A little bit of history
A few weeks ago my friend alerted me to the fact that no-one had ever won the Hyde Park Time Trial twice, since it was set up at the start of October. We have one win each, and tend to compete against each other quite intensely, so the race was on. She was heading to Hawaii for Christmas, and I was in Spain, but I was back first, and would have the first opportunity to make a challenge.
But first, the anxious wait. There were two events while I was away, and I looked at the results each week to check that no-one had managed a second win. I noticed that in either week I'd have won the race (assuming I ran at roughly the same speed as I usually do), but was relieved that the two winners were both first time winners.
So I got back on Thursday, and the chance was there for me to take glory. Other people have, and will in the future, run the TT faster than I have (or am every likely to achieve). But no-one else can be first to do something, and I wanted to get my name against the "first person to win it twice" line.
I took it surprisingly seriously - laying off the wine for what feels like the first time in weeks last night, and deciding on a shorter warm up than my normal 5 mile jog to the start, so I had a bit more energy. It even worked out that I had a rest day on Friday for ultra-freshness!
I got to the start with one aim in mind. Not a PB, but a win. But then I started to worry. Although the field overall was small, I realised that some of the people there looked pretty nifty and, in particular, that the word was spreading about the lack of multiple wins, and that there was at least one other former winner there talking to her friend about the possibility of her being the first to do it. I keep on forgetting that they were probably looking at me and thinking exactly the same thing!
Then the start. Unusually I was right at the front, and the first woman to really get going. In the first 500metres or so one of the other former winners went past me, and I started to worry because I didn't know how fast she was, but she ended up sitting just 5 metres or so in front of me, and I relaxed. The two times I've run the race before I've always moved up the field in the second and third laps, as my start isn't the fastest, and I knew she was close enough to me to catch easily.
It actually happened earlier than I thought. As usual it was on the slight hill up one side of the park. I was right on her heels, then alongside her, and by the time we got to the 2k marker I was starting to open up a bit of a gap. And from there it just continued to open. It was a bit hard to know how to pace it here - should I hammer it to put her out of sight, aim to get a big PB but risk fading, or should I just play it safe and take it steady-ish unless she started to close the gap. Steady-ish in this context is still pretty fast, it's just not top speed.
In the end I did slow a bit on the second and third laps, but still went fast enough to take about 20 seconds off my PB and get it down to 22:31 (incidentally beating Eleanor's fastest time on the course - even though I'd beaten her the only time we both raced, her fastest time was faster than my fastest). And of course, more importantly I got that win.
It was a real confidence boost. It proved to me that my first win wasn't a fluke, and it reminded me that I CAN run. It also reinforced that I can set myself tough sounding goals and then deliver on them. I turned up to a race with the intention of winning it, and that's precisely what I did.
It also gave me a bit of an opportunity to play with my Garmin. I like all the feedback I get off it when I get back to the computer, but I'm still fiddling around with it to get it how I like it when it's on my wrist. I guess I'm just used to how the Polar operates, which button I need to press etc, so it's just getting used to the new system.
But first, the anxious wait. There were two events while I was away, and I looked at the results each week to check that no-one had managed a second win. I noticed that in either week I'd have won the race (assuming I ran at roughly the same speed as I usually do), but was relieved that the two winners were both first time winners.
So I got back on Thursday, and the chance was there for me to take glory. Other people have, and will in the future, run the TT faster than I have (or am every likely to achieve). But no-one else can be first to do something, and I wanted to get my name against the "first person to win it twice" line.
I took it surprisingly seriously - laying off the wine for what feels like the first time in weeks last night, and deciding on a shorter warm up than my normal 5 mile jog to the start, so I had a bit more energy. It even worked out that I had a rest day on Friday for ultra-freshness!
I got to the start with one aim in mind. Not a PB, but a win. But then I started to worry. Although the field overall was small, I realised that some of the people there looked pretty nifty and, in particular, that the word was spreading about the lack of multiple wins, and that there was at least one other former winner there talking to her friend about the possibility of her being the first to do it. I keep on forgetting that they were probably looking at me and thinking exactly the same thing!
Then the start. Unusually I was right at the front, and the first woman to really get going. In the first 500metres or so one of the other former winners went past me, and I started to worry because I didn't know how fast she was, but she ended up sitting just 5 metres or so in front of me, and I relaxed. The two times I've run the race before I've always moved up the field in the second and third laps, as my start isn't the fastest, and I knew she was close enough to me to catch easily.
It actually happened earlier than I thought. As usual it was on the slight hill up one side of the park. I was right on her heels, then alongside her, and by the time we got to the 2k marker I was starting to open up a bit of a gap. And from there it just continued to open. It was a bit hard to know how to pace it here - should I hammer it to put her out of sight, aim to get a big PB but risk fading, or should I just play it safe and take it steady-ish unless she started to close the gap. Steady-ish in this context is still pretty fast, it's just not top speed.
In the end I did slow a bit on the second and third laps, but still went fast enough to take about 20 seconds off my PB and get it down to 22:31 (incidentally beating Eleanor's fastest time on the course - even though I'd beaten her the only time we both raced, her fastest time was faster than my fastest). And of course, more importantly I got that win.
It was a real confidence boost. It proved to me that my first win wasn't a fluke, and it reminded me that I CAN run. It also reinforced that I can set myself tough sounding goals and then deliver on them. I turned up to a race with the intention of winning it, and that's precisely what I did.
It also gave me a bit of an opportunity to play with my Garmin. I like all the feedback I get off it when I get back to the computer, but I'm still fiddling around with it to get it how I like it when it's on my wrist. I guess I'm just used to how the Polar operates, which button I need to press etc, so it's just getting used to the new system.
posted by YP at 11:39 AM
1 Comments:
Wow! Congratulations, I'm impressed. As you say, it's not so much the facts of the win and the time, but what it says to you about your own ability and determination to achieve your goals. Roll on London marathon!!
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