Kicked off with a 21:30 at St Peters parkrun. A tough course, no question, and mitigated somewhat by a 4:30/km pace over the 7km from home to start (overslept) and just making the gun, but I'd hoped to be running closer to 20:00 than that. A course change to Cook's River, a much flatter course, but with three momentum sapping U-turns, saw the time drop to 20:06. Might have notched sub-20, but had drafted off an old boy for much of the run and felt it would be rude to go for the pass right at the end. That said he did pace me over the last km at 3:50/km.
Up next was the Sydney Striders second 10k race of the season at North Head. I think the fear in my eyes says it all:
Optimism got the better of me and I lined up with the 40-minute pacer, Julia Degan. A quality runner, but perhaps not the ideal pacer. She ran the first kilometre in 3:50 and the second in 3:55. The third? No idea, that was the last I saw of her little flag as I blew up. For the FIRST time. The pace became 4:15 and then a walk. Time to take stock and think about a secondary goal. Knowing Victoria would be coming past soon, aiming for sub-45, I decided to pick her up and pace her to her goal. Not a chance. Blow up number two was even more spectacular. I staggered off the course at the 7km mark and sought solace in the public toilets. A dump helped to regain some composure and I was back out on track. Up the road I could see the 50-minute pacer! The primary goal was now simply to finish. Feeling dreadful, despite running at 4:50's, I managed to drag myself around the final few kilometres, just sneaking in under 50 minutes.
Absolute disgrace. Last September I ran the same course in 40:55, despite being absolutely sideways (had still been drinking at 3am, racing at 7am), and now I was nine minutes slower. A personal worst by quite someway.
On a positive note, Victoria smashed her personal best by getting round in just over 45 minutes. A cracking result, especially so early in the season. She will go significantly faster than that this year.
I guess it's a bit unfair to be comparing my time to the last time I ran the course, as I was easily at my peak in September of 2015. The real marker will come in April at Canberra, where I will be running the half marathon again. 1:40:50 is the time to beat. Simply being faster over the same event will be a big confidence boost, but the early signs are not looking too good. If I'm not careful I could easily be coming in behind Victoria again (who is also aiming for sub-100 minutes), and that will live long in some people's memories.
