Parlouf Relay Race Report

Race information:

The parlouf relay is an annual race held on the 26th of December each year, at Hyde Park, Perth. This year, the path at Hyde Park was dug up, so it got moved to Perry lakes. This is not an individual race and you have to put down your 5km pb or recent time when you register. To work out who should go with who, the race organisers put the fastest person with the slowest person, then the second fastest person with the second slowest person, and so on. Each team is assigned a letter which is pinned to each team members chest. The race starts and there is a clock that goes up to 30 minutes, and when it gets to 30, the race stops. The winner is the team that has done the most laps and has the most distance into the next lap when the clock gets to 30 minutes. To stop everyone, there is a gun fired which everyone can hear. At the end of each lap, there is a changeover box where you can switch partners every lap. Each lap is 1.2km at Perry Lakes and 800m at Hyde park.

Pre Race:

I woke up at 8am on boxing day, not remembering that the Parlouf relay was on today, I went out and had a big breakfast and then saw my mum and sister dressed in running gear. I assumed they were going to go for a run together. When I finished my breakfast, my mum told me to hurry up and get ready to go. At this point I suddenly remembered that I was going to race today. I got my running clothes on, and strapped up my pinky finger, ring finger, and middle finger on my left hand as I had surgery on it last Tuesday and the doctor said I have to have it strapped up every time I cycle or run. I then got my Garmin 310XT and put it on my wrist. Then I got in the car with a drink bottle and left.

Warm up:

When I arrived at Perry Lakes, I turned on my Garmin and ran an easy lap of the course to make sure I knew where I had to run. My Garmin measured 1.22km. The course consisted of about 300m of grass/sand running and about 900m on road. I then did a couple of dynamic stretches before the start to help me warm up some more. It was around now when all the partners got to meet each other and when I found my partner. I was hoping that I was the slow partner so that my team had a good chance at winning, but with my 5km time of 16:59 and my partners of 24:30, I didn't know how well I would go.

Race:

I got to the start line and had about 2 minutes before the start. When the race started, I had a good start, and got to the front to lead. I was sitting on about 2:58 pace for the first 400m, but then I hit lactic and someone that was just behind me overtook me. I sat behind him for the rest of the lap and we were both sitting on around 3:05 pace. I sat on him until the last 50 meters and then dropped back a little. I came in at 3:56. My partner went out and I though he was going to die off. I had a little drink and kept walking around and 5 minutes later, my partner appeared coming around the corner with about 200m lead. I though this meant I was going to go pretty well. I went out for my second lap a little easier on around 3:20 page and held that until I hit lactic again, and dropped to about 3:30 pace. I managed to hold my lead for the rest of the lap and started lapping some of the back people. I did my second lap in around 4:15. When I came in, I tagged my partner and hoped he did another good run. He came back in around six minutes later and I thought he was still in the lead. The clock said 18 minutes when I changed over and thought I would have another lap after this, so I went out and held a steady 3:30 pace. About 800m in, I caught someone who I though was behind me and realised that I hadn't seen him change over and had overtaken my partner. This got me a little scared. I finished the lap about 50 meters in front of the guy I overtook but the person I went out with on the first lap had caught up. The clock said around 22:30/23 minutes when I came back which gave me around a 4:30 lap. I thought I might be able to get another section of the lap in if my partner came back in time, but I didn't see him. When the clock said 29:30, I could see my parter 200m up the road and the person who I overtook in my last lap, had already taken off. I thought we were in second or third now.

Post race/thanks:

After the race, I ran out to see my partner until the lap recorders got out to us with the measurement tools. When they did get to us, we had a distance of 5 laps and 1.1km. At the presentations, we found out that two more people had got in front and gave us a fourth. Apart from that, I was pretty happy with my effort. I would like to thank my mum for reminding me that there was a race on and taking me there, and my coach, stuart durham for coaching me with my running. I would also like to thank my doctor for making me run with my fingers strapped up.