Today was the first of the Spring Into Shape 2007 series races, and I had signed up for the 4km races, deciding that this was an easier option this close to the marathon and considering that race 2 is the weekend after the marathon.
Anlene are sponsoring this series and had a booth where you could get a free bone density scan, so as I was there a bit early, and had had a little warm-up jog from the car, I decided to get a scan done. Happy to report that I was smack in the middle of the Low Risk part of the results scale.
I met up with Em and Jay for a few minutes prior to the race, great to chat with them for a while – they were the only Ausrunners I saw for the day.
I had no real plans for a time today, just wanted to have a bit of a hit-out, see how the achilles felt, and would have been happy with 5 minute kms as long as I finished uninjured. I have been doing 100% of my running pretty slow over the last few weeks and wasn’t sure what was going to happen if I tried to put what little speed I have in to the run. I walked to the start area with Em within a few minutes the race was on. There was quite a few little kids around me at the start so had to watch out for them – they were moving pretty fast though. I started off at “crowd pace” – just trying to stay out of the way, and it felt pretty comfortable. I realised pretty soon that I was going a little faster than I’d planned, but as I felt okay, and the achilles wasn’t niggling, I just stayed at that pace. Just past the 2km mark I ended up beside a cyclist and found that I was pacing him (or he was pacing me) – must have been a slow cyclist! Between the 2nd and 3rd km mark I started to struggle a little for breath, due I think to the lingering cold I have, and slowed a little up the Birrarung Marr hill. I didn’t really sprint for the finish, just held a fairly consistent pace, finished with a watch time of 18:05 (4:31 min/km). I’ve just looked on the website and they have me down with an unofficial time of 18:03.66.
My splits were reasonably even, 4:24, 4:30, 4:38, 4:33.
As this is my first ever 4km race, it is a PB – but it is fairly soft, I know I can do a lot better. Based on the McMillan Running Calculator, and based on my best HM time, it says I should be able to do a 17:33 for 4km, so I guess that should be my goal for the next two races. That said though, I am extremely happy with todays result, especially the fact that there was no niggles at all from the right leg.
Em also had a good result finishing a few seconds behind me. Em is a shining example to all of us on how to manage a serious injury and I am so pleased to see her really getting back into the running. I also caught up with Jay again afterwards quickly and she was pleased with her run too.
The last few long runs I’ve been on with the group it has seemed that my Polar was reading a little bit fast/long, so another job for today was to calibrate the stride sensor. It measured the 4km course as 4.12km, so I have re-calibrated it to 0.971, so hopefully it will be pretty accurate now.
This afternoon I went shopping and got two pairs on New Balance tracksuit pants for $20 each on sale.
