This week’s handicap run was the 8km Stawell Toyota handicap held out in the Stawell Ironbarks.
The sub-juniors were off first. The course for the subbies was different to that of last year’s event.
This year it was a downhill start with an uphill finish.
I ran with Miles just so I could monitor his asthma, but it also adds to my warm-up. He was first in the handicap rank with a 30-second handicap.
We took it easy down the hill and I gave him his puffer at the halfway mark. He was such a champion and ran exceptionally well. His time is definitely improving. He ran his 1km in 6:04 minutes. Not bad for a 6-year-old with asthma.
Kayla also did a fantastic job. She ran her 1km in 4:40. She’s a runner though.
This particular race must be Miles’s event as last year he won it, and this year he did it again.
He is totally in love with his trophy. I don’t blame him, it is pretty cool.
As for me, well I wasn’t totally feeling it. It was a figure 8 / butterfly pattern course.
Which again seemed to have more uphills than downhills.
I was happy with my pace, and I was keeping Dave behind me, but on the last 2km, my big toe was starting to really hurt. You see a blister had popped and I failed to cream and bandaid it up beforehand. The “she’ll be right” attitude didn’t work this time. Needless to say, I learned my lesson.
On the last stretch I pushed too hard up a hill (trying to keep up with Dave, who had now passed me), and I felt my heart rate shoot sky-high, I had to pull back my tempo to get it back down to a manageable rate.
The Handicap winner was Kieran who started last with a handicap of 22 mins and still crosses the line first in a race time of 50:16.
Kieran ran the 8km in 28:16, yeah speedster compared to my 38:40 8km effort (which is a 4:51 pace).
Nice trophy for Miles. Well done