It was another glorious morning for the annual W & G fun run from Stage 88. Hundreds of women and girls of all shapes, sizes and fitness levels gathered at Stage 88 in Commonwealth Park ready for the fun run. It was a great atmosphere and there were lots of familiar faces out there. I ran a 2km warm up before chatting happily to Gwen when I realised everyone was ready at the start waiting for "go". We wore timing chips but it took a while for me to pass the start line and then I was stuck in a huge crowd and had to run very wide to pass anybody. On hindsight I should have been further in the front so that I didn't have to try to pass prams, bunches of walkers and people spreading right across the path in front of me. I didn't really mind what time I achieved and it is supposed to be a "fun run" but it was a bit frustrating when I had trouble going round people well into the race as well.
As it happened it took 6:05mins for me to run the first km and that meant I had to spend the rest of the race trying to make up the lost time. A lot of the vets runners started near the front and did really well finishing in the top 20. It was much hotter for the run than what we have been used to lately and the fact that it didn't start until 9am meant that the overnight coolness had almost disappeared even at the start and the sun was shining brightly. It was a beautiful day if a little on the warm side for a race. The last hill to the finish felt rather tough. I was a bit disappointed with my time but I still managed to come 5th in my age group in spite of the slow time.
Distance of run: 5km
Time taken: 28:26Average pace per km: 5:36
Finish place: 127th (out of 680 finishers)
Finish place in age group: 5th (out of 21)
Total distance for day: 7km
Total distance for first taper week: 72km
Not bad Strewthie passing nearly all the field after starting on the back line!
ReplyDeleteNo chance of "passing nearly all the field" the way I was running speedycoach:(
DeleteBe bold and start up the front next time... like Annie Young!
ReplyDeleteI agree it was frustrating trying to get past the walkers that started as close as they could to the start line and the groups spread out on the path, i'll start up the front next time! Great time too, i'm working on getting under 30mins :)
ReplyDeleteAnother great run from you Ruth. It's all looking good for Canberra marathon #11. Unless one is prepared to sprint from the start, you have to accept that there will be traffic. I was close to the front but was quickly left behind and caught up in traffic once the gun went off!
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