Equaliser Race + more

The Equaliser is the first event in the Striders Super Series and a cross country run from Belrose to St Ives and then looping back again. It consists of a downhill to a creek, up to St Ives, some street running to another trail which heads back downhill and meets up to the outward course for the run home uphill.



A pretty good turnout and we charged along the slight downhill around a power substation and communications tower and then the downhill rush, I settled in near Jenny T and KT as we crossed the creek. The plan for the uphills was a steady pace and I pretty much held my own, with Suzanne and another female going past but that was pretty much it. A quick drink and then along the St Ives streets. There was a good line of runners in front but a few corners later and they had moved form view and it was just myself and another as we hit the next bit of trail.

This was the area I did not get a chance to mark yesterday but I thought from memory the course was fairly obvious. Not so with a few junctions that could have been misleading. However there were branches etc blocking the wrong way and I assumed someone in front was doing this. Pretty soon it was clear who that was as Action loomed up heading back in the other direction. One or 2 junctions later and there was a very obvious group of branches across one option so the guy ahead and I followed the clear option. About 100m later I realised this was wrong and called him back. When we got to the intersection a group had just arrived, including Spud and MikeF. They headed down the "right" option while I moved the branches to stop other runners going the wrong way.

Back into the groove on the downhill and thankfully we eventually saw Silver Fox who was manning the second river crossing point. Once again I aimed for a steady tempo and to my surprise I was hauling in a few of the group who had caught us. About halfway up I had caught spud and went past, a big change from last year. By the time I got to the top there was only 1 guy left with me. Picking up the pace we ran it out back to the road but he was just a little too strong.

Ended up with 1:08:49 which I thought was a good improvement over last year but it seems only a 2 second improvement. However by looking at sportstracks I lost about a minute and a half in my "excursion" so actually an improvement over last year. I certainly felt stronger on the hills. Quite a few people who were in front of me at St Ives followed the wrong marker and drifted in a bit later :(

Stats
Distance 14.27km
Time 1:08:49
Avg Pace 4:49 min/km
Avg HR 174

After the race the Striders Annual General Meeting was conducted, as some Striders would know I was nominated for the role of president as Action was standing down. The news is that I was elected, not sure what I have let myself in for but hope that I can make a positive contribution to the ongoing success of the club. This is the other significant item that has been somewhat of a distraction recently, so now I have both work and my involvement with Striders confirmed I can get on with things.

This week hopefully will be better running wise, however another trip to Melbourne is already planned for work.....