Striders 10k North Head

From Coolrunning:

Bit of a feel of old times this morning as I returned to the trusted old routine of getting up at 4, grabbing some brekkie (two bits of toast with honey with no butter and a strong cup of coffee), getting back to bed for an hour or so, then getting back up and getting ready.

This went further with picking up Johnny Dark, 26.2 miles and Mister G on the way over - fair to say a bit of a 'road trip' feel to it as we made our way over to Manly.

We arrived at 6:30 after not getting lost around North Head and it quickly became apparent parking was a BIG problem - it transpired later that Little Elf arrived on time, but couldn't find a park and missed the start. We ended up about 500 metres away, so I counted that as part of the warm up.

I wasn't sure what to expect after Thursday's odd 2 x 2k session (blog comment soon) but figured if I was in the vicinity of 39 minutes I'd be reasonably content.

Grabbed a quick 10 minute warm up and scuttled back to the start line with a couple of minutes to spare.

Felt pretty good from the get-go and settled in behind Blue Dog, with Superflake and MPHaz for company. Got through the first km in around 3:50 and dropped these guys over the next couple of km to go through the 5k mark in around 19:30 or so (didn't take splits). I'd been tracking 26.2 miles for a while to here and slipped past when he took a water bag.

Something a bit weird mentally happened at around the 6km mark and I somehow got the impression I was a chance to break 38 minutes. After deliberately taking it a little easier on the uphill 'out'section after the turnaround, I was bouyed by this impression (which I yelled to a few people!) and pushed hard from 6 1/2km.

At 9km it was apparent I'd misread the watch as the time ticked over 35 minutes. I elected to push on anyway, since I was feeling pretty strong. At about 9.5km (not long after the roundabout) the legs mentioned that we'd been pushing for a while and wondered if we were contemplating back off a bit. I'd seen KT26 Dave and thought I might have sniff.

I didn't though, and got home in 38:40. Okay, it's 18 seconds outside my PB, but I certainly feel like I'm coming back into form. I felt strong the whole way after a strong start, and think I ran a 15-20 second negative split. I wasn't struggling aerobically, and found some speed over the last couple of km.

Fantastic to catch up with a BIG group of CRs and Striders for pancakes after the finish, and I think we made a big impression on our US vistor from the UK, Siri. Congrats to the PBers today, particularly Lonewolf who quietly slipped under the magic 40 minute mark, also to Mister G who edges closer to the same mark, Aunty Karin and Spud (plus anyone I missed - there were a few), and good to see gnscon and Belinda make their returns.

Cheers to 26.2 miles for the company on the 4.5km jog, although we missed out on the food.

Oooh, I'm looking forward to Lane Cove. That promises to be very interesting...