Croydon Masters - Run 70

I went to join the Croydon Masters as an invite (junior) and was pleased to see a couple of familiar faces in Tony, Em & Rob (spectating).

Knowing that the long run would be no more than 5-6km, getting there early and going for a 25-30min warm-up was the key to racking up some k’s. So I hit the Mt Dandy road on a nice out and back cruise. This road is very well lit for night running but it is concrete all the way, it does not bother me but could be a deterrent for others.

 

Back to the track, and the events for the night were an 11.2sec sprint (pick you distance, closest to time wins), 800m, 120m & 4.8k (12 laps). I decided to run them all. Which maybe wasn’t the best idea (more later).

 

For the 11.2sec race I lined up at about 83m and crossed the line in 10.93sec 0.27 seconds off the goal. Sprinting felt much easier than last time (2 days after Puffing Billy)

 

The 800m was a good run even though I messed up the splits. Originally I planned on a 80sec first lap then a harder 2^nd lap for hopefully 70sec. It has been a very long time since I had run a competitive 800m. First lap was quick but comfortable, I tried to back off the pace a couple of times but not enough, 73sec. Second lap felt OK and I was able to hold a pace I was happy with, but I lost 6sec and finished with a 79sec and 2m32s race. Happy with that.

 

It was only then that I remembered these events are on top of each other, and while still jelly legged we were moving up to the 120m start. The distance and lane stagger was very questionable, but I ran solidly but lost momentum in the last 50 and was passed. Finished in 15.3?? (I think)

 

Now there was a break until the long run. But I didn’t feel great. A mixture of feeling faint or wanting to throw up. Tried to take on some water but it didn’t help. I don’t know whether it was the very warm air in the rooms after the cold outdoors, or the exertion of the sprints & 800m or what. I nervously lined up for the 12 laps. Tony took off and I knew I was not going to be running with him tonight. Em was going to be sitting on 5min pace so I stuck with her. Immediately my lower back was stiff and non-functioning, running was tough. I tried to distract myself by speaking with Em but it didn’t help, I was soon contemplating calling it a night, but decided that toughing it out was good for me. By 6 laps I was barely able to hold 5min. Then I ended up running with another lady who normally runs only 1500m, so she was battling but trying to give the longer stuff a go. This was good, Em moved about 20m ahead, and we were chatting about long running. With 3or 4 laps to go, we started talking about finishing strong in races. 2 laps to go I suggested we could catch Em before the end, 400m to go and we were still 15m back. But she really dug deep to lift the pace, by 100m to go we were up to their heels, but Em dropped the hammer and went away again, we finished strong and it felt much better. Stupidly, by this time I could have kept going for another 5km at much better pace…..so I was glad I didn’t quit. Perhaps next time I’ll fight the discomfort earlier to see if I can shake it with quicker pace????

 

At the end relaxing, I felt fine, no issues.

All up probably about 11k of running, a mostly enjoyable night. Now I have a 800m time to measure against at least, a long way off my 2m10s best from high school.

 

A note for Tony: Don’t think that you will be lapping me twice in the future……but I’m still impressed with the pace you can hold any time any day!!