Sunday, 16 February 2014

Central Lancashire 5k - My 50th Race!

Today’s race, the Central Lancashire 5k at Leverhulme Park in Bolton, marks my 50th ever race!  This, coupled with the fact that my race number was 88 and 8 is one of my two lucky numbers (the other one being 11 which times by 8 = 88!), put me in good spirits and a positive mindset at the start of the race.

Despite never having run well at Leverhulme in the past, I didn't do too badly today.  Throughout the race I felt like it wasn't going well, especially when I got to the hill where I just lost all energy - strange as it is nothing like as steep or as long a hill as I'm used to in training but for some reason it just completely floored me - and was overtaken by people who are usually behind me.  I did manage to get back past them towards the end of the race and, as I crossed the line after my sprint finish, I thought I was going to throw up.  I felt really bad about my performance until I saw my watch and realised that I was only a couple of seconds off my 5k PB which I attained on a much easier, flatter course.  Looking at my Garmin stats later on, I realised that I had, yet again, done my first mile too quickly, which probably explains why I had lost energy on the hill.  The pace of my second mile was 1m 20s slower than my first mile!!!  



I really want to do a flat 5k now just to see what kind of time I could get (I don't often do road races as I don't like them but I'm feeling intrigued) as I'm sure I could thrash my PB going off my pace in my first and third miles.  
After the race I decided to run home as I wouldn’t otherwise get a decent length run in this weekend.  I thought home was seven miles away but it turned out to be over eight and was the longest eight miles ever as I was totally cream crackered by this point.  It's mostly uphill too and was more of a shuffle than a run by the time I got to Chorley Old Road where I finally got to head downhill for a bit. 
Race distance - 3.03 miles (+ warm up)
Run home distance - 8.15 miles
Day's total distance - approx 12 miles
Week's total distance - 35.4 miles

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