THE RUNNING MACHINE!I had to work the night shift before the race, doing my heavy manual job, getting just an hour in bed before having to get up.But I decided nothing was going to get in my way to breaking 23 mins in the good Friday 4 mile races.
My wife Niz was running the Fun run at 10 am and it was great to see her getting back into running again, next was the womens race with the mens at 11.15 am, The weather was not bad, light winds and the threatening dark clouds held onto their load!
I was getting nervous now, finally it was time for me to line up, 3-2-1- GO!
Everyone charged off, I felt like I was sprinting hard from the start, yet team mates around me were pulling away! I felt like I was sprinting hard after 1 mile, 2 miles, 3 miles, this was the longest sprint of my life! My body was crying out at me to slow down but I just forced harder, this was not comfortable, it was pure purgatory!
Slowly I pulled back runners who had gone off to fast, by Mile one I was starting to feel slightly better as my body warmed up, getting into a strong rhythm. I counted at least 30 turns on the course most of them sharp corners that mean rapid changes of pace and add to the intensity of the effort!
By 3 miles team mate Peter Roome had caught me up, I ran with him until the last 400 m when he started to pull away , by now my legs were swimming in lactic acid and there was absolutely no way I could accelerate ! Not once did I look at my watch, not until the end when I saw 22.44 on the clock, I did it!
With little in the way of anaerobic training this had felt incredibly quick and painful , had it been later in the day I'm sure I'd have felt a whole lot better but I reached my target and things are looking good for the marathon! I have to be very happy with the result!
Conclusion; 4 mile races are not about pacing yourself, their about how much pain you can handle, then pushing harder! Their about pushing your mental strength to the next level!
AGE ADJUSTED TIMES FOR 4 MILE RACE
Year Age Actual Time Age-Adjusted Time
2002 41 22.16 21.21
2003 42 23.20 22.13
2006 45 23.36 21.59
2007 46 23.06 21.21
2008 47 23.04 21.10
2009 48 22.44 20.42
RESULTS
4 comments:
Congratulations! It's very impressive how you age-adjusted time has decreased rapidly since 2003.
Thanks Thomas, by the way believe in yourself and your sub 3 hour dream will come true... your ready for sure!
Congratulations! I wish I had a little speed in my legs, too. :)
Very impressive race Rick. You're in good shape for London.
Funny about how it felt like you were sprinting the whole way - perhaps it felt like that because of not much anaerobic training - but great that you could keep the sprint going.
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