07 March 2017

Queensland 10,000m Championships 33;56 3rd

My mini taper consisted of two 10km days on Thursday and Friday, so my weekly total just hit 100km for the week.
Saturday morning was spent at Sandgate parkrun where Mike Trees ran his 100th parkrun.
Its taken him 10 years to get to 100. He has run the quickest time by any M50 with a 15;44 at the original home of parkrun, Bushy Park in West London.
Having undergone an operation to remove the shattered remains of a burst disc from his vertebrae  in November ,he has concentrated on recuperation by swimming up to 35km a week . He has run a maximum of 20km a week mainly doing drill work. Working on form and stride length up a short (50m) hill with core work between reps. A fortnight ago he managed a 22;10 but Saturday he really pulled the proverbial cat out of the bag by running a 18;02 ! It goes without saying conditions were horribly humid
A fabulous recovery that has sparked the possibility of him running at World Masters Games in Auckland in April. He was always going to swim the 5km Open water swim but now he is considering racing the 5000m and 1500m on the track.
The Queensland State open 10000m Championship was an 8;00pm start. Conditions were 28 C and 88% humidity with initially windy conditions calming down as we ran.
I ran the race with the hope of running a sub 34 and getting an Open medal.
The race doubled as the Masters Champs as well. Aidan Hobbs, Patrick Nispel and Matt Macdonald pulled away from me immediately from the gun. I had some company briefly but sickness contributed to Osman Saleh's demise and he dropped out. Unbeknownst to me Matt Macdonald had also dropped out and so I was running in the Bronze position. I really just hung in there for most of the race, trying to find a pace that I was comfortable with, the conditions being what they were. Aidan lapped me with 4 to go but he wasn't absolutely flying past me and as I hit the bell Patrick lapped me and I had to run an 80 second last lap for sub 34 minutes so I knew I'd achieve one goal. At the finish I was told I was 3rd so both goals done. 4th was Wayne Spies who won the overall Marathon at World Masters in Perth (about 2;35) about a minute behind me. Happy to mark down a 33;56 for 2017, it was tough going.
Mike took a heap of photos of me.
Check them out here https://goo.gl/photos/fz3t2q5oUz2x22fx8


































2 comments:

TokyoRacer said...

Fabulous time in those conditions. Congrats!

What's new from Glasgow said...

It wasn't world news headlines . It wasn't even front page nor did it make a splash on social media . Just a few lines in a obscure local newspaper . " GL accepts patron's role with BERT squad ." It meant nothing to me when I first saw it . The GL is patron of numerous clubs and causes giving of his name and time graciously to support causes close to his heart . His most recent sponsorship being that of the Pendragons park running club that he's taken from obscurity to world domination . So why should I have been surprised then to see the BERT squad triumphant at the recent Twilight Running Festival ? BERT ( British expatriates ruling triumphantly ) is a phenomena that's been sweeping the local running scene recently . They've promised much in the past but now that the Garmin Lama has accepted honorary patronship it seems to have unleashed a veritable tsunami of success within its ranks highlighted by this latest triumph . It comes as little surprise that the affable Scotsman would not want to be associated with such a gathering of his luminary kinsmen . A quick glance of the club's membership sees names such as rising stars Peter Bracken , Ian Cameron and Peter Run ( the quintessential Englishmen abroad ) highlighting the potential both latent and real within the slumbering giants' ranks . One thing is for certain , that now with the GL promising to give all members of the BERT squad a copy of his inspirational The Mr. Garmin Story there's no guessing where this running phenomenon will go and to what heights it will scale . While some have questioned the overtly male orientation of the BERTY BOYS , as they are colloquially known , that criticism was put to rest when Lusty Lucy accepted to become the club's official pinup and mascot proving they aren't just a group of Nancy boys .