Striders 10km Homebush - 36:24

Picked up Dicky Green at 5.50am and was chatting to him on the way to Homebush about fitness and training etc. I indicated that my hope was to run under 36mins today. He said he had no idea but anything under 40mins would be OK. Little did I know at that stage that I'd be seeing a lot of him for the rest of the morning.

With high humidity (despite not being too hot) I realised after the first km was reached in 3:30 that 36mins was going to be tough. I seemed to be miles back in the field during the first 2km. I deliberately didn't sprint off and tried to work my way through the pack instead. I was running with Dicky but with large groups in front who we gradually picked our way through. However, just after 3km when reaching the horsetrack he gradually eased ahead and I was on my own again. I reached 5km in 18:10 just after someone else had come past and realised that it was time to make an effort to keep in touch and claw some places back. I passed a group including Shaun Aichison and Steve Jackson along the road to 6km, and then Eoin Reville at 7km. Dicky started coming back at 8km so I just pushed on. Finished in 36:24. Time not great but it's my first race after only a month comeback training so can't expect too much. The pleasing bit was feeling much stronger in the second half and recording only a 4 second positive split when others blew out much more. That's probably got more to do with being scared of the distance in the first half though.

Tucks ran strong for 2nd place in 33:05 (times generally were relatively slow today). Great to see the Judge out there running just over 35 mins. Ray started coming back towards me at the end in running just over 36. Keith Bateman is looking very fit but blew up in the second half and ran high 34. Good shouts from the sidelines from the Tiger and Silverfox. Cheers all.