I'm still here!

Yes folks, temporary break in transmission but I'm still here.

Firstly thanks to all re the passing of Madeline. Over the weekend we added to our menagerie 2 new members. they being Russell the Rabbit (named after Mr Crowe) and Barney the Guinea Pig (aka Mr Rubble). Still holding out on the dog front :)

Now back to the running/training, still in a bit of a motivation slump post marathon but managed to get out to Smithfield for the first race in the SMC series and had a bash at the 10km. Saturday was a write off after the heavy night on Friday at drinks with Cool Running leaving me very seedy Saturday morning.

I set up the virtual partner on the Garmin for 39:55 to see how long I could hang in there. The numbers seem to be increasing out there all the time and it is interesting as both the 5km and 10km head off at the same time.

Another Cool Runner, Sarge, asked me my plan at the start. He has run better than me in all recent events and so I was a little surprised when I told him that I'd be trying to break my PB that he'd run with me. However once we got going it was a different story.

First couple of km were good and I ran a bit faster than even pace, knowing the hill in the middle of the course would slow the splits down. At this point I would have been about 5th. Sure enough the hill did slow me down but was not steep enough for me to significantly regain pace on the down slope. A few people went past through here and just as I got to the 5km turnaround a group of 4 caught me. The 5km split was 20:24. Coming back I held onto the group until just before the top of the hill but then they slowly oulled away from me on the downslope again!

From here it was just a case of grind it out home, with little petrol in the tank to be able to drastically up the tempo in the last km or so.

The final time was 41:35. This course is a challenge for me in pace judgement. The hill in the middle is a real burner, longer and more gradual than the hills at Lane Cove, but you do it twice. Also given the more gradual slope I can't seem to up the pace on the run down as I usually can be faster than most others on downhills.

Since Sunday, nothing but I am to run this afternoon and will have a ride at Homebush tomorrow afternoon with Truckie and Aunty K.