Saturday was the first round of the local 5K races series.
Being organized by my club, I could not miss it, even if I hate running in the afternoon:
I always have digestive issues and it is pretty "painful" to wait all day, juggling among family pleasures and the thought of the race...
Anyway, the field was pretty much loaded, with many of the best local runners lining up for suffering on a scenic, hilly, tough course, mixed road and trail (slippery).
Few posts ago (see below) I praised my fellow italian Stefano for having the best potential and attidute among us.
Well, at no surprise, he charged the hill very hard from the start, but with much surprise, I was capable to follow him a few steps back...
After 1km I stopped hearing any breath behind me but we were entering into the single track, so not a moment to lift off the pedal. On the trail, I did not want to force too much because there were more hills waiting, so I lost a good 10" to Stefano, but still no one coming from behind.
By the 3rd km I begun to feel very hard breathing and difficult to push even at "relaxed" pace, the ventilation was stuck becuase of stiches coming from the belly...
I was not really dead becuase of pushing too hard, but I could not breath... And another hill was coming..
Well.... I stopped, then walk for some meters hoping that someone could catch me asap and avoid me to push my body further in such torture...
I guess it was a complete shutdown of the central governor...
I turned back and still nobody in sight!!!
So I forced myself to run somehow up the last hill and cruise down for the last km to the finish line...
Needless to say, I almost collapsed after the line and 5 minutes later I was throwing up lunch, breakfast and maybe also some remaining from friday...
In all that, I still arrived 2nd overall and 1st "senior", improving last year time by 16 seconds ... (AMENDMENT, I CHECKED LAST YEAR RESULT AND I AM DOWN BY 32 SECONDS !!!!! AMAZING!!)
Stefano was far ahead but I am pleasantly surprised for my overall performance despite all...
So it was for sure the first italian one-two in the modest history of road running in Hong Kong...
very singular event being our national community here not very large
P.S.: for the next afternoon race, complete fast for 8 hours before the race....
2 comments:
16 sec improvement despite having to stop is pretty good, just think what you would have done on a empty stomach1
thank you, "Alien" ... I guess that the 1st overall was anyway out of my range because I lost him already after 2km, but maybe 10/15 seconds better was feasible.
(NOTE: after better checking last year's results, I noticed that I improved by 32 seconds and not 16s, so I must assume that the training is going Ok !!)
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