Friday had decided to get the ‘Southern Cross’ tattoo done and head down to the ‘Shire’ on Saturday to have a hit out at the 10k race within the National Park put on by the Sutherland run Club that Crossy has mentioned to the team earlier in the week, Didn’t then anticipate a call then from good guy and Mr. ‘Grecian’ himself Ronan Chalky to ask if I can give him a lift and run the Half Marathon instead.
Knew I needed a good hit out and with the Wet & Wild weather heading our way for Sunday I thought I may as well get a solid 21ks done in an off road race. Caught up with HuRTs guy Crossy and Comm. girls 5000m runner Eloise Wellings before the run for a brief chat and then the funniest part of the day came as we were all lined up ready to go and they decided to hold a random ‘Raffle Draw’ that took forever and a day, 125 redraw tickets were pulled out the hat (for a size 5 chicken and half dozen Pork sausages) before it was claimed and we were off. Unbelievable
The first 3 ks is excellent as most of it is on the road before we head onto the trail, Settled nicely and was pretty comfortable for the first 5ks sitting in 5th spot with a guy close behind, Had Shire girls Belinda Martin and Eloise came by at the 8k mark so run with them for a 1k or so (before getting dropped) but was happy enough to get to 10k around the 40 minute marker.
Turned at the 12k for the final 9 back home and was still travelling well. But just at the 15k mark I could feel the pace dropping slightly – took advantage of the drinks station with 6ks to go and popped a High 5 to hopefully see me home whilst having a good battle with a guy for 7th place. Now, this is where it starts to get ugly, hadn’t really got to 17ks when my stomach was about to literally explode ….. oh dear, Had to reduce the pace and 7th spot was long gone and then had the 8th guy come and go past as well. 18ks was ticked over and with a guy behind I stopped to let him past not knowing if I needed to pay the bush a visit or pray I could get another 12 minutes done without leaving anything behind.
Managed to get to the finish line with a respectable 87.06 on the clock( ave 4.08s) and was happy enough with that, I thought going into the run if I could hold a steady 4-4.05 min/ks that would be good, and with the tougher terrain I’ll take that, Not to mention the 90 seconds I reckon I lost out on around the dreaded 17-18ks
My 5k splits were.
5k 19.30 (3.54)
10 20.45 (4.08)
15 20.50 (4.09)
20 21.46 (4.21)
Congratulations to HuRTS boy Andy Cross (Crossy) who took out the race in a time of 76.18, as well as Ronan who run on strong. Looking at the times I reckon the times were about 4 mins down on what you would run a road Half in??
***The HuRTS ‘Shire’ Heads Damo, Laura, Crossy, and Muzza will be pleased to hear that I didn’t destroy any wildlife or plants whilst I was on the run and left the trail in pristine condition as I found it despite my near emergency that every runner dreads J
A good solid weeks training backing up from City to Surf and happy to do my 3rd Half Marathon in 5 months (Canberra, Gold Coast & Sutherland) and now 21ks doesn’t feel as if I’m doing 100 as like it was a few months ago.
Legs are a little tired today from the run, so will enjoy my Sunday arvo beers with Pommy Paul ‘Birchy’ Birch to help celebrate his 40th Birthday
Rest Day tomorrow, will be back on Tuesday
Footy has started, although after reading the results i think we'll kick off the season next week
Cheers
Young Timmy,
ReplyDeleteperhaps if you hadn't eaten the 2lbs of sausages and the size 5 chicken you won before the start you might not have had the tummy upset!
Well done getting out and performing so soon after C2S.