This was a tough course – the terrain was quite hilly and the wind was significant on the day. The route called for 10.5K into the wind then 10.6K with the wind.
After chatting with Annelizabeth and Robbie-T, I headed out into the pouring rain. I didn’t know if 4:42/K on the hills was possible but I went out hard enough to enable. There would not be even pacing, the hills were uneven and unpredictable for me, as I had never ben to Marden previously.
Westbound (Big Headwind)
4:35, 4:37
The headwind was quite bothersome after a while. I had an idea of my splits but left the math for the turn.
Northbound (Headwind)
4:55, 4:43, 5:02, 4:40, 4:48, 4:42, 4:53, 4:45
I turned 10.5K in around 50:05, so 1:40:00 seemed possible if I could do 10.6K with the wind in 49:55. Beating 1:39:08 seemed optimistic, I did not know if I could pick up the pace with the wind nor what I had left after running into it for close to an hour.
North/South Turnaround
4:43
Some math told me I needed around 4:33-4:35 Ks on the way back. I had trouble getting them on any K that had an uphill, which was seemingly all of them.
Southbound (Tailwind)
4:46, 4:38, 4:41, 4:35, 4:41, 4:32, 4:48, 4:27
I had trouble getting feedback from my watch as it hard to read due to pouring rain. As well, many K markers had been a bit off. When I hit 1:35:00 elapsed on my watch, I knew I had approximately 800 to 1200 metres left and realized I needed to run a 4:00 K if I had it to PB.
So I gave it what I had but could only keep up the pace for about 3.5 minutes. There were 4 to 6 zigzags 25 metres apart as we took a back way I was unfamiliar with into the park. At around 1:38:30, I gave up somewhat and slowed a touch as I did not see or hear the finish and I was spent. 7 or 8 seconds later after one more turn on a dirt path, the finish was right in front of me and I sprinted to 1:38:52.3, the crowd had been resting their lungs behind the trees. A PB by 16.0 seconds.
Eastbound (Big Tailwind)
4:43, 4:10, 0:24.3 for last 0.0975K (4:09/K Pace)
1:38:52.3 (4:41/K) Gun Time
18/162
14/61 M
8/34 M 40+ (good day for old guys - 40+ men took first through third plus top Masters Finisher so I was bumped to 4th in the 40+ age group. But really I was 8th.)
Fan favourite Robbie-T took second place.
