A long windy cool day at Bundoora Park, with Aths Vic combining for the third year with the Secondary All Schools XC Champs, I had two U14 girls racing in their first All Schools XC, their race was schedule first at 10am.
Arriving at 9am, I jogged a lap with both girls, chatting about the race and just other stuff too to help deviate their minds. Both girls ran very well, finishing 28th & 29th respectively.
My run involved a 2k warm up and then a plan of survival and patience, as I knew I am no where near my form of 49:30 from a few years ago, but hopefully I would beat the 58:30 from 2008.
With the wind still hitting Mt Cooper it was going to be a tough day, the gun goes and I try my best to settle into a comfortable pace, nearly a km into the race I noticed I was the last member for my Club??? Why so...hmmm...sticking to the pace I think is correct for me I went through the first km 13.48 but I was catching Ian and eventually did about 500m later.
I am fairly happy with how I approached this race, whilst not being a fan of XC really, especially whilst as unfit as I am and noting I had walked a little in the other two XC races, I managed to work the hills and coast the downhills and mentally worked the course.
My splits: 13.48, 14.11, 14.16 & 14.12 = 56.28. Not the best, but 2 minutes better than last year.
Just over 17km of running today.
1 comment:
Nice splits Stu. The first lap is always going to be a little quicker with the race adrenaline going. Good to improve on last year too.
Interesting challenge with Jo - now you're going to have to turn her from a promising cross country runner back into a 400m sprinter!
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