October 1, 2016
As I have some spare time I’ll plug the ‘6inch’ trail marathon I’m running on December 18th this year. The only time I really get on the trails in a racing capacity. Much prefer the concrete myself but once in a while it’s good to mix it up. The race was a ‘fat ass’ (free entry and self supported) the first year I ran it in 2009 and it has grown from about 20 runners to a 350 sell out. Very popular and if you are ever in WA around the end of December I highly recommend it. ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com )
The atmosphere at the end of this race is particularly friendly as it’s mainly ultra-runners who tend to be a more ‘sociable’ animal than the normal marathon racers. Not that marathon racers aren’t social but in a different , more competitive, way. The ultra community really are just nice people who are more interested in you and your journey, not your time. I bet some of them haven’t even got Strava accounts…. a funny bunch.
Having a blog can sometimes come home and bite you. My mate Mark had read my first post of the day and knew a text inviting me for a ‘relaxing’ 10k would be too much for me to resist. He was right. Not sure what happened with the ‘relaxing’ part either as we finished with a sub 4:30min/k average. No worries it was nice to run my ‘old faithful’ of a 10k for the 146th time and the first time with company. The 10k run soon disappeared as we chatted about everything to do with running as we’re both training for the World Masters in Perth in November ( http://www.perth2016.com ) Mark has been unlucky over the last few tears with injuries and this has been compounded by his Wife finding the addiction that is Triathlon’s. Add in 3 Daughters including a set of young twins and Mark and Emma have their hands full. The planning involved in both adults getting their exercise fix and also spending enough family time with the girls will always be a challenge and one so many runners face. The one benefit of maturing with age, and trust me there isn’t many, is the kids are growing up and my three daughters are now at an age where Mum and Dad aren’t as important as they once were. Friends have started to become more important in their life. In one respective this is sad but , always being the optimist, I get more ‘Kev’ time which means more running.
That being said there really was no excuse to run today with a 10k race tomorrow but as I have always maintained I love to run and I can justify that this is not a ‘goal’ race and as such no need to be totally rested, and it’s only 10k, what can go wrong? A 10k needs to be respected. You can fake a 5k, normally run a half marathon at a reasonable pace and always give the marathon the respect it deserves. A 10k can come back and bite you if you go out too fast, normally around the 7-8k mark. When you run out of fuel and the tank is empty the last 2k can be testing. as with all races it is better to start slow and build into it. This is something I can never do. When the pistol goes it’s on and I always charge straight into the threshold zone. I’ll do the same thing tomorrow and wouldn’t really have it any other way….