Another Goal Achieved

About 6 weeks ago I did a post about cracking the 30 minute, 5km barrier (post is here).  This was a goal that I set for myself when my youngest was only 6 weeks old.  At the time I put a time frame on it of 6 months.  Considering that the same newborn is now 13 months old, I obviously missed my time frame but I kept working towards it and finally cracked it.  At the time of writing down that goal, I also penned that I'd do a 10km run in under 60 minutes.  Up until 2 weeks ago I still thought that that goal was a pipe dream that would take another 6 or so months to achieve.

The realisation that the 10km goal was achievable came after an 18km long run on a rather flat course.  Thanks to my running partner, Helen, I managed to knock out the first 10km in around 63 minutes.  It just happened to be the fasted 10km I'd ever done and I was pushing the pram.  The last 8km dropped off the pace a little and apart from about 1.5km I pushed the pram the entire way and finished a couple of minutes shy of 2hrs.

I posed a couple of questions on the Awesome Runners Facebook page about an achievable pace for my upcoming half.  Based on my 5km time my half pace "should" be 6:34 min/km but I held this for 18km pushing the pram.  I thought that 6:25 would be OK and asked for some opinions.  Boy was I surprised! It was suggested by a fellow pram runner that I could probably hold a sub 6:00 without the pram.  Never had I even contemplated going for that. 

Well obviously the Gold Coast Half Marathon is still a couple of weeks away so I haven't tested that pace theory on a flat course yet, however I did do a 14km run on Saturday without a pram and with a rather nasty hill in there.  The first couple of k's of the City2South were a little stop/start due to a couple of pinch points but with the nice view of the river and a change of scenery I managed to complete the first 5km in 30:12 and it felt nice and easy.  The field was starting to thin out a little so I was dodging a little less but was still surprised at the number of people I was passing.

Coming up to the 8km mark I tried out eating a chomp and washing it down and the drink station.  Let's just say that I've got a little more practice to get the drinking while running thing down pat.  I didn't choke, which is a plus, had a quick glance at my watch a realised that I may crack the 60 minute barrier for the 10km.  I passed the 9km marker at about 54 minutes so it was time to get those legs firing.  Turning the bend I spotted my run partner cantering along looking like she wasn't even working hard, then up ahead were a couple of girls that I started the run with and let them go ahead at the beginning as their pace felt too fast for me.  By the time I got to them there was about 30 seconds left to get under THAT barrier.  I hit Heidi on the back, told her she had 30 seconds to make it and left them behind. My official time for the 10km split was 59:46.  I had indeed held sub 6:00 for 10km and I hit my goal BEFORE time.

To be honest the next kilometer felt pretty average and after that the hill started.  Somewhere along there Helen almost sauntered past me.  Looks like practicing on those hills has paid off for her. Even with 2km of hill I somehow didn't go above a 7:00min/km average which I'm happy with.  But the best part about going uphill for 2km is that you get to come down them too! I even managed some time under 5:00min/km pace.  In the end I finished the 14km in 1:25:08 or an average pace of 6:04min/km.

Down hill run to the finish.

Only time will tell what the Gold Coast will bring but now I've got another dilemma ..... What will be my next running goal?