The KPMG Business Relay

Saturday morning was nice and relaxed as I watched the weather hoping it would clear by the afternoon for the KPMG business relay. Sadly this was not to be and when I headed down to the start the wind was howling and there were small patches of drizzle.

I parked at the King’s Park Swimming Pool and walked over to the start where it took me a while to find the Derivco tent. The next few hours were spent chatting to work mates and enjoy the few snacks on offer. This was until the four runners in my team had finished and I headed out onto the course.

The wind was still howling and I was really hoping to run a sub 25, although I knew I should actually run a 22:30. The first kilometer and a half was an absolute pleasure. The wind was behind my back and I was running at an easy 4:30 min/km. Then I turned the corner, straight into the wind, and it hit me like a wall. Suddenly I was struggling to maintain a 5 min/km pace.

I found a man to slipstream and battled my way into the wind for two kilometers  sand stinging my face and a little drizzle kicking in, and then we turned again and the last kilometer was run hard across and with the wind. In the end I finished in around 24 minutes with an average pace of 4:47 per kilometer.

Sadly, with the weather the way it was, nobody hung around after the race and I was therefore home long before expected. Thankfully that meant an early night which also meant a better day’s fishing the following day.