After the race yesterday I had a long soak in a bath with Radox in then my lovely husband gave me a great massage. I wore compression tights to bed and also to work under my trousers. All this must have contributed to a good recovery because I felt better walking today than I did in many of my sessions last week. My calves are feeling a bit tight but overall I'm in good shape. I didn't use my Garmin today but it was good to get out on such a lovely day.
Sunday 26 March - Round the Bays Half Marathon
My workplace is across the road from the start line for the event and I was able to park in the basement there. I dropped off my bag did a short warm up then went down to the start line. This event had sold out and I didn't want to be stuck at the back unable to walk properly when the race started. I stood in the front row and by the time they announced that walkers should start behind the runners there wasn't enough time to move back even if I wanted to. It was a perfect day - fine with no wind to speak of!
I did get a little jostled at the start but it was insignificant. I settled into a steady rhythm, not feeling too much fatigue from the race the previous day. It occurred to me that starting in front of the other walkers meant I could not be sure that finishing first would give me first place - someone could finish behind me with a faster net time since we were wearing transponders.
After about 4 km I was passed by John. I remembered catching him at around the 14 km mark last year so thought that might be possible again. It was good to have another walker to pace off and I managed to stay close to him for a few km. Hannah and her boyfriend Tom passed me not long after that.
I decided to take some gel every 5 km but inadvertently turned off my Garmin when reaching into the pocket of my backpack. I didn't notice that the watch was off for 600 - 800 m. The turn around in this event is just before the 14 km mark. It is motivating to know there is only 7 km left to go once you get there. I saw Hannah and Tom not long before I passed the turn and noticed that John was not far in front of me. I started my ordinary stop watch at the turn around to gauge how far behind me the next walkers were. I estimated that to be at least 3 min and then saw that John was walking slowly in front of me and no longer race walking. I ask if he was okay when I passed him and offered him some gel but he said that 'the wheels had fallen off' but that he would be okay. Not long after that I caught up to Hannah who wanted some gel. I gave her what was remaining in my tube and slowed down so she could drink some water from my camelback. I then set off to pass as many of the slower runners as I could and to get to the end with an average pace of 6:45 min per km if possible. I finished strongly in 2:23:54, believing myself to be the first walker.
When I checked the website this morning only the results of the first 3 men and women runners were listed. There was no acknowledgement of the walking competitors. I was doubly disappointed when I checked the results in the paper and found that the results of the walkers were listed amongst the runners. I was not impressed with my 1247th placing (or whatever it was) and wrote an email of complaint to the organisers.
Tonight the results are up on the website and walkers have been separated but I am listed as finishing 9th with the winning time being 1:45:49. I will write another letter of complaint but I suspect it will be ignored just as last year. There is no effort in this event to keep walkers and runners separated and I can feel a letter to the editor of the newspaper coming on.
Saturday 25 February - Wellington Championship 3 km
I had tennis in the morning a half marathon the following day and a 20 km race the following so I had decided at the outset that I was going for a respectable time but not a personal best. I got to the track before 1 pm, thinking there was plenty of time to prepare for the race only to be told the start time was 1:30 and not 1:50 as I had assumed. Fortunately there was time for a reasonable warm up and I was pretty relaxed for the start. I was sorry to learn that Robyn could not get away from work so would not be at the race today. We were given formal places on the start line which was when I found out that I was the only female in the open event. Natasha had entered as a junior and the other women had entered as masters. I find the combining of open and masters events very confusing. I understand it is better not to ask officials to hold two events both of which have low entries but it does seem unreasonable to ask competitors to choose one or other event to enter. I don't see why the junior or masters athletes could not also achieve a placing in the open event as well as their own event. Natasha led from the start followed by Chris then Fraser. This is the first time I have seen Fraser go out hard from the outset and it was great to see. I tucked in behind Kevin at the start and was happy to see the first 200m come up in 1:06. I decided to pass Kevin along the back straight and concentrated on a relaxed style with plenty of push off the toes. In around the 3rd lap I noticed my sisters had arrived to watch. I received a warning for knees from Peter at around this time but there were no cards up for me. David seemed to be looking at me particularly closely but I just concentrated on maintaining my technique and did not concern myself with what was happening around me.
I was under 6 min/km at the 2 km mark and finished the race in 18:07. The best news was that I received no cards at all! David mentioned that although he judged that my knees were straightening, this was not as obvious as it was for other competitors and required effort from judges to carefully look at my knees. Judges not used to making such effort may assume I was not straightening. Let's hope that I can make my technique more convincing yet.
Friday 24 February - 10 km walk with 2 x 5 min @ 10 km pace
I was very keen to walk today after two days without walking. It was still windy but at least it was manageable. The wind was behind me at the start and I needed to get the sprints in before turning to walk into the wind which was strong enough to almost stop me on the return. At the 7 km mark I headed into town to pick up my race pack and amble back to work. The fast efforts were at 1.5 km and 3.5 km. I was happy with this walk - enough to give me confidence that my body would perform okay over the weekend and not enough to wear me out.
Thursday 23 February
Even though I was still feeling stiff and sore I had every intention of doing the 15 km on my programme for today. Two things got in my way - I was really busy at work and the wind was so strong that I may have been in danger of being blown into the harbour. The wind won out in the end - it did not seem worth the effort of trying to race walk when you could barely stand up straight!
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