Sunday, 1 June 2008 - AV 15 km Road Race

A bit of a sleep in this morning, and with the race starting at 10:00 am it was probably not a good idea to only be getting up at 8:45 am. Gave the children their breakfast and then we were out the door at 9:20

After some very cool mornings over the past few weeks and the last two rounds of the AV season being cold and wet, I was hopeful this day might be different. All good when I got out of bed and my feet weren't scalded by a frozen kitchen floor. But boy did I get a rude shock when I opened the front door to pack the car. A biting cold and I thought it's Sandown all over again

Arrived with twenty minutes to race time so not the ideal preparation and did a short warm up. Last year at this race I went out way too hard and had nothing left in the tank with still a lap to go. As a result I walked for short periods in two sections and crashed and burned my way to 55:56. I was determinted not to let that happen this year

Plopped myself near the front of the pack and waited nervously for the gun to go off. It had warmed up a bit but it was still only eleven degree's. After setting myself up to not run well at Sandown with some negative thinking, I did not place any expectations on myself for this race, other than to pace myself at the start - like I do for HM's - and try to hold onto that, rather than last year's strategy. I did have a goal in mind of 54 minutes, or 18 minutes to each 5 km lap. I would have been satisfied with that (3:40 min/km), given I had barely managed 3:30 min to the kilometre at Sandown

All according to plan through the first two kilometres, with 3:38, then 3:30 - a bit of downhill section on the second km. Went through 5 km in 17:52 and was feeling pretty good. I remember someone shouting out I was on track for 54, and that gave me a bit of a boost. After the horror of last year, I was pleased with the way the km markers seemed to be flying by.

Get to the top of the course and the halfway mark, feeling strong and suddently I feel like I want to push the pace a bit. Surged for about two kilometres or so, but then felt ordinary and wondered if that had been such a good idea. Nevertheless went through 10 km in 35:56 for an 18:04 lap

Things started to feel a bit tough from here, although I was still generating a reasonable pace. Once I had got all the hills out of the way, the 13 km marker seemed to lift my spirits a bit and I tried to push for home. With 47:04 on the clock I remember thinking that sub 54 was now out of the question. In the end, I passed a runner in the home straight to cross the line in 54:05 and had done the last two km in 3:30 k's for an 18:09 last lap, so very, very pleased about that

All in all, I was rapt with that run. A strategy of easy paced start, getting up on the balls of my feet in the hill sections, and trying to push the downhill/straight sections worked a treat and is just the confidence builder I needed after the last two AV runs, which I thought were pretty ordinary

As the yardstick, I did check Shane Jansen's time from last year to see how mine rated and I would only have been 20 seconds behind him, so another thing to be pleased about. He will be happy that he still holds the Coburg Harriers course record at La Trobe, after I knocked off his Jell's Park course record this year by one second!! Bring on the Sandown relays, I say!

We had roast beef for lunch at my mother's, then as we got home late Red Rooster for dinner, which is the only takeaway fast food I let my kids eat (other than fish n' chips, of course)

TOTAL DISTANCE = 15 kilometres