Weather is ok, light wind and low 20s, should be a good day, but I'm not 100% confident of breaking the sub 20 min mark, as I still feel a little flat.
The 5000m is scheduled for a 4.30pm start, so at 3.30 I go off by myself for a 12-15 min slow jog along the waters edge in Williamstown (around the 'hotties'), nice jog and I think about my schedule, 95 sec a lap, want to hear 46 or 47 at the 200 to ensure I don't start to fast. Think about my watch, I only have 8 laps on my stop watch, so I have decided I will do km splits, I wonder can I concentrate to remember to hit every 2.5 laps.
My goal is to finish sub 20 min, hopefully 19m 45s (3:55 per km). The race starts a little late (by 5 or so minutes), there are 11 starters of the listed 12 and Daniel Quin (Vic Champ) is one of them, oh well I will be lapped multiple times by a couple of the starters, DQ and Grant Morgan the other. I am in Lane 11, good nice and wide and will not get in the way, I mention to the Melb Uni guy in 12 that he will be clear to cut across me straight away (16 min runner). The race starts and by the 50m mark I am in 10th position with 11th directly behind me and I am 1 or 2 metres behind 9th, but by the 200m I am 5m + in front of last and I am 5-10m behind 9th. I hit the 200m right on 46s, so I have started off well. The first km is on target (3m 51.4s), but I am probably working harder than I expected, by myself and the back straight is annoying, lots of encouragement from the sidelines from Club members and a couple of guys from other clubs that I have got to know. The 2nd km is 4:00.6, I'm not to concerned but I try to work at holding pace and try to concentrate on relaxing my upper body. I'm no longer concentrating on my lap times and just running for how I feel, and that starts to show with the 3rd km 4:10.3 (12:02) & the 4th 4:20.7 (16:23), I know my sub 20 is gone but I will try to finish harder which is not normal for me, I finish the last km in 4:18.8, totaling 20m 41.7s. Disappointed and tired, and a bit annoyed! Note: DQ & Morgan crossed within a sec of each other 14:45 & 46. I finished 10th out of 11.
Looking back I didn't have ideal preparation, changing my speed sessions around and racing a fair bit in the past ten days. But this time last year I couldn't break 12 min for 3km and I nearly did that today with 2k left to race, so overall I'm better for the experience, 5000m is a long race on the track and I will use this for experience. Coach Burkie tells me that I started at the right pace and all looked well for awhile, but he thinks the loneliness may have got to me and a big couple of weeks.
1km - 3:51.47
2km - 4:00.62 (7:52)
3km - 4:10.39 (12:02)
4km - 4:20.70 (16:23)
5km - 4:18.85 (20:42)
Weekly Notes:Only 54kms for the week, 28km for month so far. Distance down this week due to poor weather and missing my normal 12k on Wed.
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