Today, Sunday, I went with my family to run the 1.5 K Olympic family marathon at Nagai Park Stadium. This event was put on by the government to promote the Tokyo 2016 Olympic bid and attended mostly by families and about 10 famous Japanese Olympians, past and present.
I had not intended to run the 5K just the 1.5K with my boys but when we finished I was told "the 5K race starts in 10mins" and "you can join it if you like". Well I liked and 15 minutes later I'm running out front alone thinking "I must look like a bit of a show off racing a fun run." Still I'm nothing if not competitive so I just kept on running through for the win and a PB of 17:08. While I'm not too happy about winning against fast high schoolers and various codgers I am happy to of PBed in the heat especially cause I did a 26K long run only hours before and was no way prepared to run this race.
Back to the training!
Steve's right - you are a sneaky bastard! Well under his PB, and you just rock up, race, and win, without even thinking about it.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, that's a great time - got to be worth 16-something freshened up. Well done (bastard)!
That's terrific, Scott. Congratulations. But what do you mean, "Not too happy to win against fast high schoolers"? Winning against high school runners is a great accomplishment.
ReplyDeleteSoooo...maybe we should all reflect on this. Maybe no preparation is a good racing strategy. No tapering, no carbo loading, no worrying about the race at all. Just show up and run like hell.
Of course, in Japan, where you have to enter races two months ahead, this is not so easy, but I guess you just put the race out of your mind, and then the day before, say, "Oh yeah, that race. Well, I might as well go....). This might even turn into an article for Runners World: New Race Strategy—No Strategy At All.
Thats great to get a p.b. straight after a long run!
ReplyDeleteI just about remember what a p.b. feels like!
Hi Scott, came upon your blog through Ewen. Well done on the PB - if you had a bit of competition you may have snuck under the 17 minute barrier. Still 17:08 is smoking.
ReplyDeleteDamn and beat my 5k PB as well by 5 seconds.
ReplyDeleteI think we need to know whether this was a certified course.
As for being embarassed by beating some high schoolers, I wouldn't be. If they are like high schoolers here they need a beating to put them in their place.
The mental preparation for this race has got to be the go for you in Townsville.
Hmmmm, the distraction tactic. Well, can't dispute the outcome! Nice!
ReplyDeleteMental note: longer warm up for my next race (though I think 26 km might be too far for me).