"Each step forward has a sacred meaning of its own"   Sri Chinmoy

Africa 5k Virtual Race - April 20th 2020

I was very glad to have another "virtual" race opportunity - Devashishu and others had cooked up a scheme to race solo and pool the results on Eventrac. I used Strava for logging, Garmin for pacing, and got my final time by adding my 5 x 1k laps on Strava.

There was a stiff breeze and when I finished my two and a half mile jog up to Aztec West to run on the old race loop, the trees were bent over and promising a nice headwind on the backstraight. I found a convenient landmark as a start line (bus stop) and began, after a few moments of silence and a sip of kombucha, on a slight downgrade.

The speed was not what I'd hoped for! I had run 19.18 here a while back and even 19.05 once (when I was 48 or 49 I think) but the 51 year old version was not finding 4 minute KMs easy! I felt maxed out when I came through 1km in 3.56 and turning into the wind meant raising the effort level still further to stay on pace.

On each of my 3 laps there was a gentle climb past the mini roundabout but still it seemed to be the headwind that knocked the stuffing out of me and left me thinking all hope of sub-20 was lost. Somehow I managed to empty my tank on the last lap and scrape under - those splits add up to 19.59!

I was first over 50 but with hotter competition expected next week it won't be easy to get that again - anyway it as a great fun race! And really, really hard if I'm honest - no holding back there.

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