AV race - Latrobe Bundoora

Today I made my official AV debut for Richmond Harriers. I woke up this morning feeling crap coz I'm getting a cold (everyone at school is sick!) and I got home at 2am because I was babysitting (so I had less than 5 hours sleep). Plus I have had a sore quad the past 2 days. Mum tried to discourage me from running (pffft!) but I just ate a little bit of breakfast and Dad came to pick me up. We got there with plenty of time and I found the rest of the Richmond Harriers straight away. Dad and I went for a walk to look around because we had 40 minutes till the start. We came back and I did a short warm up and put on my bib. I had to buy a black pair of shorts so I splurged on a very very nice pair of nike shorts which are made from super comfy fabric (it says polyester on the label). I was looking forward to racing in my brand new shorts and club singlet.

I wandered over to the starting line to queue up for the start of the junior race. I was in the U18 5km. I was right at the back. I was hoping to not come last (although I knew I wouldn't). I started out slowly, letting all the little kids sprint off. I was probably in the last 10 or so runners for the first kilometre but after that I kept overtaking all the people who had gone out too fast. I kept an eye on my splits. At the 3km mark I thought "Wow only 2km to go, this is so easy!". I wasn't trying to go too hard, I was just keeping a steady pace. I ended up finishing at around 23.16 although I may have to readjust that because I didn't stop my watch straight away.

My splits were:
4.32
9.16 (4.44)
14.11 (4.55)
18.48 (4.23)
23.16 (4.32)
So I'm not very consistent! That doesn't matter though. Amazingly, I was only about 10 seconds slower than my PB of 23.05 (this is the second time I've raced 5km). I really liked the distance, it's long enough to get into it but you don't get too tired. I really enjoyed the race and I look forward to racing for Richmond again at Sandown.