"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own" Sri Chinmoy
5k Race - Jan 2025 - Konyaalti, Antalya
Just a day after the swim-run it was time for the 3rd race in 4 days. All this after 3 months of no hard efforts (because of a knee niggle), so it was quite an ask for my body. I thought twice about it, but unsurprisingly opted to race. I set myself the target of 21:42 which by my approximate maths is 7 mins pace per mile, a little slower than my 1 and 2-mile paces earlier in the trip, but still a challenge.
The morning was breezy, cool, quiet as usual. After the silence on the line, I held back a little as we ran westward towards the mountains, clocking a 7.04 pace at first then 7.01 for the half mile coming back from the turn. Once back over the start line into the longer out-and-back towards Antalya city, I eased into a faster pace and clocked a half mile at 6.53, but things fell back a little as I paced myself behind Suswara and Ekalavya. The pace for the half mile that included a slow turn was 7.04, but I had a feeling I could keep up with those 2 guys in front and so I pushed myself to a 6.45 pace then 6.41 as I finished between the two of them, though quite a way behind Suswara.
There was no reaction in the knee, and I made it home to the UK having done a fair bit of running and hilking and built some confidence to start training properly again. Sadly, the old problem of getting sick after the trip hit me again and as I type this a week later I have the mother of all flu/bronchitis making me feel pretty low. This has been the pattern since lockdown, so I'm going to have to find a solution of some kind. Right now I'd be launching into a new running and cycling programme, it it wasn't for the sickness.
I don't regret giving it 100% in Turkey though!
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