Zatopek B Race - 2nd in 32:28

Flew down to Melbourne at lunchtime and had a few client meetings in the afternoon - wandering around the city concerning myself with how warm it was.  Made my way out to Moonee Ponds at 6pm and caught up with Gill, Sophie and Jack, registered then did a warm up.  It was cooling a bit but I was still sweating on my 2km warm up.  Sun hid behind a cloud just as we lined up to start which was a relief.  Then we were off.

My aim was for 75/76 laps to get to 5000m in 15:45.  Went into the lead at 200m and first lap was 75, then 2:31 at 800m and 3:08 at 1km.  There was a bit of wind down the home straight so the first 200m of each lap was always a bit quicker than the 2nd.  At 1km I started to pull ahead of the field.  2km in 6:21.  3km in 9:32.  Then I started to struggle.  I was dropping to 79s laps and with no-one to run with was just feeling jaded in the conditions with no zip.  Then at 5km I can hear a chap catching me up.  WTF?  Where did he come from?  Sure enough he comes past at 6km, I stick with him for 600m before he sails ahead (he ended up negative splitting - 16:10 then 15:57).  Now, when I was a kid my brothers and I watched my Dad run one of his few track 10kms where he had a large lead for the entire race before he was hunted down and outsprinted in the home straight.  So with Alec, my elder brother, watching on tonight, the only thing I was thinking when this chap came last was thank God it was at 6km and not the final lap.  I would never have lived it down.  "You're just like Dad!" and how he would have laughed.

So then I plodded on, albeit slightly spurred on by having someone to chase.  But 10,000m on the track just grinds on and on - far less comfortable this time around than when racing Barts back in March at Homebush.  How I wished he was here now.  He would have hated these conditions more than me.  At one point I ran past a few girls who were sat lounging around on the high jump mat just inside the track and heard one of them say; "this thing goes on forever!". I almost said out loud; "you're not wrong pet, and you don't have to run it".  But eventually I get to 8km (26:01) - two sub 3's and I could still do this I chuckled to myself.  29:18 at 9km (the announcer had a loudspeaker calling out lap times but given everyone was so strung out it was a constant talking clock) and a token pick up of pace at the end to finish it off.

Massive thanks to my nephew (and Blog writer) Jack for calling all my lap times and general encouragement.  I could hear the disapproval in his voice when a couple of 80's crept in.  

Would I do it all again?  You betcha.

Proud Dad as Billy made School Prefect today: