XTerra Shakespear Park 2024

 

XTerra Shakespear Park 2024

1 September 2024

19.4km, 398m, 1:47:00

https://www.strava.com/activities/12293362441

Race Day

Will drove me out. Ed and Hamish and Adam went separately. We met Maria out there. Sophia running great in the under 13s. Said hello to Rudy (63).

We started 10 minutes before the Long course. I ran hard with Will for the first 1.8km up and over the first hill to the beach. *Immediately* upon stepping onto the actual first beach rock, I slipped and nearly fell over. Will neatly sidestepped me and skipped off into the distance.

The rocks were nasty. Toothy and craggy waiting for any unsuspecting ankles. I made the best time that I could on the rocks, which got slightly less evil after a few km. I ran hard on the few runnable sandy bits (possibly too hard). The beach finished at 7km, with Will miles ahead (but only actually 1 minute according to post-run analysis).

Climbing up from the beach I didn't feel super fast, and I remained tired throughout the rest of the run. The middle section especially was slow! I could occasionally see Will far ahead of me. The ground was soft from recent rain, but nice to run on the mostly gravel trails. The weather on the day was actually very nice.

I ground out an ok time that was 1 minute faster than last year, but a full 5 minutes behind Will.

Wrap

I'm not sure why I had a relatively poor run. I had a good buildup (although intervals on Thursday morning), and my weight really low lately at about 68kg. I used the Maurtens gels (x3 total including one before the race). Maybe lacking muscle tension from spa the night before?? Maybe a bit demotivated to hurt myself due to a) Will being so far ahead and b) heading off to Spain in a week ?

Quite a big dinner the night before. Dunno.