A Whirlwind Weekend

Didn't get a chance to post throught the weekend - simply too much on. Friday night saw Coolrunning drinks at the James Squire Brewhouse, and a great night was had by all.

Saturday
Woke up with an 'okay' stomach and the feeling of having a vice installed on my head. Didn't feel remotely close to running in the morning, and had one of those days where everytime you looked at the time you'd just lost another hour and a half. I finally got what I needed to get done finished at about 5:30 (we were heading out at 6:30), and thought to myself "I might sneak out for a jog" while absent mindedly eating something. Bugger.

Sunday
From Coolrunning
Well, I said I'd be running 90 minutes for those who wanted a pacer, and ran 89:52 - shame no-one came along to the end. My big tip to those wanting to pace - write your splits down, or at least memorise them.

I ran with Mister G initially, and kept to 4:16 as per the GPS - we were within a second either way per km through the first six. His breathing through this suggested to me he was struggling, and so it proved with him falling away around 6 1/2 km.

I ran to 4:16 pace on the GPS up until the turnaround, and decided to wind the pace back to match the course distance (there was a difference of around 120 metres at this point). In typical style, trying to run in a more relaxed and comfortable tempo meant I ran more quickly!

I caught a few Coolrunners through to the 15km point, including Blue Dog and Superflake. I was a minute ahead of schedule at the 15km marker, so jogged backwards to see who was coming and kill some time (including trampling a cone... ) and then kicked off again at 85:20.

It took some time to regain speed (although no-one came through with me), and when I got to 18km I realised I was going to have to do a some sub 4 min kms to finish sub 90. I wound up the pace, passed a couple of people (including a fellow in one of the yellow Nike 'You're the Run...' tops with about 500 to go who tried to come with me and couldn't).

I picked the second place woman up with about 300 to go and, yelling encouragement, we flew home. After crossing the line, I went to congratulate her, then realising she was being ill - guess she gave everything!

A good day. I felt very comfortable at 4:16 pace, pleasing considering this time last week I was four hours into another hitout at Six Foot. Adaptation is a wonderful thing...