A new STaR course for me this week with the Balmain Bungle. During the week Horrie had asked me if I was going to run 6:10 or 6:20, I was a little hesitant on the 6:20 knowing that this, as STaRs go, was fairly flat, and that the pace could be on!
Another factor was that we had friends down from the country over for dinner on Saturday night and while I tried to take it easy, probably a few too many red's were consumed, especially given I was running 30km early the following morning.
Anyway rocked up at Iron Cove, just as a large 6:05 group? charged off. Quickly paid the money and got the map, said Hi to a multitude of Striders and CR's when the 6:10 group headed off. To my surprise Horrie and Superflake both headed out, along with Spud, Blue Dog and my old school chum Silverfox running his first STaR! I had already mentally prepared myself for 6:20 and so continued to chat with a few runners wondering if I was in need of a mental checkover.
This concern was heightened as I had a quick chat with CR's Uncle Dave, Springer and Luke Skyrunner, all who were running 6:20 and not 6:30 and thus increasing the concern as to my wisdom, not to mention a number of other "fast" Striders!
After a couple of nasty hills early in the run I was cruising along ok in the bunch of around 15 and as usual it seems now assisting in making sure we stayed on course. It was an amazing sight as we ran along Lilyfield Road, there was a chain of groups of runners spread out for as far as you could see. At around the same time it started to rain. By the time we got to Parramatta Road it was chucking it down and there was a heap of thunder and lightning to accompany. Around here we caught up to some of the 6:10 group including Horrie, Superflake and Spud, I was a little surprised given this was just over 10km and they has 10 minutes head start. I also noticed at this point the GPS had lost signal a couple of times.
As we ran along Canterbury Road it absolutely bucketed down and crossing streets meant either long jumping about 1.5 metres or running through water above your ankles! By this stage our group had splintered into 2 groups and I elected to loiter with the 2nd group with some runners I knew were a little more my capability. As we ran along Cooks river we went past Professor, also out for his first STaR, the rain dissipated and now it was more a challenge to maintain the pace which was around 4:50 as the legs started to complain.
I rode the elastic band on the back of our second group as the faster group disappeared from sight and eventually, as we were running through Leichhardt dropped off the back to grind it home. Finished off with a time of 2:24 and since the GPS had a few problems I'll claim the published 29.9km which gives an average of 4:49 min/km with an average HR of 166! to finish off spent some good time chatting and catching up with various people afterwards, even if it was still raining.
Pretty stoked with the run today, as it is not far at all away from my actual Canberra pace of 4:47 from last year. Some concern however as my groin/abdomen "issue" seemed to be lurking so I'll up the ante on my preventative routines. A tough rest of the week scheduled, hopefully the legs will take advantage of the day off tomorrow as I continue on a pretty solid program.
3 comments:
we just don't get rain like you guys do. when it rains there, the heavens truly open. what you call normal rain, we call 'flash floods'. what troopers you guys are for being able to run in those monsoon conditions!
We were a little surprised when we stopped at the first drink stop and realised you weren't with us. After swapping emails with you during the week and speaking to Blue Dog before heading out yesterday, I had a quick chat with Superflake and we decided to head out at 6.10 as running a little slower enables us to have a chat and a laugh and the run becomes less taxing and more sociable. You were certainly moving along at a fair clip when you went past us past Parramatta Rd. We tacked on the back of you for a while and the pace was somewhere between 4:30 and 4:45 per km at that stage. We lost contact along Cooks River when we started to become navigationally challenged and needed Professor's help in reading the map. Well run today and I hope you come through it in one piece as you are running yourself back into some form.
I see the four PB's in Arizona has lead you to run with the guns. Better look out for that groin you don't need a re-ocurrence of the old injury. See you back with us slow 6:10 er's next week.
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