Today was the Run Melbourne 5km race that I’d originally planned to run with Chris, but due to his ankle injury, was now running with workmate Voj. It was a 10am start, so no need for a really early alarm which was appreciated. As usual I was pretty organised, up, showered, breakfasted and ready to go too early. My knees felt pretty good, and a liberal lathering of Extra Strength Deep Heat warmed them up nicely. I parked at the RACV Club and walked down to meet Voj in Fed Square. He was 20 minutes later than our agreed time, but we still got to the start area with plenty of time to spare.
Pretty soon we were away and the first 500m was just pretty much run with the crowd. I have to admit as I ran up the hill towards the end of the first kilometre I started to think that I was going to struggle, but at the 1km marker the watch showed 4:46, just over the pace I was aiming at. The hill just before the Anderson St descent tested me too, and the pace slowed, but the 2km marker showed that I’d picked up the pace by a whole 1 second.
Going down the Anderson St hill I lost Voj. I wasn’t sprinting down the hill as some were, because it kills my knees, so I wasn’t actually sure if I’d lost Voj behind or if he’d gone ahead (I found out later he stopped to tie a shoelace).
When the Garmin beeped for 3km, and I saw I’d run that kilometer in 4:30 I started to think that I was going okay. The undulations as we ran across the Rod Laver footbridge and the William Barak Bridge felt tough but I managed to sustain the pace pretty well, finishing the last two kilometres in 4:33 and 4:34 respectively.
So, splits of 4:46, 4:45. 4:30, 4:33 & 4:34, for an unofficial time of 23:17, an average pace of 4:38 min/km and a new 5km PB by approximately 50 seconds depending on the official time.
Even though this is probably still a bit of a soft 5km PB, given my recent preparation, and the fact that a few days ago I wasn’t sure if I’d make the run, it is a result I’m really pleased with.
Voj came in a few minutes behind me, we got through the very efficiently manned race goodies stations and headed up to The Transport for a pint!
Knees are feeling okay, I’m sitting here in my Skins watching Geelong vs Port Adelaide.
Edit: 25km “recovery ride” on the bike just finished.
Edit: Just got the SMS from Start To Finish, official time 23:15, PB by 48 seconds.
