I think the last time I ever did a track running race was in 2008 at the Intra-School Athletics champs. It was the 1500m, I had luckily (through much effort) avoided being coerced into any races (and hence public humiliation), but an illness to one person meant I was called up. All I remember was that I narrowly avoided being lapped by Harry Smithers (who pulled out a lazy 14:40ish 5k last night).
As I was an unattached runner and had no AthsVic membership, I had to pretend to be an interstate runner, representing my adopted home-state ACT. My sisters took great delight in cheering ‘ACT!!’ along.
The weather leading up to the race had been horrific, 100km/h wind gusts, rain, thunder. My legs were feeling rubbish let alone I was in a general state of exhaustion, ready for the season to end. In that sense, the poor weather was almost welcomed, it was an avenue to pull the pin on the night. Then by 6pm, it all cleared up and the weather was near ideal.
If you want to feel self-concious about your weight go to a running competition. At 182cm and 66kgs, I am by no means heavy, yet compared to some of the whippets there I felt like I needed a visit to the Biggest Loser. Sighted in the crowd was triple Olympian Tamsin Manou (ne Lewis) and Craig Mottram. I couldn’t have felt anymore out of place.
After copious amounts of caffeine, a good warmup and watching the A Grade 5k race (which mercifully I was bumped out of at the last minute) I was actually feeling quite keen for the race.
The week before my coach had said he expected me to run about 16:30, on account for where I was at, how I was feeling and it being my first track race. I was hoping to run faster (i.e. sub 16), a few thursday track sessions had suggested I was capable of sub 16. In fairness though I was realistic knowing that I’ve been feeling very fatigued/lethargic ever since we backed off the volume 3 weeks ago, my run at Portarlington (last weekend) was nothing short of pathetic.
Moments before we lined up, all bar one of the stadium lights switched off. Now at 8.32pm (to be exact) this is not idea! We were to race in almost complete darkness.
As the fastest seed I was to start on the inside. The gun went off and I found myself at the head of proceedings. As is always the case the first lap felt good (only 11.5 to go). I went through 400m in 1.08 and the first K in 3.03. After that Jack Van Stek (another triathlete) took over the pacemaking. At the 3k mark (with me back at the front) we were on 15.45 pace (9.27 3k).
The pain of a 5k is so different to a 5k off the bike. In a triathlon, your legs are in pain and the pace, whilst solid, is by no means near your open 5k pace (need to work on that!). Conversely an open 5k rather than being painful, the legs feel fine, nothing is that sore. It’s just the heart, which is at or near max. I can’t hold a 190BPM average in a run off the bike, but in an open 5k I can. I was feeling nearly delirious, for once I wasn’t over-thinking anything.
From the 3k mark, things started to go downhill, my cadence fell and I started to yo-yo off the lead runner.
Pre-race I had a rough idea of what my splits needed to be each lap, I assumed that through the pain I would be able to calculate them. I was very wrong. Any attempt at general cognisance beyond the action of running and not falling over (which was quite hard in near virtual darkness) was rendered useless by the pain I was in.
By the 800m mark runners started to make their move, I slipped from 2nd to 7th place with that any hopes of a sub 16 were gone.
I crossed the line in 16.17, spent from a hard race and a long hard season. In many ways it felt like the end of the school year. I was ready for a break, but at the same time sad it was all ending for another season.
I wasn’t stoked with my time, yet nor was I that disappointed. Given it was my first 5k (next time I will have a much better idea of pacing etc.) and the state of my body (rubbish) I couldn’t of asked for much more. Moreover I was spent at the finish, I knew I couldn’t of pushed any harder.
Til next time……
This is around the 2k mark. The winner (at the front) was happy to stay behind us until 3.5k’s and then just took off. He ended up running 15.40. Jack (yellow singlet) and I had a good battle throughout most of the run. He pipped me by 6s at the finish.
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