Monday, August 08, 2005

More Encouraging...

Yesterday was my last "long run" before I taper off towards next Sunday.

I had the intention to set the pace on my Forerunner to run 14km in 1:15:00. The route I chose has a hill similar to the Heartbreaking one on City to Surf. From 5 to 8 km it rises by about 80m whereas C2S rises about 60m from 6 to 8km. So I knew it would be a good challenge.

I got a couple of minutes ahead of schedule by the time I reached the hill, and as expected, I lost most of that advantage by the top of the hill. I managed to pull a minute back by the end of 11km, but I was really starting to struggle by that stage. The 12th and 13th kms had another couple of nasty short hills and I dropped back again to a minute and a half or so behind. I picked up a little pace on the final km but ended up finishing in 1:16:46.

The details were:
  • 1st km in 4:49 ahead by 0:32
  • 2nd km in 5:05 ahead by 0:49
  • 3rd km in 4:50 ahead by 1:20
  • 4th km in 4:43 ahead by 1:59
  • 5th km in 5:13 ahead by 2:07
  • 6th km in 5:23 ahead by 2:06
  • 7th km in 6:22 ahead by 1:05 (a simulated walk through a drink station here!)
  • 8th km in 5:49 ahead by 0:37
  • 9th km in 5:08 ahead by 0:51
  • 10th km in 5:08 ahead by 1:04
  • 11th km in 5:16 ahead by 1:10
  • 12th km in 6:13 ahead by 0:18
  • 13th km in 7:05 behind by 1:25 (another drink station!)
  • 14th km in 5:42 behind by 1:46

I'm quite pleased with that. I reckon it was a tougher route than C2S - even though there were about 59,999 less people around! Perhaps the adrenaline will kick in enough to get me over the line next Sunday close to my target.

Just a couple of easy runs this week. Plenty of pasta on the menu.

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