We met in good time before the race and I handed over my face mask and made it clear that he had to run just inside 42 minutes, nothing flash! I witnessed him line up right on the start line and feared that he would "blow his cover". Not the case. Not accustomed to running so slowly he relaxed too much and went through the first K marker in 4.32 (45.10 pace). He started to earn his money then and accelerated to 4.14 , 4.14, 4.13, 4.13 but was still leaving himself much to do. Conscious of his reputation as no.1 substitute runner he accelerated again. Putting in 4.05 and 4.06 for the 6th and 7th K. But once again he relaxed! 5.00 minutes for the 8th K then the 9th in 4.59. At this point he knew he had to reveal his real ability......running 2.38 for the last K!!!! Yes, the fear of losing his earnings had seen him unleash a last 1K in faster than WORLD RECORD ROAD 10K PACE!!!
But, sadly, not good enough! Close, but no cigar...sorry, no pay day. 42.19
Story of my life, ask someone to do something for you and you might as well do it yourself! I could have have run the race today. I could have been totally thrown by a first K in 4.30 when looking for sub 4.12. I could have been totally demoralised by those first 5k splits and suicidal by the 8th and 9th K spilts when I was overhauling runners one by one and flying through. But most of all I would have been totally reassured that not only am I capable of running faster now at 61 for that last K (at world record pace!!) than I could at my best in the '80s.
Copy the action and you too could run 2.38 for 1000 metres!
We are particularly pleased with the make up we used on the knees!
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