Sir Barry Curtis Classic 10k

Sunday 15/10/06: - A good day at the office!

First thing I noticed when I got out of bed this morning - the wind had finally stopped! YAY! I had some cereal for breakfast and the standard cup of coffee - I drink coffee in the morning every other day of the week, so don't treat race day any different in that respect - besides I'd hate to have caffine withdrawl half way thru! Had some Replace too tho! Plan was to leave my car at the finish and get a ride to the start with Courtney and her Dad, on their way out for the day. But in the end, Courtney was so keen on seeing me run and being at the finish, that we didn't bother taking my car! They dropped me as close to the start as possible, but I still had a 1.5km hike (uphill) as the start area is part of a reserve and golf course and was temporarily closed off to traffic. Still it was a good warmup - but I only arrived at the start area with about 5mins till the gun! Before I even had time to feel nervous, they were starting the countdown! However I did have time to get a peak at Hamish Carter (NZ Olympic triathlete) who was running, as well as Dale Warrander - the course record holder and todays favourite. Sir Barry Curtis is the mayor of Manukau City (the largest of 5 "cities" that make up Auckland) in which I live, and he started the race bang on 9.30am.

The first 1km was flat and then downhill, thru the golf course. With over 1000 participants it was very crowded on the narrow road! Once we hit the bottom it was onto the streets and after a couple of quick turns, we were running along the beach front. I'd missed the 1km marker, but saw the 2km one and when I checked my watch I saw it click over to 8mins! This was quite a bit faster than I'd planned to go out, but I felt OK! There was a bit of wind on the beachfront, but it wasn't too bad and by now the field was starting to spread out a bit more. Here I also came across my support crew, a real surprise as I thought they were heading straight to the finish! I had given Courtney my digital camera (shes snap-happy like me!) and as you can see I spotted her with the camera (I'm such a poser - was still feeling OK at that point obviously!) Just after this, we hit a big hill. I wanted to run it strongly, so I really focused on it and did, but by the top I was gasping for breath and knew I'd slowed down. Thankfully it was flat for a while after that and I recovered (to a point!) fairly quickly. I knew this long, straight road pretty well and went thru 5km in just over 21mins. At this point I told myself that if I wanted a PB I needed to pick it up again! That seemed to work - I was running in a bit of bunch and while it would have been more comfortable to stay put, I decided to go round them. I'd ignored the 4km drink station, but at 7km I grabbed a cup of water, took one mouthful, threw some over my face and kept going! Soon I'd turned into the last long road that lead to the running club and again hit a bit of a head wind. I had attached myself to a group of 3 men, but when we hit the 9km marker I picked up the pace and went around them! I checked my watch one more time, I wanted a PB badly and was not gonna die wondering if I could have done better. I entered the driveway of the club, giving it all I had. I then discovered we had to do a loop of the 400m grass track before we hit the finish line - opps! But I told myself to dig deep and just kept going as fast as I could. I saw Courtney and her Dad on the sidelines, then crossed the finish line in 41.33mins, a PB by 35secs!

This time I was satisfied that I had run as well as I could have, I really gave it my all. In saying that - I am already thinking ahead to getting this PB down even more! With some proper speed work - when I am not HM training and working on endurance - I would like to see what I could achieve. But for now I am feeling satisfied and pleased. It was such a well organised event and I will definately do it again. There was lots of Powerade and even protein bars to go round at the end. We stuck around for the prizegiving as there were some very major spot prizes up for grabs, including a trip for two to the Gold Coast, Panasonic TVs, DVDs and microwaves and lots of Asics gear including $200 shoe vouchers! Unfortunately I was not one of the lucky ones, but it was great to see the place-getters be awarded their tropheys and prize money. Evidently I was the 15th women home and the 11th in the open womens category. By this time next year I will be old enough to enter the "Masters" (I don't know if this is a good thing or bad!) so I was eager to hear their times. Turns out I would have placed 3rd in the womens masters category! And if my memory serves me correctly, I think I was 93rd home overall... Can't recall the times of the first man and woman home now, but neither of them beat the course record, evidently due to the wind - but I didn't feel this was a huge factor today - not after the other night at least! Anyway, all of the official results will be up on the website later. We were very lucky with the weather, by this afternoon it was raining and the wind was gusty again! Apart from my calves feeling a bit tight by this afternoon, I otherwise feel OK and it will be business as usual tomorrow - with the plan calling for a 35min jog.