Setting the Pace

12 May 2014

Tags: running, bootcamp brisbane, bootcamp melbourne, bootcamp sydney,

This week's guest blog post is bought to you by Evo Maroubra client Georgie Young.

Georgie has trained with Evolution since 2011 and is an avid runner, regularly partaking in road and trail runs in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra to raise awareness and funds for Lupus NSW. After running in the first She Runs the Night festival in 2012, Georgie met several members of the Nike Running Club and this year was asked to lead the 50min (5 min/km) pace group. We asked Georgie to share her experience of this great event and on pace setting versus running for a PB. Perhaps it will encourage you to set yourself a more specific time target next time you enter a race.

Event Day itself was bitingly cold, but the event itself was difficult to fault. After we signed on and had race briefing we were left to our own devices in the event village, and took up the opportunity to swamp MC Kris Smith with photo requests and bounce around like lunatics on the giant hexagonal trampoline (also an effective warm up!) By race commencement it was thoroughly dark but there was an obvious level of enthusiasm and excitement about the pending race. For me, as a pacer, the pressure was off. I had been allocated a pace I could easily maintain over the terrain and distance, so my main concern was to ensure that my group had a great time on course, stayed safe and avoided any hazards, and achieved their goal pace and time for the overall race. Barring my Garmin malfunctioning, I was confident this was achievable.

By contrast, if I’d been racing, I’d have been incredibly nervous and possibly a bit reluctant about the pain that I would face through the race. Running on the edge in a tempo run is hard enough, racing over this distance hurts. It taps into the lactate system just enough that the third quarter of the race seems to take years to complete.

The race itself was brilliant. While a lot of the runners paid scant attention to us, there were a few who tailed us through the race and responded as my partner Viviana and I counted out kilometres, confirmed our pace targets and drove the team towards the finish. My kilometre splits hovered either side of 5 minutes for the whole race, excepting the last which I did in 4:45 to ensure that any runner aiming at sub-50 and following me around to do so would achieve their goal. The last thing I wanted to promise was a sub-50 10km only to have runners come in at 50:05!!

Right after I finished in 49:39, a runner approached me with a hug to say that it was the fastest she’d ever run. Even if the other 5970-odd participants in the race didn’t need us pacers, that one person who valued it was reward enough for me. There’s a lot more to the event than winning (well done Victoria Mitchell – 33:58) and taking part and contributing to the atmosphere was an honour and a pleasure. I’d definitely put my hand up to pace other races in the future. For me, I love running first, racing second and beating my times a very distant third. Actually, you can put the meal at the pub with fellow Evo Maroubra runners that followed last Saturday night, right on top of the lot!

Written By Georgie Young