Striders 10km Domain

5th in 34:11.

Very cool and wet with a blustery southerly wind. Very narrow start for a Striders race so a mad dash in the first 100m before hitting the first dragging hill up to the State Library. Set off in a group with Tim Ashby and some tall chap who was proving very useful into the wind. Tim pushed on at between 1-2km and once again I failed to go with him, sitting back more conservatively. On the second lap I heard the familiar voice of someone chatting and then heard Sparkie shout some words of encouragement which confirmed that Ray was with our group. He came past on a storming run - for a while I thought he'd be stopping at the 5km mark but he just kept on piling on the pressure. At the end of the second lap I realised from the clock that a sub-34 was going to be a push so just concentrated on trying to reel Ray in. He was still looking strong at 8km but then slowly started coming back towards me. Caught him at 9km and finished quite strongly.

I've got a real problem with 10km races at the moment. Don't seem to have the confidence to attack them all the way through. Felt tired during the race but not knackered at the end - I obviously had the fitness to up the tempo (in catching Ray) when I had something to chase but without that incentive I think I'm just too lazy. Felt as though I gave last Saturday's 5km time trial a far more honest effort when I had a simple plan of just sticking to Uncle Dave for as long as possible. Not sure how to address this.

2km warm up and down for 14km all up.