Turning a mule into a race horse.

Bob Heffernan 5K

So this wasn't a goal race per se. I entered it simply as a test to see if my ultimate target for this block of sub 22 was doable. Goal race in 4 weeks.

Met up with Meno, Yaboya and Adrian522 up at the start line which was a good km of a jog up from the car park / finish area. Meno gave me some advice about the course and advised me to not run the first mile any faster than 7:00. There is a slight incline at the start and the advise was not to go off to fast as it may bite you later on. Meno told me afterwards that he could see I was nervous before the start - and he was right. For some reason this race really hit the nerves hard.

Grand so. Lined up a little back from the start, the gun went off and I hit my watch roughly at the start line. Things went off fast enough but I felt pinned in and not making enough progress. Glanced down at the watch after a few hundred metres and saw 6:30 pace :eek: Eased off a fraction. At this point though 5ks were easy. I mean this was easy and comfortable and great and I was so in control.

And then it started to get uncomfortable. Progressively uncomfortable and onwards to very uncomfortable. First mile beeped in and I was happy to see 6:50 - It meant I could pull back a little and still be in 22 min range.

Mile 1 - 6:50

We'd taken the first turn left before mile 1 had come up and I was expecting the road to flatten out or go downhill but it was actually a little undulating. I actually found the course tougher than people had made it out to be (but more likely because I was at my own limit) A shower of hailstones arrived at this point and everything was going tits up. About halfway the contents of my stomach were threatening to make an appearance. I had stomach cramps, wasn't breathing properly, was getting hailstoned on and I contemplated DNFing or pulling it back completely. Said to myself no - just tough it out. Run as fast as you can. Hold on. And this is your last race. Watch beeped. Looked down. Pleasantly surprised.

Mile 2 - 7:10

On one hand I was happy to see I was still on for 22 min despite the slow down but on the other hand I knew I had a very tough last mile to hang on for. Stopped looking at the watch at this stage and concentrated on running. Hung onto the group in front of me. Watched their legs and just tried to keep up. My heart sank at the 500m to go sign. I honestly thought we would have about 250m to go at that point. Also the road has a few all be it small bumps in the road that just served as further punishment. I've seen elsewhere on boards tonight comments of flat as pancake course - mine wasn't !!! but again I guess that's all about your own state at the time.

Mile 3 - 7:15

Watch beeped for 7:15 but I didn't see it at the time. Kind of regret the not looking at the watch during that last mile as if I'd realised how close I was maybe - just maybe I might have squeezed something out. As it was though I mustered up a tiny improvement of pace - by no means a sprint finish coming in for the last .1 at 7:07

Mile 3.1 - 7:07 pace

Watch time 22:04
Gun time 22:10 (no starting mat)

Spent a good 2 minutes on my hands and knees in bits afterwards. Random strangers asking was I alright :D. Met up with the gang from here (finally meeting Tom Joad too which was great) and the general consensus seemed to be a tougher race than normal. Epic spread as normal with club races. Unbelievable value for this race. Nice cool down mile ran with the lads too.

So a big PB for me. And definitely on target training wise for sub 22 in 4 weeks which was the ultimate test / aim for tonight. A tiny tiny bit meh about the 5 seconds. Would have been very sweet to come home under 22 but overall I'm very happy with it. I don't think I left 5 seconds out there effort wise if I'm honest. Enjoying a PB beer whilst typing this.

Murph_D wrote: »

That's great progress, P, very well done. Now if you'd only listened to meno's first mile advice....

Kudos.

Indeed !

But honestly I did listen to it. Just still got it slightly wrong.

tunguska wrote: »

That was a great performance Pat. I mean the slowest person on the night ran 38 minutes so to throw yourself into a race like that, coming from where you came from, is brave. I know a lot of people who wouldve taken one look at last years results and said no way. And you didnt bottle it on the night, even though you had a moment where you considered a DNF. That was a big test and you passed it which takes courage. I think you have what it takes to improve very quickly, you're willing to put yourself under pressure, face your fears and you're open to feedback. These things, I think seperate those who suceed from those who dont.

Cheers E. Nice words to read.

Funnily enough I was standing there talking to I think it was Meno last night 11 minutes after coming in and I remarked that it felt like we had been standing there ages yet on my first 5k race I would have still been out there running. The me from where I came from wouldn't have dared line up for that race last night. It's a super fast field of mainly club runners and would have been the type of race I would have avoided completely for being very out of place. Not that a race like that would ever discourage a slower entrant but you know yourself !

These days I do feel I've done enough / had enough progress to earn a place at the starting line of solid club events like this and not feel like one of the token backmarkers. Granted in a race like this I won't be in the top half of the field (for now ) but I'm by no means at the very back. At a glance I think there was only about 25 people ahead of me not registered to a club. So honestly wasn't intimidated at all by the field which in itself felt very good.

Hmmmm Yaboya may have a point. I look a lot fresher than I felt at the time ...

https://m.flickr.com/#/photos/peterm7/17886690872/

Back on the horse.

Took a couple days off. The feet were still very tender yesterday so let it go.

1E,1ST,2E with the dog first.

9:30, 8:58, 9:22, 9:19

The dog didn't fancy the steady pace. He was struggling a bit. My achilles on both sides was a little tender too so pulled it back to a little faster than easy. Comfortable for us both !

Dropped him home, grabbed the polling card and did another steady mile jogging up to and back from the polling station to register my YES vote.

Total for the day 5 miles.