping my pace, breathing properly and not much else. With the handicapped event I always had runners in front of me that I could maintain focus on which I felt helped alot.

I could feel along the back straight that my upper body was tensing up, and those negative thoughts were entering my mind. I was trying to remain positive and saying to myself that I only had ten minutes to go, all the hard work has been done just relax.

Hitting the 8k mark I started to feel good again, I was focussed on what was up ahead and not at the ground 10m in front of me. There is a slight incline just after the 8k mark that slows alot of people down, myself included, this time I exaggerated my arm swing and pushed through it, getting onto the flat quicker I could ease a little and recover for the final 1500m.

The back straight is usually a mental barrier for me , you can see almost 1k to where the last turns are before finishing but today I just focussed on those ahead of me trying to catch them. I reached the 9k mark and knew that I had been running my best most consistent race and that I only had 4 minutes or so before I was finished.

35.35, was the time at 9k and I had 4.24 to go sub 40 minutes. This eased the pressure alot, I knew that I would break 40 minutes, something I haven't done in over 10 years since my school days. I was tiring and was having a bit of a tussle with another guy who helped me maintain my pace. In the end he had the legs over me but it didn't matter, I had just broken 40 minutes and that's all that counted.

The finishing time was 39.39, with both 5k loops coming within 3 secs of one another, 19.48 and 19.51. What I am most happy about is that I had done this by myself no pacers, no help from anyone, a tough way to do it but a much more satisfying result.

After the race speaking to Owen who I met today ran a PB also of 40.30 which was a great time. Clairie had a tough day but still managed a credible time clocking around 4.30 pace. The only negative to come from this is my right leg, I have been battling with a pinched nerve in my hip since Tuesday when I woke up with it. Waking around it hurts abit and the first few steps during running it is uncomfortable but after that I dont notice it. After the event today it was painful feeling like a needle is stabbing me and has not eased up even now. I am taking a few days off maybe till Wednesday before testing it out again. If there is no improvement I will see the Doc, maybe I just slept the wrong way, who knows, all I know is that it is quite painful at the moment.

Splits
3.52, 3.55, 3.53, 3.56, 4.12?? (19.48), 3.57, 3.51, 3.57, 4.02, 4.04 (19.51)