PPAC-67 5km Road Race

 

PPAC welcomed back athletes for the regular monthly 5km road race. Luckily overnight rain was relatively light and the course was clear and dry. Racing conditions were slightly warmer and more humid than desirable with a slight southerly wind. Nine athletes lined up at for the start including two first timers, and there was over 50% female participation for the event.

We saw another fine 5km performance from Andarge, leading from the front and finishing strongly with back-to-back 7:30 laps and a score of well over 800 points. The top three was rounded out by two top Cambodian athletes Meyjou and Muyngim. Meyjou returning to form with a time of 21:15 and Muyngim maintining a good run of performances clocking a time just 0.5 seconds outside her recent PB.
Matt secured another 5k and Points PB combo, knocking a further 36 seconds off the time set just four weeks ago to duck under the 21-minute barrier. Three athletes also completed their first PPAC 5km event - well done!

Four out of the top five had very consistent performances on the back of excellent pacing for the two loops around Sokha. Matt's very low score of 0.29 was achieved by not only finishing with a comfortable negative Sokha Lap split, but critically for appropriate pacing around the Park Lap, where the remaining athletes all set off at a significantly faster pace than their respective eventual performances.

Muyngim posted a personal best Sokha Lap time of 9:07.25 for her first lap, moving from 42nd to 38th in the overall rankings and remains 4th overall in the female Sokha Lap rankings. Andarge remains top overall with a 7:03 lap from our fastest lap event in March and Meyjou still heads the female rankings (32nd overall) with a time of 8:54 set during the first PPAC 5km race in February 2020.

In the O₂ consumption and Fitness Factor ratings, Matt's excellent performance sees him top the table for both. Intriguingly, for the first time oxygen consumption rankings exactly match the fitness factor rankings.

Thanks to race officials Neil and Seavleang for volunteering this week. See you all soon at the next event!

© PPAC 2021