I was very fatigued going into this race, after 2 weeks of high intensity training, coupled with the 100km ride out to the race site on Saturday, I wasn't feeling in peak physical condition. In fact was so tired I had managed to fall asleep at the dinner table on Saturday lunchtime!
I woke up on Sunday feeling very slow, lethargic, and particularly unmotivated. I tried to do some warm up strides, but I found it impossibly hard to get going. Woody's tactics were for me to go moderate on the first 10km, go hard on the 2nd 10km and ALL OUT for the last 1km.
It was just a swell as the plan was to start out moderate, as there was no way i felt i could run hard from the gun. It was hilly right from the start, I went through 3km in 14mins, ok not great, I then laboured my way up more hills, through 6km in about 29mins, getting worse, and managed to get through to 10km in about 45mins. Ok this certainly wasn't going to be a PB time, but if I could hold things together then maybe it wouldn't be a complete disaster.
As my tactics dictated, I started to increase the pace from 10km's, and by 12km's everything had changed I was now feeling great. How can a body go from feeling so average to feeling to so good in such a quick period? The fatigue had passed and I was now feeling very sprightly with a few down hill sections, I had managed to pick up my cadence considerably and knew that i was running sub 4min km pace. I was flying, and it felt like it. No one was passing me, I was taking people back in large numbers. I went through 15km in 1:05. With 6km to go if I could keep this pace, things might look good.
The last 6km's felt almost effortless, I knew I was running well. I was laser focused on my forefoot strike and that certainly allowed me to keep up such intensity. 2km to go, and I was ripping, which I managed to keep right through to the finish.
I ended up running a 1:27:45, i am pretty sure the course was about 500m short, but all in all not bad considering such an awful start. Not a PB, but a few seconds off, and with such a fatigued body, and hilly course, I came away feeling things are defiantly on the right track for Clearwater. A great sign at this point of the journey, with only 4 weeks to go, the count down is certainly ticking down fast. Lets hope my mock Japan exams go as well?
