At the back end of last week I could feel a cold coming on and wasn't really looking forward to this. It's not all that much fun during a run when you aren't feeling 100%.
This course features two laps around Western Springs and the Auckland Zoo. The first 1.5 km or so is a gradual climb, followed by a flat section along Surray Cres, Old Mill Road, and then a sharpish decline, and another flat section past the Auckland Zoo.
Saw Andrew E and his wife near the start, about to start the 5km version.
The hill climb wasn't so bad and I felt pretty good after the first lap. The second lap started to feel a bit ragged to be honest, the cold was catching up with me near the end. Down the home straight I heard Andrew shout out "give it a burst Aaron!" so of course head down and bit of a sprint finish for the last 100 or so m. Managed to haul in three people. It absolutely gassed me though and I came close to throwing up in the chute! Lovely.
Almost speedy...
9.91km / 42:57 / 4:20 min/km. (gun time 43:15).
Not too far off my PB for the 10km. I figure it was a good race really especially with running with a head cold. What I thinked help a lot was the hill training I've been doing the last few weeks. This hill is pretty gentle compared to Jacob's ladder and Western park so found I could maintain a reasonable pace immediately after cresting. Not sure I could maintain 4:20s over the half distance (although in the ADRA half I did last year did manage 4:30s). Maybe a pace in between might be possible :)
Run Auckland 6 in three weeks which is a half marathon. There is a free 12km run (called the "ringstinger") in two weeks which might be worth a look.
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3 comments:
Top ten percent of field! Fantastic!!! I'm very impressed! :)
Well done!
I was just thinking that you have two very similar hills (looking at the elevation profile), then remembered it was two laps ... duh!
Great effort!
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