Suze and I did some caching around the Botanic Gardens(found 3 out of 4 attempted) while Delanie went shopping...we then picked up Delanie and headed to my accommodation to check in...
once that was sorted we headed to the Event Hub at Patterson Reserve so I could hand over my signed participant waiver and pick up my race pack...
entry included a LED Lenser headlamp & Puma high vis shirt, both of which had to be worn; a 4 pack of Red Bull; another can of Red Bull (a summer edition, tropical fruit flavoured one); a BC Goodrich trucker cap as well as vouchers for discounts with the other sponsors...
we then headed back to the Queen Victoria Markets to do some shopping and have a late lunch...we also found one more cache...
they dropped me back at my accommodation at about 5 which left me some time to chillax and organise my gear for the run...
given the weather in the week leading up to the event, and even earlier in the day, conditions ended up being pretty good although it was a bit muggy...
I headed over to the Event Hub at about 7:45pm...it was like a big party with a big screen which showed live footage from around the world from 8pm...a warm up of sorts was underway when I got there with the music pumping out...
they moved the participants down to the start in waves from 8pm...the first (blue) wave included sponsor ambassadors etc. - Ellyse Perry and Anna Flanagan were amongst that group...I was in the next wave (orange)...it was about a 500m walk...there were 3473 registered participants for the sold out event...
I was surprised when Suze sent me a message to say it was on Fox which was pretty cool...
the event got underway and we made our way down the Toorak Rd on ramp onto the Monash Freeway heading toward Dandenong...we were running in the two right hand lanes with the other two lanes open to traffic once we were past the next on ramp from Burke Rd...the Toorak Rd on ramp and the other lanes were re-opened after the Catcher Cars started at 9:30pm...
it was quite congested early on and space didn't really open up until about 5k in...that was about when the first of the deceptive inclines got started and each one was quite long...I was conscious of trying to maintain a steady pace but those inclines got me each time...I've not run a race late at night before and you don't get the same feedback from your surroundings...I had to remind myself to look up and into the distance to see what was coming by the rear lights of my fellow runners...I was also making sure of where I was placing my feet...
it was pretty cool seeing the red lights and fluoro shirts bobbing along in a line ahead...
my first 5k was probably a touch quick but I was trying to get clear space...24:58...5-10k was when I realised it wasn't going to be as flat as I thought...26:20...10-15k, I tried to pick up the pace a little...25:58...15-20k, was hard again...26:52...also during this time I knew the Catcher Car was not far away, hitting 15k when I was just over 17k...
I made a concerted effort to push through to the end (5:07, 5:06, 4:42) and when the Catcher Car was on my tail (they had bike riders ahead of the car warning runners), I felt like I was sprinting madly until it caught me at 23.23k!
I then had to walk to the next aid station (just after 24k) to wait for the bus to take us back...the breeze started to pick up a little and there was some light rain although we were somewhat sheltered by an overpass so we started to cool down quickly...in the end it took just under an hour for the buses to arrive...they handed out space blankets on the bus which would have been better to have at the aid stations...
it took about 25mins to get back and I grabbed some food from the 7-Eleven to have after a shower and while I was watching the rest of the coverage...in the end I went to bed just after 2am with 2 runners still going!
some 89917 runners are listed as completing the event across the 34 locations...here's the locations with their respective start times:
- 2am Takashima, Japan
- 4am Santa Clarita, CA, USA
- 6am Guadalajara, Mexico & Lima, Peru
- 7am Niagara Falls, Canada & Sunrise, FL, USA
- 8am Brasilia, Brazil & Santiago, Chile
- 12pm Dublin, Ireland; Porto, Portugal & Cambridge, England
- 1pm Wien, Austria; Ypres, Belgium; Zadar, Croatia; Aarhus, Denmark; Rouen, France; Munchen, Germany; Milano, Italy; Breda, Netherlands; Stavanger, Norway; Poznan, Poland; Bratislava, Solvakia; Ljubljana, Slovenia; Pretoria, South Africa; Valencia, Spain; Kalmar-Oland, Sweden & Olten, Switzerland
- 2pm Kolomna-Moscow, Russia & Izmir, Turkey
- 3pm Kakheti, Georgia & Dubai, UAE
- 4:30pm Ahmedabad, India
- 7pm Yilan, Taiwan
- 9pm Melbourne, Australia
Italian Giorgio Calcatera, running in Milan, was the global winner with an amazing 88.44k...the global female winner was Kaori Yoshida running in Takashima with a mind blowing 65.71k....both new records...
Barry Keem was the Melbourne winner with 65.71k while Dominika Stelmach from Poland was the leading female with 55.25k...
my final result was:
- global - 9402nd out of 89773, 975th female; 69th F45
- Melbourne - 306th out of 2792; 40th female; 2nd F45
the stats:
start temp/humidity: 18.3/84% (apparent temp same)
finish temp/humidity: 18.7/79% (apparent temp same)
start time: 9:00pm
total distance: 23.23
total time: 2:00:05
avg pace: 5:10
total calories: 1680
avg HR: 153
recovery HR: 119/51
heartbeats per k: 791
yesterday I got up at 8am and went for a walk to find a cache before grabbing some breakfast...
I checked out at 10am and walked to the tram stop near Glenferrie Rd to ride into the city...I left my bag at Southern Cross Station so I could do some more caching (5 from 5)...
then it was the SkyBus to the airport and back in Canberra by 4:30pm...
I skipped street O but did take the boys for a night walk...
1 comment:
Well done. Interesting event! Not sure how the 'global winners' could be accurate as how do you compare different courses and different speeds of the catch cars, even if they're supposed to be doing the same speed. Depends on how good the drivers are at maintaining that speed too.
Post a Comment