The second race in the RunWalk series was held on Sunday and it was the 5k event. This was at Alexandra Park which is home to Auckland's harness racing.
Official Stats:
Distance: 5 km
Time: 0:39:21
Pace: 07:52 min/km
Pre-Race
I made pasta salad with avocado, surimi with seafood sauce, lime juice and a bit of paprika and cayenne. It was really good but I forgot to take a picture of it, oh well I'll just have to make it again :)It was raining when we woke up and we weren't sure what the weather was going to do. Kane opted for shorts, long sleeved Helly Hanson t-shirt and the supplied race t-shirt whereas I decided on tights, short sleeved t-shirt and a rain jacket.
The event time had changed to be an hour earlier and we arrived about 15 minutes before hand so we weren't waiting around in the cold for too long.
On The Course
0 - 1km
The first kilometre took us along the grass and then across the horse track and out of the park, then we turned and headed through the back car park and then out onto the street.
1 - 3km
We were out onto the quiet streets and I was trotting along a slow but steady speed. My graph shows that I picked up a bit of speed before the 2.5k mark and I can't recall speeding up but I think it was a downhill and I just tried to keep very steady. At around the 3k mark there was an uphill and I had to walk a few steps but also there was an amazingly bright, perfectly formed rainbow and I felt really happy to see such a sight.
3 - 5km
Between 3 and 4km was where I got cramp last year and this year I felt a tightness and freaked a little but thankfully it didn't come to anything. Maybe it was just my mind placing tricks on me, but I've been stretching like crazy since this race! I was happy when I saw that I had finished the loop and was on the last kilometre but it ended up really dragging. Once we had ran back through the carpark we were onto the horse track again and this time we ran around it to the finish. Again, my "sprint" finish could use a little work haha.
Comparison with Last Year
| 2015 | 2014 |
| 0:39:21 | 0:36:26 |
That is a bummer that your time was slower this year but since everyone's time was slower that definitely goes to show that it was the course and not you! I think it's cool that you have these sequence of races that build to higher kilometers!!