After the Sydney Marathon last month, I signed up to do the 2025 Osaka Marathon. But that race is many weeks away, which gives me time to work on some smaller goals (which contribute to the larger goals). So I’m now in a training block for a faster 5K time; I want to get under 25 minutes, which I haven’t in a long time!
First things first: benchmark. While I could have just done a 5K time trial anywhere and anytime, it’s so much more fun to do so in a race when the atmosphere and the competition tend to bring out the best in me. When race organiser Hyve Sport invited me to sign up for a 3K, 5K, 10K or 10-Miler at the 32nd Yakult 10-Miler, I jumped on the opportunity.
My Garmin told me I was “Peaking”, which meant I was in prime condition to compete. I had a Gu gel 15 minutes before the gunstart, and I was carrying my own water in a Flipbelt bottle which meant I wouldn’t need to slow down at the aid stations. For best results, I positioned myself up front to minimise the number of people I would need to duck around.
The gun fired and I surged forward at a sub-5 minute per kilometer pace. But because I just didn’t have the specific training to hold that pace (I ran my marathon at 5:41/km), I could feel my legs tiring out. I didn’t want to blow up so I settled around a 5:05-5:10 instead, hunting down any women up front.
I thought this would be enough for a finish hovering around the 25-minute mark, but as my watch chirped to announce I’d passed the fifth kilometer, I still had 300 meters to go until the finish line. Time: 27:10 at a 5:08/km pace.
As I hit “Save” on my Garmin, a race official told me I would need to go to the Winners Verification Booth. When I got there, someone else was there first — apparently she had finished three minutes ahead, so no wonder I wasn’t able to chase her down!
While I was a bit disappointed not to repeat my performance from 2019, I can be proud that I still made it onto the overall podium with just fitness from the marathon build. When I checked my stats later on, I discovered my heart rate had maxed out at only 149 BPM — I had so much more cardio capacity left, so it was just muscular strength and pop I was missing!
Now I’ve got to get back in the pool, because my next race is the Atleta Ako Aquathlon.
