East Burwood Cup

The horses have their race around a 3200m track in the prestigious Melbourne Cup, while the Masters runners have theirs on the track as well, albeit a synthetic one. I'd only knew about this race when I was browsing through some of the event sites in Melbourne. The track is about 4km away from my cousin, Elvin's house in Burwood. So decided to bike over my cousin's house on Wed night and stay here for couple of days.

Earlier, I went out to get lubricant to clean up my bike chains. Had to walk for miles to get to Bunning Warehouse, then to Coles supermarket. Add in the sweltering heat. Came back home at around 4pm, I was already exhausted and felt more like sleeping than participating in a race. The race only starts at 7:45pm but I had to be at the track at 7pm to register. I ran to the track as warm up but my legs already felt tight and tired. Anyways, it was just a fun run and it will be good to test out how fast I can run a 3200m at my current fitness. At least I can know where my weaknesses are.

Reached the track just before 7pm and registered myself. The race won't start till 7:45pm. Most guys and ladies who turned up are in their 40s and over. However, Victoria Masters Athletics are for men and women aged 30 and over, so I am well qualified. Some of the odd distances (60m, 600m, 200m, 1km walk event) started earlier and the East Burwood Cup was the highlight of the evening.

The race started in a fast pace led by the fast guy & lady. Both came to the track together so I guess they must be training for something. Both looked like lean and mean machines. The guy probably cycles too since he has got the tan lines on his muscular legs. After a lap and a half, I took over the 2nd place from the lady. As I sense the pace was slowing down by the guy in about the 3rd lap, I gladly went into the lead and led for a while but I knew I won't be able to hold on to the pace for too long, as I was already feeling tired. Pretty bad move but winning here wasn't my priority as I want to test out how fast I could run, so I wasn't going to let the pace slow down.

Well the thing about shorter distance, is that you have little time to come out with a strategy. Once you made your move, you'll either make or break it. For this case, I broke it. Soon, there was another guy, who went out fast passing us and he really pushed the pace hard. That was the point where I lost contact with both of them and my strides were no longer smooth. I can hear the lady breathing down my neck from behind. Soon enough, she was in front of me. We got about 3 laps to go and the two guys were way out in front. Then I saw the guy who broke up the field apart was standing beside of the ground, just after the start/finish line, cheering. It's official that I'm in 3rd, but I wanted hang on to the lady's butt (well she is quite fit. Haha) and see if I could outrun her in a sprint finish. With about 1 & half laps to go, she accelerates and I was left for dust. All I could do was to guide myself to the finishing line. I'm a little disappointed that I could't go any faster but glad that at least I broke the 12 min mark. Just barely.... 11:59.

I didn't win anything for 3rd place. Only the first male and female gets prizes. The MC even joked about how slow the time was. In Melbourne Cup the horses were probably doing at about 3 mins or so for the same distance. Haha, hey, we don't have horses legs. Anyway, when it came for the spot prizes (lucky draw as we called it) for the EB Cup participants, I was so surprised that the first number that they pulled out was No. 3, and that was me. I won a AUD200 worth of weekend spa package to Hotel Bruce County or Gateway on Monash which nearby. Too bad this weekend will be last, so am giving it to cousin, Elvin.

The fast guy

The fast lady

Results (time only):

1. 11:25 (The fast guy)

2. 11:50 (The fast lady)

3. 11:59 (Me)

4. 12:13

5. 12:27

My lap time - split time (Avg, Heart Rate)
Come to think of it, spending too much time pressing my watch buttons to get the splits, instead of concentrating in race, but I need to know my weaknesses.

1. 1:24 - 1:24 (155)
2. 1:29 - 2:53 (168)
3. 1:31 - 4:24 (169)
4. 1:28 - 5:53 (169)
5. 1:34 - 7:27 (170) - this should be the part where the lady caught up
6. 1:30 - 8:58 (170)
7. 1:30 - 10:29 (170)
8. 1:30 - 11:59 (168) - I think I gave up on this lap, explains why my Avg HR dropped.

Time for 3000m was 11:15, so I think my fitness is ok, except I need to work on my speed and threshold training. Doing too much long slow runs are not helping. Once upon a time, I could do a sub-10mins for this, well that is once upon a time story. Haha. Time for me to get back to basics in speed/threshold training!