Well, after a big Thursday night, a boozy Friday lunch and another couple of beers in the evening, this morning was always going to be tough. Did a 4km warm up in the dark solo to warm up the achilles then said the usual hellos to Timmy, Paulie B, Neil P, Quentin, Dicky H et al on the start line. Plan today was to start easy and work my way into it. Felt good to start. Dave Criniti had raced off with Neil following him. Quentin and I were running side by side (again) in 3rd and 4th. Struggled up Scribbly Gums and was overtaken by another 2 young blokes I didn't recognise. At the bottom, one pushed on while the other dropped back. Quentin was forcing the pace a bit so just stuck to him.
Stayed this way until 6km when I felt Quentin wasn't pushing the pace as much. Started to think, hell, this could be my day, maybe my head to heads are too aspirational after all. I started working the hills but he'd always reattach himself on the flats. Really worked the hill with 2km to go but again he reattached. We were quickening the pace the whole time as the 3rd placed bloke was coming back towards us having been a long way ahead at the 5km turn, and even Neil P was in sight. With 1km to go I really upped the pace but Q was still holding on. At the turn at the toilets (500m to go) he says something like "that's it, I'm done", I think, you beauty, but then he starts sprinting again the sly old fox. So what ensued was an unattractive Highnam desperate sprint to the line just holding him off and just missing out on 3rd place in the process.
3km warm down for a good morning's efforts. I used to run 33:30's on this course regularly. But then I used to take these races much more seriously. Feel like I'm in OK shape. Not many great runs out there. Uncle Dave ran a stormer in 32:13, Ben S is on the comeback with a 38:30 and Justin seemed happy with his scalps but Dicky G, 'Lil Jimmy M and Timmy all struggled.
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