On Wednesday night I competed in a 5km Fun Run at Albert Park Lake (site of the Melbourne Grand Prix). There were 3 reasons I chose this race to try and set a 5km PB time. Having missed the weekend's triathlon due to social commitments, a race 3 days later fitted nicely into my original training schedule. Being a weekday meant I would not lose a valuable weekend of training and lastly the Albert Park Lake track runs around a lake and is therefore completely flat. Unfortunately what I didn't count on was a very windy day with gusts up to 52kph on a running track that is very exposed to the wind.
I like setting 2 goals, an achievable goal and a dream goal. My achievable goal was to break 19 minutes for the 5km (3m48s pace) and my dream goal was a finish time of 18m30s (3m42s pace). I had run 18m30s a couple of times on the first legs of Duathlons that start with a 5km run, but they were always measured a little short and using the average pace from my Garmin GPS watch they usually equated to a flat 19 minute 5km time. So any time under 19 minutes would be a personal best (PB).
As we assembled on the start line I tried to assess the surrounding talent. There were several athletes who whilst not strutting, somehow conveyed a belief in their own speed. But the minutes leading up to a race are never short of delusion, so only time would tell. Disappointingly I saw a fellow triathete who I knew to be faster than me (and in my age group). I told him he should be doing the 10km race (on the logic that anyone faster than me should've been doing the 10km). He replied that he actually signed up for the 10km, but because it started 30 minutes later (and was a longer race), he thought he'd get home too late so switched to the 5km instead (pathetic excuse). After a little deliberation I positioned myself 3 deep from the start line. Close enough to the front to not get caught behind slow runners, but far enough back to avoid the initial stampede. A little concerning was the fact that the 20 minute pace runners had positioned themselves in front of me (remembering I was aiming at sub 19). Designated pace runners are designed to run at a specific speed (ie. 4 min pace for a 20 minute finish), allowing other competitors to run next to them (pace off them) and achieve goal times.
The 2nd kilometre contained the dog leg required to extend the lap of the lake to 5 kilometres. This dog leg contained 4 sharp 90 degree corners and a tight u-turn, all of which upset my speed and rhythm. However being early in the race I recovered well, but it slowed the 2nd kilometre split to 3m45s. Combined with the faster first split I was still on target for my dream goal of 18m30s.
At the start of the 3rd kilometre I looked in disbelief at some of the runners who were still ahead of me - I started to doubt how well I was running. This worry soon disappeared once a vicious headwind took all my attention. Even though I was feeling relatively good, the wind was ruining my rhythm and I was now struggling to hold 4 minute pace. This continued for 500m or so util we turned around the top of the lake and the wind became a tailwind - now I was flying. Overall my 3rd kilometre time split was 3m46s. Not too bad considering, but I think the difficulty into the headwind had a signficant affect on my race.
Up till this point I hadn't looked at my heart rate and I was a little concerned to discover it was sitting at 178bpm. So now I was trying to relax in the hope of lowering my heart rate, whilst still maintaining a good speed and dealing with a cross wind that was becoming more and more gusty. I had caught and passed most of the competitors who had gone out too hard. There were 2 runners left who were trying to stay with me, but they both dropped off before the 4km mark. This left me running by myself with a small group containing my fellow triathlete about 40m ahead, the leaders had long disappeared out of sight. It would seem the self belief exuding from those athletes was more than backed up with running talent after all.
As alluded to earlier, there were 2 races distances on offer - a 5km and 10km race, consisting of 1 and 2 laps respectively. I realized the race distance was not going to be overly accurate when the 4km and 9km markers were spaced about 50m apart. Having passed the 4km mark, I now had less and a kilometre to run, but the wind gusts (and high heart rate) had done their damage and it had become very difficult to maintain good running form. This situation became much worse when the track looped around the bottom of the lake and we hit the full force of the wind head on. I was really struggling now and I could hear the two runners behind starting to make back ground. I wasn't overly concerned with my placing in the race. I knew prizes were only handed out to the first 3 across the line and there were at least 10 runners ahead of me. But the possibility of being passed somehow allowed me to find something extra and as soon as I upped the pace slightly I immediately sensed the threat from behind disappear.
As I approached the finish chute I could see the race clock was still under 19 minutes. Another final surge of energy saw me cross the finish line in 18m55s, 12th place overall and 4th place in the M40-49 category. At first I was a little disappointed in just scraping under 19 minutes. However checking my watch afterwards I discovered the distance was 5.06km (60 metres long) and that I actually covered 5km in 18m45s, so this is the time I am regarding as my new 5km PB!
Overall I'm pretty happy with my race. My kilometre splits were 3m37s, 3m45s, 3m46s, 3m42s & 3m53s. Without the wind and the sharp corners in the dog leg, I believe I could easily realise my dream goal of 18m30s. But then again, everybody would do better on an ideal course in ideal conditions, it just doesn't happen very often.
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