Today's race was always destined to be a rushed affair as I've had the kids all week and nowhere to leave them while I ran round the park; luckily our good friend Emma offered to take them off of my hands. In fact this suited Joshua and Christina down to the ground as Hal and Scarlet are their best friends and they hadn't seen them all week. So I turned up at Regents Park in plenty of time for a warm-up lap and another pit stop (the third of the day if you must know!) before mingling with the hordes; these summer races sure do attract a lot of charity runners and they really fill out the pack.
When the horn went I started in around 15th place, more or less, and the initial pace felt very easy. Almost without trying I moved past the nearby runners and placed myself in a decently sized group - which then seemed to ease up, forcing me to move on ahead. If this is what it feels like to race after a week of no running, with a solid sports massage in the middle, then I should take a break more often! As this first lap unfolded I still felt smooth and strong; even more so when the marshals shouted out that I was in 7th place (and right behind 5th and 6th). Unfortunately the guy behind was strong and breathing down my neck....
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| It all got a bit hard towards the end! |
As we struck out on the second lap he drew level and so when we turned into the wind I made a tactical decision to drop back and draft; he was a big guy and provided plenty of shelter! At first this worked superbly and he slowly dragged me towards the athletes in front - one of whom decided to blow-up and effectively vanish from sight! However I could very much identify with his pain! The pace being set was just slightly outside of my comfort zone and I used every mental trick I know just to stay in contact with my pacer. Sadly as the second lap drew to a close, on the downhill past the finish, I just couldn't stay with him; my breathing slipped into the red zone and my legs gained twenty pounds. This was not good.
So whether I liked it or not the race became an opportunity to show my mettle, to suffer and not give in. Right now though I knew that I'd pushed just a bit too hard and needed to ease back; at the same time I didn't want to get caught from behind but equally I knew that I'd be hard to spot amongst all the back-markers. With 3km to go I counted the hills and the metres, dosing my effort and aiming to conserve energy; really the 8th and 9th kilometres were the worst with my times falling behind 4 min/km pace. Only in the final thousand metres did my body perk up a bit and I strove for the finish in a bid to cement an amazing 7th place! And it worked! Just 2 seconds back came my personal chaser but it was all too late for him!
What a race though; while nowhere near a PB I worked properly hard today for my 38:46 and it really paid off. A top-ten finish, first V40 by exactly a minute and my position at the top of my age-category cemented (with 3 out of 6 races completed). I'm very happy.
Distance: 8.8 miles
Time: 1h 01m 00s