Race Report - Halewood 5K

So near, yet so far...

Thought I would give the other weekly 5K in Liverpool a go this week. Instead of parkrun's 'undulating' course, the Halewood 5K offers a flat out-and-back course along the old Liverpool Loop Line. It starts at the civilised time of 1pm, although I found that it made choosing when to eat Saturday Morning a challenge.

But loaded up on Fruit and Waffle from Perkrun, I travelled over to the start line. The event, although bijou is well run, marshalled and a great supportive crowd. I loved the idea of a lead and trailing bike, made it feel a bit like a big city race. A couple of fellow Striders were there and I managed to get in a full warm-up feeling prepared at the start line.

For the off I felt good, I knew what "5K" pace should feel like (Threshold plus a bit) and locked in on that feeling. We wound our way around a bit of a forest path before joining the Loop Line. Acutally, there was a bit of severe downward slope which took me by surprise. I'd managed to find a different path on my warmup. In the damp, slippy conditions I was slightly ginger in my descent but was soon off again.

The main part of the race is flat and almost straight as an arrow. Repeating my mantra to myself "Relax and Controooool" and making sure I was relaxed I attcked the race as I thought I should. I past a coule of runners and tried to make sure that I kept focused on the race. I thought about the ever-so-slight incline we were running up thinking "this will be downhill on the way back, more in the bag for me". I was looking down ahead of me to see if I could see the lead bike turning round.

Eventually I saw the turning point and mentally prepared myself for the turn. I knew this was going to be a pinch point for me. I struggle when passing people. It happens in Parkrun, one of the reasons I loved Bushy so much as its a one lap course. Seeing people looking tired makes me feel tired. Maybe thats a sign of the mental work I need to do.

I found the second half of race much harder than the first half. The head wind which had been keeping me cool had now disappeared. A fellow Strider was in front on me and I knew he was gunning for a 19:30ish time. If I just kept him in sight I was be there. But then, all of a sudden he pulled up clutching his hamstring. I went past shouting to make sure he was okay. The next runner was about 100m further on and suddenly I had nothing to work off. I realise I probably tried to increase speed a bit, or took my eye off the ball.

I started to tired, and it was made worse but being slightly disorenitated as to where I was in hte race. If I had looked at my Garmin I would have known, but in hte heat of hte moment I didn't want to panic by looking at the watch. The chain raction started in my head and I pulled up in a fog of confusion. I counted the seconds before I got going again - 15. The guy who had been behind me took me along with him, but my head was shot by stopping.

We came to a fork in the road and I regained some sense about me thinknig about how far there was to go. Just another bridge and about 1200m and I'd be home. I steadied myself of the final push and off I went. Although all of a sudden I could see the flags of the finish line. I was only about 400m from the end. I hadn't looked at my watch and completely misjudged the distance.Gutted.

I cross the line with as much energy as I could muster and looked at my watch.

 20:15

That will be the 15 seconds I was stopped for. Haven't got the official time yet and it's still a 6 second PB.

But you learn these things the hard way.

My brain was an interesting place during the warm-down.