Another one bites the dust!

A pretty heavy duty week...
- Pilates session Monday am
- Return to hill repeats on Tuesday for a lung and quad buster
- Start of Summer Series on Wednesday, one significant route choice mistake and went a bit too fast out, saw 9.7km in 46 min for net 500 points, dodged a massive downpour by about 15 minutes!
- Recovery run around the oval up the street with Daisy (the dog) on Thursday
- On Friday I did my Castle Cove loop run, a good mixture of trail, hills and road. Tried to cruise it and the legs felt a little dead, was surprised to see that I ran close to my fastest time for the route

So onto the Striders Half, called the Internal because Ewen as you mentioned members were not allowed to run the open event as they were needed for marshalls etc so I believe there was also an Internal version to cater for the members. This is a handicap start where runners get allocated a suggested half time which is then used to start runners in reverse order, ie slowest first, with the goal of everyone finishing at the same time!

So I got allocated 95 minutes, mostly based upon my 10km handicap. There were 3 in our group but straight from the start that was it, David Martin tore off and the second guy followed him, while I decided to try and stay on my goal pace (which as usual was to also try and threaten my PB, even on this tough course). I kept runner #2 in sight and we fairly quickly started hauling in runners from the groups before us. I caught runner #2 at the top of Scribbly for the first time and put a bit of a gap on the downhill. He went past again on the climb to the gate but on the downhill back I again gapped him and that was that. No chance of catching David but I was still hauling in people continually and also got a good idea as to who was running well from the faster groups.

I deliberately tried to ignore the garmin and splits, just montitoring avg pace and my HR. At the turn around I took a quick peek at the time (halfway) and was pleased/surprised to see that it was 44 something. Tried to keep the pace going with not blowing up on on the climbs. Near the top of Scribbly second time I caught a faster guy gapped him a little on the downhill but he caught me on the flat and we ran together still hauling in people. Another faster runner floated in front but I was struggling to drag him on. The guy I had already caught drew away from me on the climb to the gates but I again gapped him on the downhill (as I ran past he muttered something about bloody fast downhill runner). I drew within 5 metres of the other guy as we continued to haul in front markers, by my calcs David Martin was way too fast and far in front but everything else was up for grabs.

At about 2 km to go I was starting to slip from the guy I was trying to catch and the other faster runner caught me and went past us both. On the last hill I was really struggling but still managed to hold things together. The two guys just in front of me caught another runner who by then was second on the road. I pushed hard all the way, with no idea as to the time, only focussed on trying to haul in the 3 in front and hope no-one faster cam from behind.

In the end, I just could not get up to them and finished over the line in 5th, 3 secs behind 4th, 22 behind 3rd and 38 behind 2nd.

The best bit though was after the line when I checked my watch I had posted 1:29:56, not only had I managed to hang on and break my PB of 1:30:23, but also broke the 90 minute barrier. I was actually a bit gobsmacked at first, especially given the tough hilly nature of the course.

Anyway, a PB is a PB, especially one that has taken close to six years to best!

So the regime seems to be working, a half marathon PB on a tough course with no taper based upon 11 weeks of training. It will be interesting to see what I can do now to my 10km time in a few weeks...

On the weight front, I've now dropped to 78.5kg, so a loss of 6.5kg from the start of August.

Anyway, onwards for GNW prep, a pretty heavy week scheduled this week, culminating in the Bobbin Head STaR