Sunday a much nicer day, even though it did rain a little whilst warming up but the wind was a vast improvement. Again there are 16 in the field, which meant we were going to be sharing a starting lane, so I searched for someone I knew was going to be faster than me and organised to share a lane with him, this allowing both of us to have lots of room once going. I knew this race could be more enjoyable if I remain controlled, with the knowledge that worse case I would only be approx 15-20 sec behind the leaders and thus feeling more a part of the race. Again I had the advantage of knowing some of my competitors and tried to sit in behind a Keilor (KSB) runner who I thought would be about 3-5 sec faster. I started in lane 3 with the 35-39 age group eventual winner from Mentone, and allowed him to take control of the lane on starting, I thought I started a little fast but at the cross over I was probably 14/16, along the back straight I followed Michael B from KSB and past a handful and most importantly a 35-39 person, sitting in second, 1st lap in 68.8 (a little faster than norm), and was feeling good, I now wanted to maintain and stick behind Michael for as long as possible and hold my second spot, he noticeably kicked with 200 to go, I decided to hold my pace and wait for the jav hole (about 150m to go) and then tried my hardest to come home, crossed the line and held on for 2nd in a big PB of 2:21.90 (1.2 sec PB), VERY HAPPY, peaked nicely, last year I broke 2:30 once.
Again I had support in the 'stands', Cameron & Connor (sons) both came today, Burkie (coach) & Samantha (Club mate), it was great to have the support. I even got a smile in at the 450m mark, Connor (6) yelled "hurry up dad, you're losing", you've got to love the support of a kid.
The winner of my age group ran 2:12, the winner of the 40-44 age group crossed first in a time of 2:04/5, wow! In the race after mine was the O50s, where Terry Hicks from Eaglehawk AC ran a 'slow' 2:05, OMG, I hope I can run that fast when I turn 50.
A great finish to the season, have receive heaps of text messages from friends and as Burkie said to afterwards, a well deserved result. Thanked Burkie for all of his help and guidance over the past months!
Now I'm sick, coughing & spluttering, thank goodness it waited until after the race!
A few weeks of easy running and then start work on my 2005 goal, sub 40 for 10km.
2 comments:
Well done Stu! Two very good results.
I hope to be able to do something like
that next year when i enter.
Stu
Congratulations on the massive PB. It is well deserved and I am sorry I missed it, as I came down to watch a few coburg harriers compete in the 5000 metres
Looking forward to catching up with you at one fun run or another before the serious stuff starts again in late April
Post a Comment