Striders 10km North Head

2nd in 33:26.

Absolutely stoked with the run. 25 second PB. Only downside was missing out on a win by 3 seconds.

None of the top runners were there with the NSW 10km road champs on this afternoon and Dave Criniti out with an injury. Still, there was a large crowd of people I'm normally competitive with - Andrew Tuckey, Tim Ashby, Richard High, Ray, Guy Doulman etc. Set off pretty conservatively - Ray took the lead but it felt very comfortable. This was confirmed when he shouted at the time at the first km marker as 3:24. We immediately speeded up - Guy taking the lead. By 2km (6:42) I was in a group with Ray, Andrew and Tim just sitting behind them. The plan was to try and relax over the first big lap and really push the first half of the second lap. 3km went by in 10:02. I wasn't worried about Ray pushing on as I knew he was dropping out at 5km - just wanted to keep within striking distance of Andrew and Tim. Sure enough, Ray pushed on between 4 and 5km taking Andrew with him (we reached 5km in 16:45) . However, by the start/finish turn Tim and I had caught Andrew again. He immediately seemed to push on again up the slight rise heading away from the start line and I could feel Tim dropping off the pace. However, from the roundabout Andrew was just pulling ahead and despite the pre-race plan I couldn't stick with him.

Tim had caught me by the car park loop and together we started to make slow in-roads on Andrew. I hit 8km and tried to push on again but the dragging hill really hurt. At 9km, Tim came past very quickly (he said afterwards it was to try and break me and that I was looking spent!) but called out the time as he did (30:23). I realised I needed a 3:28 final km for the PB so just gave it everything I had. Caught Tim just past the roundabout (almost identical position to that when I overtook him at the last race at North Head in September '06) and started really sprinting. Felt I might have gone too early as there always seems to be one extra speed bump on the run in. At one point I thought I might even catch Andrew but he was too far ahead and held on for a 3 second win.

Perfect conditions today - clear skies, cool and not a breath of wind. Lots had great runs. Richard is getting back to fitness knocking another 40 seconds off last month's time to run 34:40. Durante knocked 2 minutes off his Homebush time to run 35:30. He'll be winning these races soon. Ray must have gone through 5km in under 16:40.

[Just looked back over Blog and compared last September's race at North Head when I ran 33:51. Apparently went through 3km in 9:50 and 5km in 16:36 that day which suggests much more sensible pacing today! Can put that down to Andrew - Mr Even Pace.]