A fairly late decision to drag the whole family down to Nowra withe the incentive for the kids that we would test drive a new dual screen DVD player, the 2 screens hang behind the headrests of the front seats. Quite a classic driving along the freeway with the soundtrack from Madagascar proving amusement, but the kids were quiet! A slight hiccup as I followed the signs through Kangaroo Valley, all the twisty stuff meant a nice case of road sickness for Ruby. Shouted the kids the obligitory junk food and then a quick call in to say hello to my auntie who lives in Nowra. Finally got away and arrived with not a lot of time to stuff around. Got changed, saw the Mad Guz for my number, a quick warm up and then they were calling us to the start.
A decent group of Striders at the line with 8 of us in the open division and 5 in the 45+. Only the best 6 and 4 respectively would count to the teams titles though. I had never run here before but had heard quite a bit about the hills, one in particular. Anyway the gun is fired and we are all off! I deliberately tried to take it easy to begin and after about a km assumed my usual position in respect to others who I run against in the West Met races. This was handy and I used them as a general pace guide throughout the run.
Well no one was joking about the hill, looking at the GPS info the 2nd km was pretty much all up hill with a vertical climb of about 60 metres! This was then compensated by the third km which then dropped back down by about the same amount through a series of switchbacks.
After the first lap I pretty much had my place in the field locked, a few going past me but I also went past a few as well.
Stats
Distance 12km (Garmin 305 said 12.23)
Time 54:56
Avg pace 4:29 (based upon Garmin)
Avg HR 177
My 3 lap splits were
Lap 1 17:31
Lap 2 18:39 36:10
Lap 3 18:46 54:56
Pretty happy that I held the 3rd lap close to the same pace as lap 2. Actually pretty happy with the run in general, no niggles and my customary fade at the end of races is well, fading!
A pretty good day for Striders with I understand a 2nd and 4th in the Womens and then the Mad Guz getting second in the mens, I reckon then mens 45+ team might figure in the placings as well. Alas the only downer on the day was that apparently the kids were absolute ratbags while I was out racing and so it seems going forward my race outings will not be a family affair :(
3 comments:
Good to see you out there, and thanks for the encouragement on the course.
Nobody expects kids not to be ratbags out on a farm, so they'd probably be Ok at the next race. Just a lot of question marks about their parents ;-).
That's a good performance Dave. I have heard that hill is an absolute killer. Well done on maintaining the pace right through. All that training must be starting to take effect.
Well done on the run Dave, especially keeping the Dog at bay. I thought maybe the garmin may have lost a bit of distance under the trees at the top of 'that hill'. Apparently not. It was striders open 2nd male. Striders 45+ gold on countback by 1 spot. Apparently the guy was right behind Blue Dog. GrandPa won bronze for his age group.
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