My second medal at the Australian Masters Games was a bronze.
Its story: after running easily for a fast time in the 5k track, I was confident of doing better in the 8k cross country, because my most recent 8k cross country times had been pretty good. It was a four lap course, and the plan was to tag on for a couple of laps then try and run away from the field in the third lap. The course looked flat and firm, therefore fast, which would suit me. And it was quite cool with little breeze.
However the plan never eventuated. A lead group dropped me from the gun; I couldn't hang on. And on each lap they pulled slightly further away. I found myself, as in the 5k, running solo. Worse, the course was definitely not flat; there were lots of ups, downs, twists, turns, tricky gradients all the way. And worse still, my legs were pretty well shot after about 3k; the short-looking grass was deceptively heavy going. So I plugged on in third place to the finish. Splits are always interesting: the 2k times were 8:46, 9:05. 9:14 and 9:07. Not quite the plan. Still, to average around 4:30s was OK in hindsight on that sort of course. And the silver medallist was 2 minutes in front of me, at the end, so if I had run really fast I might still have been third. Pity about the fatigued quads going into a half marathon a few days later.
Bronze
At the cross country
Meeting up with trail runner Karen
Speaking of splits, yesterday's YCRC 5k was interesting: I ran "slowly" out to the turn with the wind behind us, and halfway back into the headwind turned on the pace. Splits were 11:30 out, 10:30 back, a one minute negative split. The kms were 4:20, 4:25. 4:40, 4:28 and 4:07. Which means I am 90% recovered from having two weeks off!
Happy Birthday Katherine Sheppard, 42 today!
Its story: after running easily for a fast time in the 5k track, I was confident of doing better in the 8k cross country, because my most recent 8k cross country times had been pretty good. It was a four lap course, and the plan was to tag on for a couple of laps then try and run away from the field in the third lap. The course looked flat and firm, therefore fast, which would suit me. And it was quite cool with little breeze.
However the plan never eventuated. A lead group dropped me from the gun; I couldn't hang on. And on each lap they pulled slightly further away. I found myself, as in the 5k, running solo. Worse, the course was definitely not flat; there were lots of ups, downs, twists, turns, tricky gradients all the way. And worse still, my legs were pretty well shot after about 3k; the short-looking grass was deceptively heavy going. So I plugged on in third place to the finish. Splits are always interesting: the 2k times were 8:46, 9:05. 9:14 and 9:07. Not quite the plan. Still, to average around 4:30s was OK in hindsight on that sort of course. And the silver medallist was 2 minutes in front of me, at the end, so if I had run really fast I might still have been third. Pity about the fatigued quads going into a half marathon a few days later.
Bronze
At the cross country
Meeting up with trail runner Karen
Speaking of splits, yesterday's YCRC 5k was interesting: I ran "slowly" out to the turn with the wind behind us, and halfway back into the headwind turned on the pace. Splits were 11:30 out, 10:30 back, a one minute negative split. The kms were 4:20, 4:25. 4:40, 4:28 and 4:07. Which means I am 90% recovered from having two weeks off!
Happy Birthday Katherine Sheppard, 42 today!
