Run Auckland Race 3 2009
I was a doubtful starter for this year’s Eastern Beach Race as we had no baby sitter lined up and it was my wife’s turn to run the race. Fortunately the night before my wife’s cousin phoned up asking if we still wanted him and his wife to come over to babysit! Apparently we’d arranged it months ago and totally forgotten that we’d asked.
So Sunday morning found me toeing the line for a 10K race.
I bumped into Aaron again and it was good to catch up. I also saw a few of my colleagues from work at the event. It’s pretty good seeing all the different folks out there actually.
The weather in Auckland had been rather atrocious as it’s been thundering down and even hailing at times but fortunately we had a great gap in the weather for the race.
The Eastern Beach race course is a out and back 2.5km stretch that is flat and straight. As such I had to do 4 loops and my wife 2. I was hoping to set a new PR as I figured this was my best chance to set a 10K PR for the year.
The race itself was pretty good. The first 2 laps I was quite quick and well ahead of the time I needed for a PR. In lap 3 I started to realise that I’d gone out a bit fast and was struggling to maintain the pace.
I saw a lady ahead of me collapse and heard someone say ‘tell a marshal to get the ambulance’ so I made a note to tell the next marshal. A lady who was ahead of me beat me to him but he mumbled that he didn’t have a phone so please tell them at race control. I ran past the lady and at the turnaround point for lap 4 had to stop to tell the ambulance folks that their coffee break was over. I then resumed my race. I have to admit the ambulance folks were pretty fast as they overtook me within a minute.
Lap 4 going out was a bit of a struggle – not so much physically but more mentally. My wife (who was on the other side of the course) said I looked like I wasn’t enjoying it but I was actually. It’s rather surprising as I don’t normally have such a good time during the race but love it afterwards! The in lap was good as I kept trying to up my speed.
Looking at my stats for the race I can see that my first 3 laps were the fastest and then that last lap was. I’m still going out a little too fast I think.
Overall a good race. I set a new PR of 50:19 (Garmin time). I was a tiny bit gutted that I didn’t break 50 minutes (only 2 seconds a km faster required!) but then realised that a 2 minute PR was a pretty good result! Overall my average HR was 164 with a max of 174 so I think I can go a bit faster yet.
Here’s the race results graphic. It looks like everyone was a bit faster this time:
My wife had a good result too with a new PR of just under 30 minutes. Funnily enough the official results show she did it in 18:39 and finished 1st amongst the women!
It’s really nice being able to have her doing the races with me. You know if anyone had told us that we’d both be running races even just a year and a half ago we would have called them mental. Life is grand.
As we got back to our car the heavens opened in a thunderous deluge and we were very glad to be inside the car and not still on the course!
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Good stuff and well done on the time. They didn’t report on the ‘net’ time so I wonder if there were problems with the transponders at the start?
I read the race report and saw your wife did the 5 in 18:39. I was thinking crickey that was quick!
Agree the race timing was impeccable – I got to my car before it started bucketing down again.
Aarons last blog post..Run Auckland 3
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Way to go, Andrew! Your progress is amazing…and inspiring!
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Can I have you’re wife’s cousin’s phone number? Could use a good sitter!
(Oh, and congrats on the PR’s, too!)
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It’s cool that you’re able to do that together. Gives you yet another thing in common — something you can share. Very important for relationships.
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I feel you on that personal best business!
I’m finally (after several months, gah!) getting back into the swing of things and getting away from the maintainance mode – not supposed to be maintaining while you’re still fat, right?
Tonight at the gym, I was wrapping up my cardio with a 100 calorie blast on the rowing machine. I was working it pretty hard, not slacking off, but not going all out like a should, until I get to calorie 75, when I really start going.
Even then, I end up about 5 seconds behind my best, and let me tell you what, I was pissed!
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Nice PR, hope the marathon training is going well – almost into your taper I suppose.
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I’d chalk up those missing “2 seconds per kilometre” to your stopping and getting the paramedics for that lady. And two minutes taken off of a previous PR? Amazing! Great stuff, Andrew. You sure seem to be running lots of races. I’m realizing that it’s Fall in your neck of the woods, and that probably means there are lots to run. Congratulations to your wife as well – a sub-30 minute 5k is a very nice time indeed.
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Congrats on the progress. The sub-50 minute 10k will come soon enough!
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Sounds like you both had a great run and I am glad that you were able to run in it. Another PR for you has to be a great feeling. So what’s next? Keep up the great runs dude.
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You are so inspirational!! I am a beginner at running and love reading on how people progress and meet their challenges! Well done on the progress!
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Congrats on a new PR! Way to go!
Scary about the lady collapsing…..hope she is okay.
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