Toyota 8km Handicap

I woke up in the morning and looked out the window – Sunny. I thought to myself, ok well this is promising, forecast does predict rain, so we will see.

The clouds came over after breakfast.  It was still reasonably ok.  I mean it wasn’t raining or anything.  After a clean-up and some light gardening (we planted some lavender), we had lunch and then got ready to leave for the SAAC club run.
I looked out the window – overcast, and those clouds look like they hold rain.  Someone also turned the cold on. I decided to go with a long sleeve top, I figured I will rather be hot and have to push up the sleeves or take it off than be cold.

By the time we got to the club rooms, the weather was going south. That didn’t deter the 13 runners (me included) who came out for the Toyota 8km Handicap.

After last week’s win, I knew my handicap would have increased.  I was put at 16:20. There were 4 runners behind me. Yeah, I was at the back of the pack, meaning I had to overtake 8 runners if I wanted to win or get a placing.

Before each race Tom and I discuss who we think is going to win. Tom picked Peter, as he has been running really well, and the handicapper seems to be going easy on him (meaning not giving him a bigger handicap). I thought “yes he has been running well”, but so has Meggy, and Meggy has had no wins this year and has placed 2nd quite a few times recently.  So I picked Meggy for the win.

We got to the start line, and just as the kiddies are about to go do their run it pours down rain.  Luckily it only lasted a few minutes. When the rain broke, they did their run, and then we Seniors lined up to start our run.

What I love about running in the Ironbarks is that there are so many different tracks, elevations (hills, flat), and conditions. This race was a true cross-country style run. We had wind, we had rain, we had puddles as big as the width of the road. We had it all.

I wasn’t sure exactly how I was going to go in this race. It wasn’t about winning, I just wanted to go out and give it what I got.

I knew by the halfway point that that hill was going to be the deciding factor of who was going to win.

The course was hilly, and the wintery conditions made it touch, but not as hard as Troopers Creek or King of the Hill a few weeks back.

Just over halfway and I had passed 4 runners.  I thought there were only 3 more in front of me.  When I past Justine I was like ok so it’s just Rhonda.  Meggy had past me by this stage.  I knew she had it in her, so I didn’t worry about her, just myself and my pace.
When I past Rhonda I looked in front of me and thought “Who is that?”.  It was then I realized I forgot to calculate Sandra into the who is still in front of my equation.  With at least 700m to go to the finish line, I knew that that hill would test who was fit.

It tested me for sure.

Meggy passed me at approx the 6km mark, she came in 1st, as I knew she would.  I placed 2nd with a new 8km PB.

Next week is a by, but I will still do some sort of run.