Ashburton 10 Miler
Posted under: What a cool race the annual Easter Ashburton 10miler is!
Having come off a good solid few weeks of training after racing and getting third at the Christchurch City 2 Surf, I headed down to Ashburton to run, for my first time, the Ashburton 10miler. The weather was perfect, with slight gusts of wind coming off the Southern Alps.
Having completed 4 X 2km earlier in the week, and finishing the last rep off in 6:01, I knew I was in great shape, and ‘should’ be able to handle what ever pace the competition threw at me. How it turned out, and doing what Mark Bailey did to me at the City 2 Surf, I went out hard from the gun. I went through the first mile in under 5min and laughed to myself as I already had a 30m lead and was coasting…
The course was a neat 2 x 5mile loop course, with a technical windy road out, and a long straight road back. Through the windy sections on both laps, I found it hard to get into a good smooth rhythm, as I had to adjust my pace as I zoomed around corners. But, I managed open up along the straights and comfortably run some very quick min/ks.
Overall, I had a great run, averaging 3:21s for the race, and winning by 3mins. I text my coach after with the feedback, “I won, solid tempo!” And for me, I think that’s a fair statement and a very encouraging one. Averaging 3:21s and feeling easy, obviously indicates I’m capable of running a heck of a lot faster…
My next race is the New Balance 15km, where my coach, Don Greig’s indicated he’d like me to have a ‘good blowout’ to see what true shape I’m in leading into the Christchurch Marathon in June. Now I have proved I can tempo 10mile at 3:21s, I am pretty excited to see how fast I’ll go next!
RUN BIG!
