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

Seminyak 2 Mile Race - Jan 2023 - Bali

After last year's frustation at not being able to race on the Christmas Trip, I was very happy to have arrived in Bali race-fit and uninjured. The first race for me was a 2 miler, just 2 days after landing in Indonesia. With the worst jetlag I had ever experienced making life interesting and having had little time to adjust to the heat and humidity, I found myself out on the beach at Seminyak warming up with dozens of others for a run on the sand.

The course was 800m along damp sand, far enough down the beach to be away from the soft and loose sand and not so far down that it got into the waterlogged sand near the surf. Well, that was the theory - in practice the going was pretty darn soft!

I set off optimistally as I almost always do - I felt in good shape from recent runs in the hills back home and on Weston Prom - but I soon found that the 25 degree increase in temperature and the heavy, humid air were making life tough. Prachar went out even more optimistically than me and I only reeled him in after the first 800m was almost up - that left me chasing Apaguha and the leaders - Sadanand and Sanjay - way off in front with nobody likely to get close.

As each section passed I felt my heart rate rising and despite that my pace was slowing - I pushed hard in the last section but Apaguha was way ahead and there was no chance of getting close. I was happy with 4th though, thrilled to be racing on the Trip again and pretty blown away to be running in Bali after tackling ice and snow in the preceding weeks back in England and South Wales.

My lap speeds (pace per mile) declined through the race - 6.03. 6.09. 6.16 and ending up with 6.26 - one good thing I noticed from my garmin though was that I did kick at the end and I was doing a 5.56 pace at I came across the line. That made me think that if I acclimatised in these races on the sand, I might manage a good time in Nusa Dua where the course would be on road.

The atmosphere of the race was the usual bubbling cheerfulness of a disciple event, lots of shared humour among the runners, the meditative silence and race-prayer at the start.

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