AHM run

AHM army half marathon - Last Sunday

raced 3 races in a week, 2 before the ahm.. din think i could do well too.
coach had something planned for us. JJ and me:)

before he went to Beijing to watch the olympics, he actually emailed both of us regarding the race plan for us. He knew that I had 2 races before that and that was not able to use my full force to race.

he asked us to start very slow at 24min for first 5km...

i could remember i did a 23min for my first 5km in gold coast..my mistake was starting too fast in a marathon or half marathon.

as per said, we went off at an easy pace. but felt really too slow for me.. was running at 24min 39seconds for first 5km...

in my mind, something told me to keep and hold back the pace. The instructions was : run together.

it was a race strategy.
along the way i wanted to sped up but i realised no point speeding up. i held back again.

it was a great motivation to run with JJ because she is a top veteran runner of singapore and a very good pacer.
We had good company and we took turns to take water for each other. It was really comfortable. we were racing according to time and not for positions. I did not bother to chase anyone in front of me. they just fell back to me one by one.
but it was a totally different race for me because i felt so comfortable at the end.

nearing the last 1km of the race, i saw a veteran runner who was racing in JJ's category and i called to JJ to speed up, I told her to overtake the runner in front. She was having a little cramps and she asked me to pull the pace for her and that she will then follow up. I did as told and sped up, turning back to encourage her...
and in the end, she caught up and overtook that lady. JJ emerged as 2nd in her veteran category and i came in 5th in the woman's closed category.

although i was 6min faster than my previous timing and did a PB, but i was still 3mins off from target.

I knew that if I had sped up and increase the pace, i would be able to do 1 hr37mins.
but there are reasons why coach had wanted to me hold back.

2 races before AHM, then AHM then NIKE 10km race and then 70.3 half ironman and the KPE 10km race.
it was too much.
i have to lay off for more than a month without training.
no point.

anyway Vivian did really well! and JOe did his PB of 1hour 24min:) i promised to beat him in 2 years time:) ahhaa!

patience is the keyword:) i am only 23 years old...:)