My first race since the marathon in May ended up to be a great one! It was held in my home town (well where I went to school, which is 20min drive from where I grew up). It was the first ever Hamilton Fun Run, had a 4.2km, a 10k and a 21k. I would have loved to be fit enough to do the 21k but decided on making the 10k my first run back. This also tied in well with the Week 8 (next week) mini milestone, because next weekend I will not be able to get it in. I think I'll end up doing something the following weekend as well that will be a challenge (maybe another 100k bike ride) but we'll get to that.
Anyway - the run...
I went off really comfortable and ran with a friend I went to school with, she said she was hoping for 60-65minutes so I thought I’d stick with her to start with and see how I felt. I was hoping for under 60min and not pressuring myself into anything faster than that. I didn’t want to go out too quick and re-injure myself, my aim was to finish strong.
I left her after the first km as I thought she would be a lot more comfortable running on her own and I was feeling good so I went a little quicker. I kept an eye on my watch and I seemed to be running around 5.30min pace which surprised me. I kept reminding myself that I didn’t have to go out fast, to take it easy and just aim for under 6min k’s. It felt great, I was comfortable, I was passing several people – just reeling them in one by one – and felt consistent with my pace.
As I got to 8km mark I still felt really good, looked at the clock and worked out that I could actually get a PB (I’ve only ever run 1 10km race before which was 54min back in January 2010). I picked up the pace a bit, kept passing more and more people, I felt comfortable all the way and finished in 53.35 ☺
I was so happy with that, I gave it a bit of a burst to the finish and felt really strong. My hip wasn’t sore, I only felt stiff in the shins for the first km or so and the calves were also great.
Across the 3 events they managed approx 300 runners, which I think is pretty good for the first year in a town of 10,000 people. I really hope they keep going next year and I’d love to get more involved in promoting the event in 2011. I’ll look into that.
Overall a fantastic return to racing, I’m feeling great having dropped a few kg’s and with that confidence booster I feel like I can start following my plan for 2011 races.
After our honeymoon in December I’ll knuckle down on the running a lot more, but at the moment it’s all about getting the k’s in the legs and recovering well from this run.
I feel great!!! It was so good to be back racing again ☺
No comments:
Post a Comment