New Zealand 10000 Championships

Over a year ago, I ran the AAA 10,000m at Watford.  After 25 laps of running around by myself and having the indignity of being lapped by most of the field (and a few of the field lapped me twice) I vowed to never do it again until I was capable of running a half decent time and of keeping up with at least one or two other athletes in the field.

I didn't stand firm with this - we weren't sure what time I was really capable of for a 10,000m, and we didn't know who the other athletes were likely to be entered or even if there would be more than the half dozen that do the UK champs, but the New Zealand National 10,000m Championships just seemed to fit in with our plans.  It was local to where we were staying and other members of the tour party were also entered.  We kind of expected the field to be quite small (as with most track 10ks) but as with the 3000m a few days ago we thought it would be a good time trial.

We weren't specifically aiming for the race though, so, like for the 3000m, I didn't taper down.  It still feels like the training is too important at this time of year to spend time tapering.  My days were swapped around between the 3000m and this race so that I had an easy day the day before, however other than that we did nothing different than what we would in a normal training week.  

I was lucky in that there were only 30 entrants in total (men and women) and as a result, the officials had decided prior to race day that the three championship races (including junior men also) would be started at the same time.  I wasn't expecting to be able to keep up with the men, but I hoped that having more people physically running on the track would help me to gauge my effort.

Before the race we had felt that if I had a good run and the conditions were good then I was capable of low 34mins.  If everything went really well, we thought I may even sneak under 34mins.  This meant running around 81-83 second laps.  However when we arrived the conditions weren't perfect with a noticeable wind down the back straight, however it was slightly better than it had been a few days prior and we just made a mental note and Chris told me not to worry if I was closer to 83s (34m30ish pace) bearing in mind the conditions.

As expected, at the start all the men steamed off into the distance and I was left in no-man's land between the men and women.  With memories of Stroud half marathon and other numerous races ringing through my mind, I was determined not to go steaming off myself.  In the past I used to have this crazy notion that if I was slightly quick in the first half, it was a good plan as I would 'store up' time and then when I inevitably slowed in the 2nd half (as I always did) I would be able to afford it.  This plan, needless to say, never worked (see past race reports!) and I just used to fall off the pace dramatically, and end up loads slower than my target  I didn't have the confidence in my strength and endurance that I would be able to maintain a constant pace to the finish, and that it was ok to be on target rather than ahead.

Anyway, so I go off trundling round by myself and try not to pay attention to anyone else.  My first lap was bang on 81 seconds and I felt ok.  Not amazing, but not bad either.  From there on in, I just really concentrated on keeping the pace constant.  Within a couple of K's I had started to lap the tail enders and by 4K I was starting to be lapped myself.  I didn't let it bother me and used the lapped runners to work off.  The wind was noticeable but not horrendous and my splits stayed really constant.  As I approached the half way point my confidence had started to grow as I hadn't yet had anything slower than an 81 and felt quite good.  A few of the men had fallen off the back end of the lead groups ahead of me, and I was starting to run them down which was also quite encouraging.

In the 2nd half, I found I was able to pick up the pace a little to high 80s laps.  I still felt ok and was playing all sorts of mind games in order to try and keep myself going.  For example, with 2k to go I imagined I was doing a session of 5*2k on the track and said to myself 'right, last rep!'  The laps actually seemed to tick by fairly quickly, and almost before I knew it I was approaching the bell.  Then it was just a case of giving whatever I had left on that last lap, and I just managed to sprint past another one of the men at the end.

My final time - 33:29.94.  I am pretty amazed and don't feel as though it has sunk in properly yet.  Part of me feels just relief at finally getting a time to show for my hard work rather than having to keep repeating to myself that things are going well with no hard evidence.  Finally the PB drought is over! 

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