1st Kenenisa Bekele 35:56 ETH
2nd Patrick Ivuti 36:09 KEN
3rd Gebre Gebremariam 36:17 ETH
4th Richard Limo 36:39 KEN
5th Paul Koech 36:42 KEN
- - - -
32nd Philip Costley 38:40 New Zealand
61st Rees Buck 40:05 New Zealand
83rd Scott Winton 41:19 New Zealand
85th Matthew Holder 41:20 New Zealand
Warming up for the 12km race was worrying. I had very sore legs from the prvious days racing and I got a very bad side cramp during my warm up jog. I managed to relax and take things easy leading up to the start and found my cramp went away. As I had not planned on competing in the 12km race I was certainly concerned that I may struggle in the later stages so I figured it would be best if I took the first couple of laps easy and tried to pick up some places towards the end. The first three laps were relatively slow, but I did start to notice the fatigue in my legs from the numerous dips about 1m deep throughout each lap. As the race went on I pushed a little harder on each lap and from the lap places below I was continously picking people off.
Lap 1 = 95th
Lap 2 = 91st
Lap 3 = 82nd
Lap 4 = 78th
Lap 5 = 71st
Lap 6 = 63rd
I made a bit of a surge on the sixth lap which I thought I could hold until the finish, but in the last lap I began to struggle and didn't pass anyone until the last straight. Once again, I was pleased to finish so high and also to help our team finish a credible 12th.
