Kurrawa - The End of 2011

At 3am on Kurrawa race day I was awake with a strong desire to not turn up. My best explanation is something that was haunting me for some time. I had images how this race was going to be and how it was going to feel ... some blissfully wonderful ... others sad. The thrill of victory and a wave of exhiliation on one hand and being alone with an anti-climax running through the finishing line and keeping on going leaving all my friends never to be seen again. So I am not always rational ... things get to me ...

Anyway, I set that all aside and made my way to the start ... in hindsight I guess my mind wasn't in the right place to run.

2 years ago I asked Clairie to run with me ... this was because I heard her say that she was the only Buddie not to win Kurrawa and I felt I could help her win. I felt it was important to her and so it became important to me. I don't often get to do something for my friends that has some meaning ... well some meaning in the way I see it ... hard to explain ...

We drove down together the night before, neither of us were talking ... not in a normal way. I get pre-race anxiety ... (well quite a confession, this post is turning out to be)

Here is Clarie is at the start line ... a quick hug ... she is coping a whole lot of friendly banter from our other team mates. I can only image how she was feeling ...



When the race started Clairie took off ... she dropped her competition and was going a full half minute per KM quicker.



The race was pretty much in the bag before I started. Around 15K I became concerned. Clarie's long time nagging hip injury was flaring and she was in a lot of pain. I waited at the 20k mark ... no Clairie ... first the woman she was just behind came through ... no Clairie ... 5 minutes went by ... perhaps 10 min ... I could see her sitting in a gutter, destraught ... I retraced the course and then looped around to see the field had spilt ... perhaps she might be ok ... so I better get myself to the changeover point in a hurry.



So how did my 170HR plan go? ... well ... avg was 162. Max at 181.

First 6 K the pace was around the 4:20 zone and HR moved up to 165... then I moved it out to 4:30 pace with HR dropping back to 160 ... more like 4:50 at half way and HR down to 156 ... but kicked in at 20k and ran the last 5 back around 4:30, finishing at not much over 4:00 min pace with the HR building to 180

It wasn't my best race ... but today, that didn't matter.

We had won.





I felt nautious afterwards and was affected by the sun. I needed time alone for most of the afternoon. I am proud, relieved and disappointed that it's over. My next goal is to revive the chase for the sub-3, which in a way isn't as important to me, mainly because it is such a self centred target.