Well, I finally did it! I got to run a race and I was pretty pleased with the result.
I had 3 Objectives for the race:
- Run my own race
- Don’t start too fast
- Aim for a 25:00 time
The Start
I was really pleased that I held back in the first part of the race, after advice from Andrew that I should start out too fast. My good old Garmin helped me here by letting me know I had started at a pace of 5:24 per km so I knew I was outside my goal and therefore, not rushing. Handy little indicator that!
I also made the decision to run from the back of the group. Not sure on that strategy as I had to get through the slower runners but I really had no idea what my pace would be so I was happy with that.
I soon found that it was relatively easy to pass people and just tried to keep a steady pace. Of course, I wasn’t sure if they’d be screaming past me at the end of the race but I felt comfortable so I kept going.
The Strategy
I kept referring to the Garmin for my pace and as I warmed up I was getting closer, and sometimes under, the 5:00 min per km mark.
I picked a couple of fairly athletic looking guys to keep up with to help me maintain my pace and then it came to a hill I decided to push ahead and hope I could keep up the pace.
Then on the return leg my aim was simply to keep catching people without busting myself. As I passed someone, I fixed on someone else. One girl, who was under 15, felt me catching up to her and put on some pace. I was really pleased with that because it meant if she could keep going and I could keep up, my time would improve. Unfortunately, she couldn’t so I picked another mark as I was getting closer to the end.
This strategy worked quite well as the last person I over took didn’t like it all that much and sped up, which meant I did too. She got the better of me by a second or so but it was good to have the burst in the end. 
The Time
So the last goal of 25:00 was met by having an unofficial time of 24:49. Yes folks … 24:49!
I think the official time will be a bit higher as they scanned the race timing thing a couple of seconds after I hit the line but I’ll know on Tuesday.
Overall I was pretty pleased due to the time and consistency of the run. I also ran the whole way, no walking, and I was able make the head win over the body – meaning when my legs started to hurt and I felt I was running out of puff I just decided that I wasn’t going to stop.
Next event is a “pancake run”, it’s pretty hilly apparently but we get to eat pancakes at the end!
P.S. When I started this program I wanted to get to be above average based on my version of average. I did some calculations and timings and decided that 4kms in 18 minutes would be deemed above average. The time I did today works out at 19:20 so the plan is working. My first recoding of a 4km run was 30:29 in the days of lamp post to lamp post.
