PHNOM PENH ATHLETICS CLUB

Six weeks after our last 5k road race we welcomed two first timers giving us a lineup of twelve athletes looking to get back into racing shape and have a crack at one of PPAC's regular events. 29 degrees is pretty hot for a 5k race starting before 6 am, and given the context there were some great efforts all round with all twelve athletes coming in under 26 minutes and 75% well under 23 minutes. There were three excellent PBs for James, Matt and Muyngim all of whom also scored points PBs, respectively underlining the quality of those personal performances. Six athletes hit the 500 point mark (including two female athletes in the top 5), with only Andarge breaking 700 points this week.   Matt and James's excellent PB performances were supported by highly consistent running, both recording incredibly steady times across the first two sections before accelerating to gain a few seconds each on the final lap. Matt topped the O₂ consumption charts and had the second highest fitness...

PPAC is back after a long layoff with an all-new team relay event along the riverside running track - the first time we've held an event at this location. It's off-road but was relatively busy on the morning of the race and pedestrians also have to share the space with cyclists. This interval style relay event was put together as part of preparations for the following 5k road race after several weeks with no racing. It's the first time we hosted an end-to-end style relay (relays are generally easier to organise around a fixed loop) and although the ideal team size was 3, we shuffled the athletes and ended up with one team of 3 and two teams of 2. The race consisted of a total of 18 x 544 m legs for a total distance of 9.79 km. Athletes in the team of 3 would each run six legs of 544 m (3.26 km each) and those in the teams of 2 would run double legs (1,088 m) four times and a single leg either at the start or the end depending on team strategy (4.90 km each). After a very f...