Run > Race

Six Foot Track Marathon 2016 - I'll start with the conditions. Tops of 31 degrees and 100% humidity during a lot of the race. Really tough. Estimates that times were 20-30 minutes slower than they would have been in 2015. Little comfort to me.

I don't want to use the weather as an excuse. I was not as well prepared as I though I was. I realise that I may have been a bit complacent and thought that a sub 5 hour Six Foot would just come to me as easy as that. However, that is not the case. The race is brutal. The hills are long and steep, the Black Ranges (26km-40km) are uphill NOT flat. The first part of the race is relatively straightforward, but 5km of single track will always slow you down.

I am mainly writing all those things for my future self. When I read this in 1/2/3??? years time knowing I want a sub 5 hour, I need to remember not to underestimate this race.

Anyway, the stairs were awesome - I aimed to be top 20 in wave 2 (previously I had been 1st in waves 4 and 5)... it turns out I was 3rd in wave 2 to the stairs (400m downhill run from the start line). Other NRGers were 1st, 2nd and 6th! Hehe! We dominated the start of wave 2.

The stairs were great, comfortable all the way with nobody blocking the way until we caught up with the wave 1 stragglers near the end of the single track. Then comes 5 or 6km of mostly flat or downhill fire trail (with a couple of single track hills included for those who forget!) The at about 10.5km it is the 5km of single track to the river. Good fun and not hard to go fast enough. I made it to the river (15.5km) in 1:26:27. Perfectly in my 1:25-1:30 window.

Then came some tough stuff. The hills - Mini Mini and then Pluvi. The sun was baking and the trails were wide open. Not fun. Plodded up there and knew I was losing time all the way. This section to the top of Pluvi (10.5km) took 1:36:03. Well over the target of 1:25-1:30. Poor show.

Then came the tough Black Ranges - as I mentioned before, these are not flat! Lots of little ascents that appear runnable, but for me they just weren't. I need to including sessions that are flatish after my heavy hills sessions so that I am more used to running on really tired hills legs (usually my day post hills would be more rest - WRONG!)

This section was improved greatly by Team NRG - there were over 20 of them at the 35km mark cheering so much. It was ridiculous to have their support. I loved it and I honestly think that saved me 1 minute/km for at least the 2km before (I could hear them) and the 5km afterwards - awesome stuff.

It was tough to the end, but the downhill as usual suited me and as usual I cramped right at the end! Section time 2:14:24 when I wanted 2:00.

Total time 5:16:49 - might have been sub 5 in another year, but not to be this year. Next time I will have this race.

Split Summary
===
1) 1km - 6:04
2) 1km - 5:34
3) 1km - 4:43
4) 1km - 5:00
5) 1km - 5:12
6) 1km - 5:20
7) 1km - 5:36
8) 1km - 6:06
9) 1km - 5:41
10) 1km - 6:57
11) 1km - 5:53
12) 1km - 5:40
13) 1km - 6:32
14) 1km - 5:57
15) 1km - 6:00
16) 1km - 8:00
17) 1km - 9:52
18) 1km - 9:37
19) 1km - 9:32
20) 1km - 8:42
21) 1km - 5:07
22) 1km - 6:27
23) 1km - 11:11
24) 1km - 11:52
25) 1km - 11:43
26) 1km - 9:50
27) 1km - 7:56
28) 1km - 7:12
29) 1km - 6:58
30) 1km - 6:56
31) 1km - 8:59
32) 1km - 7:05
33) 1km - 8:08
34) 1km - 6:19
35) 1km - 5:48
36) 1km - 8:15
37) 1km - 8:25
38) 1km - 6:25
39) 1km - 8:30
40) 1km - 7:20
41) 1km - 5:58
42) 1km - 6:36
43) 1km - 4:57
44) 1km - 6:33
45) 0.06km - 29(8:23/km)