Gold Coast Half - 29th in 71:18

Pretty poor night's sleep as I was quite hyped after the Lions result and then up after Barts shouted at me at 5am(!). Jogged to the start and caught up with LJ before a few run throughs catching a load of others - Tiger, Richie P, Hamish, Anna and others. And then, still in darkness, we're off.

Plan was not to sprint off but start stead and build into the race. Nikki Chapple was on the start line in front of me so I knew she was someone I could pace off, as well as Barts. I'd been feeling really good in training recently so was hoping for a good time, at least a PB (my longest standing). Pretty soon there were three groups on the road - the leaders, a big group including Vlad and Chadi and then the group of Barts, Nikki, Jess Trengrove, some lad representing the ACT and myself. Nikki was setting the pace like a metronome. I wasn't wearing a watch, but Barts said that after a 3:08 opening km she was banging out 3:20's like clockwork. We reached 10km in 33:27 pretty much intact but with Jess dropping off. Then at the turn (10.8km) Nikki just seemed to put the hammer down (in truth, I think she just maintained pace) while Barts and I ran together. This was my worst spot from 10km to 12km. Barts started to form a gap and I thought, here we go, it's all over. Then, bizarrely at 12km, he drops his gel while trying to open it, and starts scrabbling around on the road trying to pick it up like a blind man searching for his glasses. I thought thank God, I'm back on him again and so sit in.

Felt the pace start to drop here. There's a bloke 50m up the road being spat out from the earlier group so I put a burst in to catch him. Do so and, with a stroke of luck, he ups the pace so sit behind him now hoping to pull away from Barts. It's starting to hurt here (16km) but we're in a good rhythm so I stick to it. Then at 18km he starts to slow so I try to push on, conscious Barts always finishes strong. Sure enough, I pass J-Fen shortly after and he gives me a shout, then shouts for Barts about 5s later. Feck. This isn't going to be easy. Desperately try to keep on lifting the pace. Final km and the turn seems to take forever to come. Reach the final run in, take a quick look and just kick for home.

Stoked with the PB and finally able to give Barts a run for his money. He finished 7s back. Run of the day was Laura's 2min PB for a 78:35. Anna also cracked 80 mins for the first time.

Now for some beers.