Bushy Park 5k - 16 Feb 08 (New PB)

Message to me from Bushy Park: "Your position was 87th and your time was 0h:21m:07s"

Elmarie broke through the 30min mark today and completed the 5km in a brilliant time of 0h:29m:40s

I was a bit nervous going into the race today after being down with a cold all week and not able to get much training in, but I went for it anyways. I decided to try something different and pace it one kilometre at a time, and if my breathing became too difficult then I was just going to take it easy around the track and enjoy the run rather than push it.

I knew that in order to get anywhere near my best time I would need to stick within the 4min a km mark but as usual I pushed a little too fast on the 1st km, so I backed off and took it easy while keeping one eye on the watch at all times. Speeding up slightly when I needed to, and slowing down when the pace became too fast. One kilometre at a time...

It worked! By the time I hit halfway mark I knew I was heading for a decent time and felt no pressure to hurry up and pick up the pace. (Which is usually when I start feeling depressed and about to give up)

At one stage late in the run towards the 4km mark I remember having a chat with the runner next to me as I could see he was feeling the pressure and decided to offer some encouragement. (But I know that generally whenever I hand out encouragement like that it's usually because I probably need to hear it more than they do. :-p ) One of the things I remember saying was: "It's not a race, it's only time".

I remember saying this because for a few of the races I had done before I was very disheartened when other runners passed me after I had given my all and was about to collapse in a heap on the side of the track. I guess it was more to do with me coming to terms with the fact that the other runners were all running against their own times and I just needed to focus on my time, rather than think about it as a race.

It's not necessarily about who comes 1st, 2nd or 3rd. Although I know most of us would love to hit the number one spot one day and it’s certainly one good reason to keep on training and training and training...