Cairns Sportsfest 5km

Yesterday I lined up for my third competitive race in 3 weeks. It was the Sportsfest 5km Fun Run on the Cairns Esplanade. This run is part of the festivities held all weekend on the Esplanade and is topped off today with the Coral Coast Triathlon. I was hoping for a good time because the course is very flat and is paved and boarded (love running on wooden boards) the whole way. There was about 100 people competing in the 5km run (the other is the 2.5km) and this is the first race I've competed in where they were use timing chips. We assembled at the start line and someone must have got over excited and fired the gun early - I was still at the very back and tightening my shoelace and everyone was caught unaware. I was behind a wall of runners for the first 100m but eventually got clear and out into the open on the footpath. I had no idea how I wanted to pace this run so just went with the Hail Mary method of go out hard and hold on for dear life at the end. I also promised myself I would not look at my watch at any stage during the run. I was feeling pretty confident for the first half of the run as I overtook lots of runners and got to the half way point in what I felt was a good time. The moment I turned around to come back (its an out and back course) I was hit with an almighty headwind off the ocean. Straight away I had that awful feeling that it wasn't going to be a good run and knew I would stew on this for a week just as I had about the fiasco of the Pyramid Race. I used to have a real problem with running hills but I think I've somehow got over that, my problem now is running into headwinds. I felt like I was going nowhere and every stride was an effort and zapped me of all my energy and strength. About 100m after the turnaround point, I was overtaken by a runner. This wasn't a good sign and it was becoming like deja-vu from last weekend on the run down the Pyramid. I'm happy to say that was the only runner who passed me the entire race (in the end he only beat me by about 40metres) and on the back 2.5km I even caught a few runners. My final watch time was 21.25 but I'm hoping my official chip time will be a few seconds faster as I didn't get over the timing mat until after I started my watch. I heard a couple of the faster runners discussing what a mean headwind we ran into and how disappointed they were with their times. This made me feel a little better and fairly content with my time (my PB stands at 20.38).

I've had a fairly big wake up call in the last 2 weeks and realise its time to get a little more serious with the training and get some structure in it as well. I was going to run the Melbourne Half-Marathon in October but for some reason plane flights to Melbourne at that time are ridiculously over-priced. I'm now going to set my sights on the Sydney Half in 4 weeks (confirmation to come in the next few days pending time-off from work approval).