Orange Silver April

[Mid Life Crisis Marathon Man]

Lindfield 10km Fun Run - Race Report

"Whoever named this race a "fun run" clearly hasn't run the sodding thing" - just about every person I spoke to during the race this morning.

This morning's race was noticeable for the number of kids runnnig it... and running it well, I might add. Mostly they were high-school students, but there were a number of younger ones too - some of them excellent runners, and I spent much of the last 4km unsuccessfully attempting to keep pace with an 8 y.o. girl named "Maggie".

It wasn't until after the event that I learned that most of these kids were cross country runners, using this race as a warm-up event to the start of the XC season. The reason is clear when you do the thing - apart from the last 200 metres around the sports oval at the end of the race there isn't a flat section in it, with several killer hills and many twists and turns. A fast, flat course it isn't, although it was mercifully devoid of mud and cow pats.

My own race went OK although I committed a classic faux pas in starting at the very front of the pack. I only did so because as I approached the start line I saw my sister-in-law standing there and so fell into conversation with her. Before I knew it the race start was at hand and it was too late to move to the back of the field. The first kilometre was therefore a miserable one consisting of me trying to hold a steady line down the middle of the road whilst being constantly jostled and passed by far superior athletes until I thought surely the whole field had passed me by. In that situation it's impossible to maintain a steady, slow pace and so my first km passed in just 4:52, well under 10km PB pace and far from what I was anticipating - this after all was not supposed to be hard-run race for me. But, well, what can you do?

After a couple of kilometres things started to settle down and I began to concentrate on the main task at hand, i.e. not dying on the numerous hills, some short and sharp, some long and .... also sharp.

The race consists of two laps of a 5km course, the second lap being all the harder because you know all-too-well what's coming. To be honest I spent most of the second lap just trying to hang on up the hills and attempting to recover a little on the obscenely short downhill sections.

All said and done, I wasn't unhappy with my final time of 58:45, and with the second lap being only 19 seconds slower than the first in spite of the unplanned incredibly fast first kilometre. Hard work it definitely was, and a flush of endorphins post-race made me glad I had entered.

Now for the final week of tapering. A couple of very short runs will see me through to race day next Sunday... am looking forward to it, and feel fit and in form.

Touch wood.