Sunday 2nd December 2018
@9:00am
On Sunday, 2nd December, John and I did the Regents Park 10k. Looking back, we had been doing races for the last 5 Sundays back-to-back:
(1) Regents Park 10K on Sunday 4th November
(2) Grand Union Canal Half Marathon on Sunday 11th November
(3) Hertfordshire Half Marathon on Sunday 18th November
(4) Hereward Relay on Sunday 25th November
(5) Regents Park 10K on Sunday 2nd December
My legs were still tired and sore from the Hereward Relay plus I already had 2 Christmas do’s last week on Tuesday and Thursday. Staying out late for 2 nights during the week has taken its toll. There’s been just too much for the past week. My head is full because of the work I’ve been doing is very data intensive and it’s quite draining to stare at the computer screen for hours to end juggling between excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint slides and Microsoft Project trying to make sense on some disparate pieces of data.
I felt extremely unfit when I got up on Sunday morning. Oh well, this would be my last race in 2018. After this event, there will be 4 weeks break before the Hyde Park New Year’s Day 10K. So, I told myself: “Make it count!”.
The organiser was ditching out the Santa Claus hat to runners so all of a sudden, the Regents Park was filled with hundreds of “Santa Runners”.
I started off OK with about 5 and half minutes for the first kilometer and I managed to stick with the 55-minute pacer for the first couple of k but I gradually lost her. When I crossed the first lap, I was just over 18 minutes. I knew I wouldn’t be able to finish in 55 minutes because my past experience told me that I needed to add one minute more in the next lap and 2 minutes more in the final lap ie: 18 + 19 + 20 = 57. If I wanted to finish in 55 minutes, I must cross the first lap in 17 minutes, then add 18 minutes in the 2nd lap and 19 or 20 minutes in the 3rd lap = 55 minutes. My prediction was that I should be able to finish in about 57’ish minutes. I crossed the half way mark in 28’04” and I was still no lapsed by the 1st runner until I nearly reached the 6k mark. I crossed the 7k mark in just over 40 minutes”. Usually it should take less than 18 minutes for me to run 3k but all of a sudden, my quads were very sore and my legs were really tired. I couldn’t push. I had to slow down. I felt like my leg muscles did not get enough oxygen anymore and the lactic acid had built up all over my legs. There was nothing I could do about it. My watch was ticking and my legs were not moving. At the end I could only manage 58’53”. It meant that the last 3k it took me nearly 19 minutes. I was disappointed but not surprised. On the contrary, John finished in 1:04’59”. He had shaved off nearly 2 minutes from last month and he was quite pleased for his improvement. For full results, please visit:
http://racetecresults.com/results.aspx?CId=16586&RId=330
I am taking some annual leave between Christmas and New Year. I have promised myself to have some proper rest and hopefully I will do a better time in the next 10k race on the New Year’s Day 2019.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!