Sri Chinmoy 10km race in Sumner

On Sunday I got up at 6:40am to have breakfast and get ready for the race. We drove to Sumner which is a nice beach here in Christchurch and where the race was held. I got my number and watched some surfers who were crazy enough to go out into the water at 8:15 in the morning. Soon it was time to get changed and do my warm-up, even though I never warm up for long. I decided to run in shorts and a light jacket and went to the start. The kids (2,5km), the 5km and the 10km race started together, so there were 181 runners in total. The "gun" went off and I started running, trying not to go too fast from the start. The kids were kind of annoying as they were all over the place, running from the left side to the right, but fortunately I left quite a few of them behind :). We had to run a 2,5km loop along the ocean, so I had to do 4 laps.

The first lap went ok, I passed a few people but still made sure I didn't go too fast. It was really hard to figure out the right pace as there were no kilometer marks. When I got back near the finish line, I started looking for my boyfriend who was taking photos. It was good to know he was there…
On the second lap I started suffering a little bit. I got a side stitch that went away again after about 4 minutes thanks to my breathing technique (I learned how to breathe a side stitch away :D sounds funny but it works). The second time I crossed the finish line, I logged 24 minutes, so I was quite happy about that – anything that's under 25min after half of the race is good. On the third lap I started passing some girls who were way in front of me at the start of the race but started to fall back because they started out too fast. When I got to the next girl and was about to pass her, she sped up. I was like, ooookay, that was weird and stayed behind her. She got slower again and I once again wanted to pass her but she sped up again. I didn't want to play games and wear myself out, so I just stayed behind her and let another girl try to pass her…

This 10km race was definitely harder than the first one I did, but of course I kept going. It wasn't like I was all out, I just felt like I can't go much faster even if I wanted to. The view was way more beautiful though, I saw the ocean, a few surfers and the mountains covered with snow. When I crossed the finish line for the third time, knowing that this was my last lap, it gave me a bit more energy. I was running with the same two girls for the last 3 or 4km so my goal was to pass them of course :). On the last kilometer we even caught another girl who was in front of us and when it was about 400m to the finish, one of the girls started going faster. I went faster as well, suddenly running in the front of all of them. I looked back and saw them all running fast and just thought "I don't know if I can run that fast until I get to the finish", but I tried anyway. We went around the turn, 150m to go and I sped up even more, but when I looked back I saw that the other girls couldn't follow me. I finished in a time of exactly 48 minutes and got 7th out of 61 women and 24th out of 104 in total (male and female). I was so proud of my finish that this was all I talked about after the race :). After all, the interval training and sprints payed out. I thought I got 9th though, but when I saw the results I knew better :). My average heart rate during the race was 180, so that's pretty high… I also have a new max. heart rate of 191. After I had something to drink I quickly got changed as it wasn't too warm (about 6 degrees) and went to get my post race breakfast :). We watched the prize giving, we went home, I took a hot shower and lay around on the couch for a while, after all it was quite a hard race. In the afternoon we went to the mall where I looked for a new running jacket but couldn't find one.







The race was so much fun that I would like to run the next one in a week or so, but unfortunately there are no races near where I live for another 2 months. Plus I have 3 weeks off and then start with my preparation phase, so I'll see how that goes and if I'll enter another 10km race in September or October (it's just sooo addictive :).

I really don't look forward to those three weeks off. Well, it's not like I won't train at all, but still...
This week I'm planning on training about 6 hours - no more. I really hope I can stick to it because my body could really use some rest.