Antipodean
I'm posting all the way from Auckland, New Zealand (gotta love this Internet thang) and we're enjoying summer here. I just ran the first 10k in a 3 race summer series. I ran these races last year and lack of fitness really killed me, but I swore I'd come back and do them again but better this year. Later last year I ran my first half and had a blast. I increased my fitness a lot over the year, but did take Oct/Nov very easy due to life things happening, and didn't ramp up my miles again until mid December. So, this race was a test of my fitness, and I came out surprisingly well. I have joined the 2014 in 2014 miles game for the first time, so that might have something to do with how consistent & motivated I've been recently.
Short results: 49:05 (PR by 5 seconds!) Overall 75/322, Female 14/176, Age Group (F40-49) 5/54
My previous PR of 49:10 was set on a slightly short course, so I must be running faster, right!
The race is set on an undulating course so it was not easy, but not too hard either. It was a two-lap race (included a 5k, and a kids 2k dash that my daughter took part in). This was my first race using my recently purchased Garmin Forerunner 10, and also with my new Kinvara 4 shoes (second outing with them). There were over 1000 people in total in all the races, but the course is run on wide sidewalks or streets and so there was not really any bunching issues apart from a few inconsiderate walkers on the second lap. Because we are metric in NZ, I'm going to talk about km, sorry!
The RD is a guy from Scotland who gave a very entertaining race briefing before we started. He warned us against sprinting the home stretch as it could result in heart attacks! We set off, 5 & 10k runners together, exactly on time at 8am. It was a gloriously fine summer's day with 60F at the start line, but it got hotter quickly with the sun out in full. Still, not overly humid so not too bad. I noticed not many runners took water at the stops.
Predictably I set off too fast - this is an ongoing problem for me. First km was 4:34. My Forerunner 10 only shows pace at each km so I wasn't really aware how much off pace I was until the 1k mark. I'm going to have to address this problem if I want to really improve my time. Then I leveled off to just under 5 min/kms, which is where I wanted to be, until the 9th km which was a gentle uphill & I was much slower here. Since my training has not had the distance, especially in my long run (longest of 12km since early October). I've got my garmin splits, but they didn't match up with the km marks (I think I cut corners or at least ran very good tangents!) so I will use the 2.5 km splits with the race results, which were 11:57, 12:07, 12:25, 12:34 - VERY positive splits! I went from 56th place at 2.5 km to 75th place overall at the end. Yikes! On a positive note, my 5k split was a PR by 7 seconds, so I'm looking forward to my next 5k!
My daughter did well in her 2k race & also came 5th in her age group with a time of 9:57, so very proud of her. Hubby came but did not run as he thought he'd be working today. We will all run a 5k at our running club on Jan 29, so looking forward to that.
My goals for this race were actually more modest - my stretch goal was to break 50 minutes, so I have to reassess where I am and what my next goals will be. I need to sort out the pacing and see if my garmin can help me a bit more. There is a function that allows you to set a goal pace and then will tell you if you're ahead or behind, but I haven't tried that yet. I hope to do at least three half marathons this year, and I have another six 10ks I have already registered for. It's going to keep me very busy!
If you made it this far, thanks for reading.
Julie
"It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."
~ Sir Edmund Hillary
Congratulations on your 10K PR and more importantly, running a race which validates your improved fitness from last year's race. I'm curious, what was your approach to increase your fitness?
“Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.” - T.S. Eliot
Hip Redux
Excellent job! (and I'm kinda jealous that it's summer lol)
Way to go, Julie! Thanks for sharing your experience with us! Congrats to DD as well! I wish you continued success in your training and in your upcoming races!
But The Smile That I Sent Out Returned With You.
turtle runner eximious
Love the RR Julie (1 of my 2 favorite Kiwis )
Michael
Caretaker/Overlook Hotel
".....enjoying summer here....."
Shoot, watching the first 2 days of the Australian Open, it looked more like hell on earth for a bit there. Sounds like you guys got some relief so that's good!
Still funny to think that you're enjoying summer down there when folks here in the U.S. are getting snowed in....LOL.
Congrats on the race *and* PR.....and, yes, I would agree that your 49:05 is faster than the 49:10 it replaces on a short course so well done!!!
Randy
Great job! Congratulations on the PR. Enjoy some summer for me, please!
Bozydeco, I mainly increased miles last year, but about 6 weeks ago I started a three month gym membership I won as a spot prize at a race and have been doing some cross training, fitness classes and a weights routine. I'm hoping that will all help too. I will also increase mileage and consistency this year.
Thanks for the good wishes everyone. You may wish for summer now, but come your summer we'll be suffering winter... so it all balances out. Luckily we don't experience those cripplingly hot temperatures they have in Australia. Actually, I am lucky to have a very mild climate - summer not so hot winter not so cold. Good for running if you don't mind a lot of rain. Today a tropical low has arrived, so summer is on hiatus and I'll be running in the gym!
SheCan
Julie, that's a great time! Congratulations on the PR and on such a high placement for you and for your DD!
Yay@ having the whole family race soon! I hope you write a RR for that one also.
Cherie
"We do not become the people who this world needs simply by turning our backs on anyone we don’t like, trust, or deem healthy enough to be in our presence. " ---- Shasta Nelson
Congratulations on your PR and the fact that you enjoyed your race. Congratulations to your DD too. You both did well.
Congrats to you and your daughter, Kiwi!
Congrats o the PR!
Beyond the PR, what I see is a nice of analyzing what went right and what went wrong and thinking about how to apply that knowledge in the future. Nice.
Short term goal: 17:59 5K
Mid term goal: 2:54:59 marathon
Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life. (I started running at age 45).
Will run for scenery.
Nice job on the race and glad to see that DD got to do it "with" you. I did marathons w/ my dad way back in the 70's (me on my bike) and I still have great memories of those times.
Also great to be reminded of summer. I had kind of forgotten about it.
And, sorry for asking, but do you do any special training to learn to run upside down like that ?
Stupid feet!
Stupid elbow!
Is that you, Michael? Just putting two & two together...