Early season races are all about learning. So what did I learn today?
1. Put your timing chip on your shoe the night before the race (almost a big oops).
2. Find another way of carrying Glucojuice bottles (mine wasn’t there when I went for it).
3. Slow down to grab drinks when wearing gloves (splash).
4. I can be disciplined about my pacing.
5. Check the camera the night before the race, not at the race (Kim couldn’t take any photos because of a dodgily formatted CF card).
The big rainstorm blew through before we left for the race this morning, which was great! The wind was a bit weird, coming from the north or north-west I think. Usually it blows in your face (from the west) on the way out from the start. Today, as usual for this race it paid to run in a group to hide from the wind and share the load rather than trying to run on your own at your own pace.
Nonetheless, I ran the first mile at target pace. Very unusual but good, because that was one of my main aims. Start steady and negative split the race. It was good to see Chris on the mic, and to see some Cardiff Tri vests on the start line. Dan is preparing for the Paris marathon, and James is running well as ever and I think they both had good races. I think Dan ran a PB, which is a great sign for 2012 with the wind of today.
The run out was fine, with some crosswinds that changed to in your face winds and then to your back around the roundabout circuit of Burry Port. The group I was with kicked a little early for me as we got back to the path so I let them go with the wind behind me. I needed to run the first 7 miles steady to be able to run the second half faster.
Perceived effort picked up, and when I went to my back pocket for my GlucoJuice at around 45 minutes it had gone! Darn. Maybe I should have stuck with the race belt method I had practiced. I caught my third attempt at a bottle at 8 miles as we ran past the main crowds at the start/finish area and on over the Teletubby hill to the final section.
With the wind behind I tried to push hard, but the turns and changing surfaces of this section make it a little slow. It’s funny how when you run around here in training you can’t take your eyes off the sea, the views of the Gower, the hills, the sandy beach sections and the harbours and bays. It’s really lovely. When you’re racing all you can see is the surface below your feet and the vest you’re chasing. I hope people come back to jog around here and take in the sights! The weather gave some nice displays this morning with mixes of sun through clouds, dark masses and blue patches. Very pretty.
I don’t think I took great advantage of the wind and had to stay focussed to keep pushing. It’s easy to settle off the pace later in the race when you keep slowing for turns, it’s all really starting to hurt, and the central governor is trying to tell you that you’re tired. Mental over physical.
The turn back into the wind was a bit of a shock. It was strong! Push, push, push. Hammer, hammer, hammer! I took one place back and was closing on two other vests so I reckon my pacing physiologically had been good. I was able to push hard, but my pace dropped right off. I was losing 20 seconds per kilometre. I hope all the runners behind me weren’t too demoralised by the strong wind. It’s really hard to keep driving when you’re tired at the end of a very long run and the wind’s blowing you back and slowing you down.
Back over the Teletubby hill, hard, long strides down the other side and it was clear on my watch that I wasn’t going to hit my target. I pushed hard to the line as it looked like every second would count, and by my watch I finished at 1:21:00. Damn! If I’d been a couple of seconds faster…
My legs seized up straight away. They’re not as used to running as they were a few years ago, but hey, they probably did the same thing back then. The winner, Mark Roberts, was bouncing around, jogging back to the staging area after getting changed at his car. No problems there!
Great fun, great race, extremely well organised, a good feel all around, and the first race with my sponsors’ logos. A bit disappointing but I always get faster as the year goes on. It was nice that Kim, Annabel and Jack came to watch too. There’s quite a bit of hanging around at races like this but the kids had big smiles and gave me big waves. I’m hoping Jack will want to run the children’s race at the Llanelli 10k this year again (for fun).
See you there next year. Faster next year.
Race data:
http://connect.garmin.com/activity/154746646
Update:
Results & stuff are in & up. My gun time for the race was 1:20:59 & my chip time was 1:21:00. Talk about going on the “b” of the bang! False start in a 13.1 mile race shocker? Nah, I was well behind the start line. The second difference must show a split second rounded up & down. Run for every second! Or sometimes for just a split second. (34th, 2500 entered I think).
Results are here on the Human Being Active website.
Photos are also up on sportysnaps. See some finishing pain!