02 November 2016

World Masters Athletics Championship Perth M55 10,000 1st 33:15



I was confident I could win so long as no last minute Kenyans came out of the woodwork! So the plan was to run it, the same as the last time, Hard lap, Float lap. Keep it going as long as possible, no particular goal times to achieve.
Conditions were warming up and still blustery for our race though the wind thankfully was calming down and nothing like the 5000m gale!
70/72 first lap!, a Masters World Championship race will give you a few seconds boost! Into my 'Float' and I didn't particularly slow down much, covering the 1st KM in 3;09.
From there it was pretty much a case of trying to keep the hard efforts to raise the tempo and the float laps honest.
I guessed I was clear but had no idea other than a vague inference from the announcer (who I only heard in the home straight).
There was a clock on the start finish line but I didn't fancy the mental arithmetic to work out my laps. There was another electronic board that scrolled the competitors names, order and laps to go or completed (not sure). I only looked at it once. I was aware that I'd covered 5200 a little faster than 3 weeks ago, and was later told I'd gone through 5000 in 16:25 which was motoring considering all the factors.
Edit; I actually went through 5000m in 16;16.
Inevitably in the second half I started to tire and slowed down. I think I went through the first 6km in 3:15 average and the last 4km in 3:25 average.
I was happy with 33:15, which ranks 11th all-time M55, though getting the bell in 32:00 and realizing back in 2011, Keith Bateman would have lapped me on his way to the WR 31:51 was a sobering thought.
I heard afterwards that I had lapped the field by lap 15 and was on the way to double lapping the field, winning by over two minutes.
I have five days to rest up before Sundays Half Marathon. Today I went for an easy 11km run along the Mara course with M55 5000m 2nd placer Alex Stienstra (Netherlands). A really nice guy with very quick 1500 and 5000 times this year 4:22 &16:02. Unfortunately injuries kept his training to a minimum these last few months, so he was ecstatic to win the Silver. I hope he gets a result in the 1500 though of course I want my Aussie mates to likewise.







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