My first trophy and prize money! (Read 551 times)

Hi On Saturday I won my first trophy and prize money ever in a runing race. It was so nice. It was a 10k race where I placed 5th last year. This year there was 24 competitors for the 10k distance and about 50 for the 5k and a bunch of kids and teenagers for the 3k. I have only gotten back into proper training by mid January after almost a year with usually 1-2 runs per week and a weekly distance between 9 and 20km. I expected to be able to do it in about 50 minutes. But on Saturday it all worked in my favour. I got to the race with my wife and daughter in good time to register and get worked up about it. We were there at 8:15 and the start was at 9:15 after the 3k and 5k runners had set off. When the race started I just went along on a nice strong pace without looking too much at my watch so see the pace and heart rate. At the first km marker I looked and saw that I had run the first km in 4:19 and my HR was getting a bit too high so I started slowing down a bit. At this point I was in 7th or something like that. I felt quite comfy at the slightly slower pace and the HR got under control. After a few more km I could see a 10k runner struggeling and I passed him as he slowed down to a jog. I still felt strong. After the first 5k lap I could see 2 other 10k guys ahead and I sped up the pace a bit to catch them even though it was getting really hot now at 9:40 in the morning with about 25 degrees C and no shade. After another 2km I got to the 2 guys and passed them, I felt great and whenever there was a water station I would grab a bottle and splash most of it on my head to cool down and just take one small sip in my mouth to wet my drying mouth and lips. The air was extremely dry, about 10% humidity. That way I got cooled down but the cold water did not upset my stomach. I was now in 4th and the 3rd place guy was far ahead. I still felt pretty god as I increased the pace to get him bit 1km before the end he increased the pace, so I could not gain on him any more. He was about 100m in front of me. But in the last roundabout we had to turn left, but stick to car rules of trafficwhich meant we had to go right around the roundabout and take the 3rd exit. But the guy in 3rd crossed over and only did the closest route to make a left , going opposite the direction of general traffic, and people started yelling at him "You have to go the other way around", "Stop and go back" and stuff like that. I took the long way around the roundabout and started my finishing sprint and ended the race without passing him in a time of 45:56 and I was in as the 4th man. But the guy in front got disqualified so I ended up getting 3rd place. I won an ugly trophy and 100USD work of supermarket vouchers. I was very pleased with my time - and the placing but I still feel I came in 4th. But I guess I stressed the guy in front quite a bit. Anyway, it felt great to go to the podium and receive my prize.

Congratulations!

I'm so jealous. Congrats! Winning some trophies has become my new mission in life. Call me superficial. (Of course, prize money ain't gonna happen. I'll dream, but I'll dream small). I'm still enormously peeved that if Trent and I had just lied about our ages and said we were 24, we'd have both come home with trophies from our recent HM. Life sucks. Those trophies were high quality plastic, too.

That's very cool! And free groceries sound good to me! Great job and wonderful report! k

VERY COOL!!!

That. Is. AWESOME! Congratulations!

Congratulations Thomas! I can only dream of the day where I get an ugly trophy! Free food would be a HUGE bonus too! Way to go!!

Hey, post a picture of your trophy. I got to fondle one the other day. Seeing yours would be almost as good. Probably as close as I'll be getting.