Run for the Kids - 14.7 Km

Had a great race today, finished in almost exactly 75 minutes. This is the longest distance I have raced so far. I had a conservative goal of 80 minutes so I am totally stoked with my time. There were no timers on the finish line so I didn't check my watch until I was thru the chute and out the other side, I was by myself but I still did a little happy dance when I saw 75 minutes on my watch. I won't post my split times because the footpod on my polar was about 600 metres over by the end and I was using autolap at 1K intervals. Regardless of that though they were all good even splits so I am happy to see that I had good disciplined pacing. I was planning on kicking it up at 14Km but I misread the marker and actually stepped up the pace about 1K from the finish. Not a good idea and I almost blew it. The heaving started again about 500m from the end and this time I am confident that it was not related to what I ate. I had 2 weet-bix with sustegen milk at 06:00, I really believe that it is down to nerves and effort. I see the finish line and I just lose it & it almost feels like a panic attack, as soon as I cross the line I am OK again. Perhaps after I have done Pilates for a month or so I might gain better control of my breathing, I really hope so because I don't want this happening every time, it is the one thing that let's me down. On the upside I did not stop this time, I just ran through it (as if i was going to stop in front of all those spectators!) and am embarrassed to admit that I crossed the finish line with a few tears because I knew I had run a pretty good one. Also I was pleased to note that I was overtaking a few runners in club colours as well, so I really think I will look into signing up somewhere next year, probably Box Hill as it is closest to home. The only bum note was the reaction when I called home afterwards, I was in such a good mood about my time and the response was, "75 minutes, well it is 1:30 now, were have you been? we are out of coffee", Not "Hey good job well done" Who cares, my Ausrunner buddies were happy to hear how I went. On that note, it looks like everyone had a great run too. JK and MD come over the line together only about 5 minutes after me. 'Potamus and Beki finished together and were both very pleased with their times, they should both be very proud of themselves as I think it was their first time at the distance. Clarkey, Stu and TB all had great runs in under 63 minutes, which I think is just awesome. Eat 'em also finished in an excellent 66 minutes. Not sure about CJ but I was eating his dust after I caught him briefly at the 10 K mark so I am sure he finished well. I hope I have covered everyone here, well done to all :-) Finally, don't have a report yet but I hope Schtumpy ran a blinder in the Canberra Marathon today, I was certainly sending him good vibes. The schdule for the next 2 months will be the Mothers Day Classic (8K) and another Sri Chinmoy 10K on 28 May. Then the big one the Gold Coast half and I am starting to think I may have to revise down my goal of 120 minutes, but I won't get too ahead of myself. I won't race anything over 10K until after the GC half, I don't want to distract my focus from trying to achieve a great time there with my brother and sister the cheer for me.