Avg Pace: 4:30 km/min
Wow. What a day. Cold and wet, daylight savings had just ticked over so we lost an hour of sleep. It was certainly tough to look outside at the pouring rain and say that I was glad to be doing this.
Woke at about 5.45 daylight savings time after going to bed around 2200 standard time, not really the amount of sleep I would normally like. I've noticed on race days I'm not tired though as adrenaline is already starting to kick in. Warmed up by having a hot shower and getting into the BSc tights, had a bit of a foam roll and a stretch and got moving.
Got out to the venue at the Regatta Centre and it was raining, cold and bleak. Picked up the bib and timing chip and still had about half hour before the start. Did a little static stretching and some jumps to warm up the calves and shins, a few squats to try and get the heart rate up a little and during this time it alternated between pouring down and light drizzle.
Moved down to the start area with a light jog and got ready to go. I'm still unsure about myself so I placed somewhere near the back of the pack. Gun went and we started to move off when I realised I was kind of stuck behind a few runners that weren't hitting the pace I was hoping for. I got a bit freaked out and took off down the outside to try and get in front. I quickly realised that I had pushed to hard, too quickly as my heart rate just sky rocketed. I also had the strange experience of having heaps of space and not knowing how to pace myself properly. I tried to set myself to the pace of a couple of people ahead of me but they kept gaining ground. I had to slow a little to stop myself from blowing out in the first few km's. I got overtaken by a few people and eventually settled into a rhythm about 20m behind one of the girls that had overtaken me.
Probably only 2-3km in I started to feel the signs of a stitch in my right side, I just had to keep trying to either slow my breathing down to relax or to breathe a bit harder. A full stitch never came on, but it was pretty uncomfortable over the first lap of the lake. I have found that I get stitches if I am running at a high heart rate. About 5km I started to feel pretty tight through my right glute and left ITB. Same as what I had towards the end of the half-marathon. Not enough to significantly slow me down, but enough to not allow me to get relaxed and speed up. One of the nice memories was coming down towards the mountains and seeing half covered in cloud - very scenic. At some stage the rain had started really coming down again and I was soaked completely through. Didn't slow things down much except over the timing things which looked like being very slippery plastic. Just kept pushing along and probably at about 8km I caught up to the girl in front who I was using as my pacer, but then she moved away from me again. I took a mouthful of water at the last aid station and then tried to pick up my pace to bring it home. Got a bit of speed up before hitting some giant puddles which soaked my shoes right through and then sprinted at the finish line, just passing the pacing girl on the line! I was thinking sub-50min would be good and 46min would be outstanding. To achieve 45:03 is fantastic and I'm on a bit of a high from that. Mac Uni students were on hand for a bit of glute/ITB massage which was great. Still tight though.
I'm certainly learning more about how to race and prepare myself. Will try and get into a routine of training from now until December.
Pre: Banana & WPC at about 6am, Choc GU (with caffeine) at about 8.30
Post: Watermelon immediately upon finishing. WPC and dextrose
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