Sri Chimoy 5km at Williamstown

Today was the last Sri Chinmoy event of the year so I entered the 5km. I love 5km races because they are short and fast, and are a good gauge of fitness. I wanted to see how slow I had gotten from a) doing little running training and b) running too many ultras this year. I think I only ran 3 ultras this year but they always slow me down, plus my achilles has been giving me a lot of trouble this year and during my last ultra 2 weeks ago I had a revelation about fixing it, so hopefully that's behind me now.

For the first time ever, I got to Williamstown without missing any turns and actually managed to get a park early enough with ample time to sign in and drop my bag off. It was a perfectly sunny morning, although being Williamstown, there was a breeze, meaning there'd be a headwind for 50% of the run.

Thanks to Rob at Highly Tuned Athletes, I have a Garmin 410 on loan to test out. Last night I was playing with it but I didn't bring it today because I'm technologically retarded, and wasn't used to the bezel, and thought I'd stuff it up while running. Then I'd look like an idiot with 2 watches on my wrist, (for later comparison) and I wouldn't even know how to use one of them. My own Garmin 305 is playing up, thinking it's fun to turn itself on randomly while it should be charging. So when I turned it on this morning, it immediately warned me the battery was nearly dead. Fortunately it lasted the 5km run, but it turned itself off soon after. Stay tuned for when I learn how to use the 410. I'll post a review.

I lined up at the start in my regular place in the middle of the pack. We were all told everyone would get some chocolate at the end and there would be other spot prizes too! I was so glad I came today!

I started at a pretty good pace, overtaking lots of people. The weather was just so perfect and I was really enjoying it. After the first turnaround we got the headwind. It wasn't too bad but it did slow me down a bit. I was checking my watch for my pace. I wasn't expecting to go fast today, but I was expecting to get under 25mins so I really had to force myself to put in the effort here. I slowed to 5:20min/k for a while and just couldn't seem to pick it up.

At the next turnaround there was no wind (or maybe it was an unnoticeable tail wind) and I picked up the pace a bit. This was going better but I never made up the time I lost earlier. Once the finish line was in sight, I picked it up to around 4:20min/k. It felt so easy and I don't know why I couldn't do it earlier. According to my watch, I crossed the line in 25:10. A bit disappointed in those 10 seconds, but I shouldn't be surprised. I felt nauseous afterwards, so at least I know I put in a good effort!

I wore my Five Fingers shoes and my achilles was behaving perfectly! I saw guy in FFs overtake me so congrats to you!

I stuck around for the awards at the end coz I thought there was a pretty good chance of getting a spot prize. I got a new cap to add to my collection and that made up for my bad time!

I ordered 1 tshirt from Ron at Punk Rock Racing. He's such a bad businessman that he sent me 3. This is his new technical tshirt. I'm not usually a fan of running in tshirts but this one is really comfy!