2010 Victorian Country Championships

Medal Ceremony

Hello there eager readers,

It sure has been a while. Well, ive been busy taking over the world, one km at a time. Now im going to take you on a journey through time and space to a town they call Moe. I decided that what a perfect setting to put all my hard recent training into use. I had entered the 10,000m and knew anything short of a p.b would be a huge let down, and a big blow mentally. But that never happened and i ran well, without fuss, and without any real flashes of brilliance, and because of that, never really got myself into a racing mood, but did enough to squeeze out a p.b and also broke the 33 minute barrier for the first time in running 32:55, but even before the ink dries on that time, im already searching for ways to beat that time, and it will happen sooner rather than later. And next time, im sure ill make a better choice on footwear and decide against wearing spikes, as after about 4km my legs already started to feel the pinch and i did start to struggle on a bit. But overall, quite happy, and while i know it wont last for long, being the 3rd fastest 10,000m in the country for the year is something i can be proud of. Lets back up just a little bit:

So there we were, all 25 or so of us, awaiting the starters gun to fire, on what was a brilliant morning to be running in the country. Gun fires, and off we go. Straight to the front i go, leading Nic Van Raaphorst and Iseyas through the first lap in a little over 70 seconds, and with a gap of already 100m or so on the rest of the field. I continued to lead through 2 laps, then through the 1km mark in 3:10, with Iseyas right behind and with Nic not far back, settled in nicely in 3rd. Through 4 laps, Iseyas went to the front, and i just let him go, quite happy with my pace at this stage, and with Iseyas always going out too hard, i wasnt going to chase. Felt ok through 2km in 6:24, but already thought spikes were going to be a bad choice. My prep leading in was close to perfect, and with fresh legs, i had a little too much bounce in my stride wearing my light weight spikes, and at the same time putting extra pressure through my feet and heels. What had been a 30-40m gap opened up on Nic in 3rd began to shrink through 3km(9:42), and we were now within 10m of each other, with the gap continuing to close. Crossing the line through 4km(12:58), it was a feeling of approaching failure, still 15 laps to go, i had now been caught by Nic, and he was shaping up for a pass on me, and i was really starting to feel uncomfortable, in not just my feet, but also now my lower back, which has from time to time given me a few troubles since christmas. The

Nearly 4km in, Nic makes his move

sense of its still so far and i feel bad now, brings in the thoughts of just giving up and going home. But who the hell in their right mind would want to give up while running under 3:15 p/km. And shit, i was still going at p.b pace, yes, i was dropping off my goal pace, but it does seem sometimes my ambition gets ahead of my actual talent. Through 5km and the halfway point i ran 16:16, and still only 5-6 seconds behind Nic, but still far from happy. Then i began to develop a stitch in my right side, which for me, is quite unusual these days. Not that my diet of late has been good, definately played apart in me slightly falling apart. Per km, i was still leaking time, which wasnt part of the game plan, and i was still slowly sliping back from the first 2 runners. Hit 6km in 19:38, which just as a reference, 3 weeks back in a threshold run i ran a 6km of 19:14, which saw me go faster as i went. The race was not ment to unfold like this, lucky for me, the 3:22 for km number 6 was my slowest for the race and with 10 laps to go, i could almost see the light at the end of the tunnel, and for the next couple of km i did manage to stem the bleeding and find a bit of consistency, with me going through 7km in a new p.b of 22:59, my happiness was slowly creeping back, a 3:21 showed my legs were coming back to me a little bit. There was also a change for the lead of the race starting to happen, with Nic for the last couple of laps taking 2 seconds a lap out of Iseyas’ lead, and of the strength of his big loud cheersquad sweeped past Iseyas and into the leadThrough 8km i went in a p.b of 26:19 and on the back of another faster km of 3:20, a sub 33 was starting to look likely again, and with only 5 laps to run, it felt good knowing i was almost done. I was now over 150m behind the leader, but through 9km and yet another p.b time of 29:40, and a 3:21, finishing position didnt matter, but unless i ran 3:19 for the last km, i wasnt going to go home happy and the soul searching would then begin. I challenged myself to step up over the last km, and it worked, getting the bell for 1 lap to go my time was 31:38, and i knew only my worst lap of the race would prevent me from breaking 33:00. Well, i only just did it, running 77 seconds for the last lap to stop the clock in 32:55 in 3rd position and 3:00 ahead of 4th place. Nic was never challenged over the last 5 laps and won in 32:18 from Iseyas in 32:31. My goal for the race was splits of 16:10 and 16:30= 32:40, i wasnt far away, and definately a time ill run past in the coming months. Overall, January has been a great start to my year, a year that could shape as a defining year for my running. But ot come out and show improvement after such a good 2009 shows i just may be capable…

January to date:   5000m 15:49.2 (15:54.3), 10,000m 32:55.8 (33:20)

1st lap