With Tim otherwise engaged becoming a father, I picked up Andrew in Mosman and we headed to Lane Cove, arriving in plenty of time to register and do a quick warm up. As per usual for this race in the middle of winter, it was freezing at the start with frost and mist on the ground.
It appeared that I wasn’t the only one who thought that using this race as a warm up for C2S was a good idea and so with this in mind I settled near the front of the pack with the aim of getting a quick start. The aim was to start hard, push the hills and then hold on to hopefully sneak under 42.30…
Despite this, and after the gun had gone off, I struggled to get into my pace and spent most of the first km weaving amongst people, with a slow first km as a result. From then on I tried to pick up the pace, but still went through km 2 and 3 slower than I wanted to. I was aiming for 4 min/km for the first couple of km but only managed 4.15/4.20’s which was frustrating and a lot slower than where I wanted to be - especially as I was feeling good!
Up the first hill and I still felt strong, picking up a couple of runners on the way up and also pushing the pace on the way down. From then on I continued to feel strong and settled into a group of about 3 or 4 runners who seemed to take it in turns to push the pace to the bottom of the big hill that marks the half way point, at which point 2 of us pushed ahead up to the turnaround. Unlike previous times on this course, the hill felt easy and I still felt good at the turnaround point, pushing on to the downhill section, trying to keep up with those around me, in particular one ginger haired guy who was running well.
Mr. Ginger continued to kick on through 6 and 7km at which point I tried to hang on as best I could. By the 8km mark he had gapped me a little, but I still felt strong and ready to kick for home, knowing it was largely downhill from here. Looking at my watch I needed to do 8.15 for the last 2km to finish in under 42.30.
With that in mind I kicked again, taking a couple of people in the process, although Mr. Ginger was still tantalisingly out of reach. From here on, it was pretty much downhill to the end and so I just kept picking up the pace to the end, even managing a sprint finish with 2 other guys (I came second), crossing the line in 42.18 (42.19 according to the official time).
Met up with Andrew afterwards who had smoked a 60 second PB to get 38.3x. That’s 4 minutes quicker than me! He is (still) on fire…
To wrap up I was really happy with the way I ran today, especially on the hills where I felt I could push the pace without blowing up on the downhills. I was also pleased that I could push the downhills, and had petrol in the tank around the 7/8km mark, where I usually struggle. Speaking to Andrew afterwards, it must be the increase in km’s over the past few weeks, all the running to and from work and the base that I have created along with the 30km runs at the weekend that means I now have something to dip into towards the back end of the race rather than running out of fuel.
Still, I am happy, and in a place where I think I can realistically have a good crack at a sub 60 minute C2S at the weekend. My aim has to be to get to 10km in under 43 minutes and then push the pace down into Bondi…
…but then again the key has to be to get to the start line early as well!
Stats from the race went:
Time: 42.18
HR: 156 (ave) / 177 (max)
Km splits: 4.19, 4.13, 4.20, 4.17, 4.28, 4.19, 4.05, 4.13, 4.10, 3.49 (4.19 for the first 5km, 4.07 for the last 5km!!)
A couple of pictures from the morning below – not the most flattering of shots!
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