Clovelly Canter

A fairly large pack at 6:10 and they took off while I was still chatting and had not even taken my pullover off! Anyway as usual the leaders were directionally challenged in the dark and it was not long before I hauled them in. We had a little break at Centennial Park Kiosk for those needing to heed the call of nature as the facilities at the start were locked. From here we wound a path towards the sea but as usual finding every single hill along the way to Tamarama! Then it was pretty easy navigation, keep the water on the left! But still quite a few twists and turns and lots of bloddy stairs. At one section one of the guys in the bunch tripped and came a cropper but he popped up ok. The sea breeze through here made for very cool running conditions, but I am sure they were tropical compared to the conditions Canberra and Melbourne readers are subject to.

As we neared Maroubra yesterday's race started to tell in the legs. At a drink stop I somehow eased off the back of the group and then as we split 3 ways I was running by myself. I opted for the "B" shortcut which would provide about 23km but I forgot that this was much hillier than the "A" route of 26km. All the way back I sat about 20-30m behind the a group but could not reel them in, instead letting them go in the wrong direction, they couldn't hear me yelling, honest!

A real grind getting back to Queens Park but again in a good sign despite the obviously fatigued legs my pace was not slipping as it usually does. A good crowd at the finish and good to catch up with a whole heap of Striders/CR's.

Stats
Distance 24km
Time 2:08:31
Avg Pace 5:22
Avg HR 161

The legs are pretty shattered as I sit here in my skins and the achilles also seems a little inflamed so I'll break out the ice and anti-inflam. Hoping that this week is again more consistent as we lead into Woodford to Glenbrook on Sunday. Last year I knocked out a 1:57:52 certainly hoping to be a bit quicker than that this time.