Sat 22 Oct, 1500m race

12km today and 70km for the week so far

Normal Saturday morning with Little A's and off to Aberfeldie, thunderstorms forecasted all afternoon. I arrived approximately 1 hour prior to my race and went for a 3-4k warm up, followed by a few strides at a quicker pace and then 10-15 minutes of stretching, sometimes in light rain.

I was in a 4:40-4:55 group, 15 of us. My aim was to run the first lap in 76 and be very controlled and then maintain that for until the 1k mark, then a slight pick up of intensity and see what happens with another pick up with 230m. On the starting line I was in the middle of the line, start & was able to get into lane 1 quite quickly and follow a group up the straight & around the bend, once into the main straight I got blocked and needed to use my arm to force my way thru which happened quickly (very exciting, this seemed like real racing), again back onto the rail and passed Burkie calling lap times (75-76), excellent. I am unsure of what my lap times were for the next lap but it was all controlled, a little bit of mucking around moving around slower runners or changing lines depending on others stride pattern, but most importantly all controlled. The 3rd lap I sat behind a small group knowing I wanted to make a small move when into the front straight, luckily the 2 in front of me opened up a little and I was able to move in between them and move in front and get the inside line prior to the bend (400 to go), once I straightened in the back straight I tried to increase my intensity and make a move around a couple, with 200 to go I got passed by the Melb Uni runner who got me last week in the 8, I tried to follow him and hang on, crossed 6th in a PB of 4:47.17 WOW :-) I was very surprised by my time, Burkie was not, he told me just prior I would run 4:47-48 if I did it right, no wonder he is a coach!

For my cool down I went for a 5-6km run around the river with Adam (ads) and chatted about our races and his upcoming Auckland Marathon (good luck), Later in POURING rain I raced a 400m in 1:04.1 which was good considering the conditions.