It's hard to know where to start with the ACT Masters' 5000m Championships, held last Thursday evening in Woden. Coming into the race I knew my form was good, having run the 25:47 parkrun in December and 14:57 for 3000m in March. My goal was to improve on my last 5000m track race, 26:04.67 in 2021 and be under 26 minutes. I reallly didn't think I'd be close to 25 minutes. How did that happen?
We nineteen starters were blessed with good weather conditions, a light breeze (tailwind in the home straight), a temperature of 13 degrees and low humidity. I knew the form of my competitors and thought Jacki, Dale and Gordon were good for a 26-minute 5k. At 7:15 PM the starter's gun fired and we were off. I settled in behind Jacki, with Geoff, Dale, Gordon and Robbie up ahead. After two laps I passed Jacki into the 15 metre gap to Geoff. The clock at 1k read 4:57 and I was feeling okay, but thinking maybe the pace was too quick.
During the next five laps I concentrated on not letting the distance to Geoff grow larger and was surprised when he began slowing (due to a pre-race calf injury). My time at 3k was 14:59 and I thought 'that's quick, can I keep it going?' I passed Geoff and spent the next three laps closing the 25 metre gap to Gordon. I sensed my pace was slowing down (the 4th kilometre took 5:11), but Gordon was slowing more. I was excited that a finishing time close to 25 minutes was happening. I just had to maintain the pace. I passed Gordon and ran the final two laps as fast as possible, finishing in 12th place with a time of 25:07.60. 'Wow, that's good!' was my immediate thought on crossing the finish line. When I got home I checked my previous 5k results; the last time I ran faster than this was in July 2019, 24:51 for the Runners Shop 5k. I'm excited for the rest of 2023.
The winner of the race was M40 Jeff van Gangelen in a fantastic 16:49 ahead of M50 Steve Rohan-Jones in 17:30 and M45 Grant McKay in 18:39. The first lady was W55 Ann in 23:27 from W55 Jacki in 26:00. Dale ran 24:40, Mark 24:46, Robbie 24:46, Gordon 25:22 and Geoff 28:56. There was also an Australian Record for W80s run by the amazing Caroline Campbell, 28:52 to break Norma Wallett's equally amazing time of 31:11.58.
7 comments:
Terrific! Congratulations.
Thanks Bob. Hope you're doing well.
Excellent. That augurs well for the coming year. And a great run by Caroline Campbell.
Thanks Canute. Good to hear from you. Well into autumn here, great running weather!
Be excited Ewen. Well Done. All the best for in your future runs. Nev
A very fast finishing time, congrats!
Long time that I don't enter a 5 km on a track. The last time was in 1996.
Thanks Nev, good to hear from you.
Thanks Stefano, that's too long between drinks! The track is fun, we're lucky to have it with the ACT Masters.
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