Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Running (out of) enthusiasm

The meet at WAAS was interesting. It was very busy and is obviously much better attended in the past because everything ran very late. On the one hand it's great to see so many athletes around, but on the other, racing at 9:45 isn't the best.....

I got shunted to the second heat which I wasn't thrilled at ( I suppose the Masters singlet isn't seen as the mark of quality ), but it also gave me the opportunity to watch an excellent run by Courtney Carter and the rest of the guns ; it was a star-studded affair with CC, Marc See, Steve Stingemore, Aaron Pattison, Roberto Busi, Todd Ingraham, etc. Marc See paced CC to 3k in 8:33 and then he hung on to run a 7 sec PB of 14:24.95 - fantastic running!

My legs felt really heavy in this race but somehow managed to hang on and run 16:49 for the 5, just behind Emily Loughnan who ran an excellent 16:48 (a PB). We went out too fast (3:13 for the first k) and I dropped back because I was really feeling it - went through 3k in 9:58 which was the goal, but just slipped in the last few laps, although I was gaining on Emily who had got out to 20m lead at one point. I guess if I can run like that when feeling pretty average, it's a good sign....

Ran with Sas in KP the next morning on a brisk 14.5km double loop (4:39 HR 149) ; picked up a couple of others who ran with us too. Felt a little shagged at first but improved through the run ; very tired at the end though.


Later that morning headed down south for a few days. On Sunday I didn't feel like running, so didn't and the feeling continued Monday morning. Guilt got the better of me Monday evening so I did a nice 10k from Carters Rd to Burnside Rd and back on the forest trail - a beautiful place to run off a large lunch.... No running Tuesday either, but did another 9.5km Wednesday morning @ 4:35 HR 150. It was cool but my lungs just felt tight, so this was a bit of a struggle. Probably down to the glass of wine I had the night before.

A highlight was meeting Mary Burke-Heydon who is an old friend of Jo and ran with her on Sunday morning. She is an amazing runner who I think is starting to get back into it and is possible for the nationals in April. She won the 1996 City to Surf in 45:46, but has run it in 43:xx and has a 2:45 marathon to her name. She owns Heydon Vineyard down there with a small but very high quality selection of wines.

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