Just for Tesso!

Last week, Tesso left a comment on this blog, part of which read "you are bludging in the 10k"... (now, to be fair, that quote is taken completely out of context, but if it's good enough for journos, then it's good enough for me :-) :-)). Anyhow, having thus been accused, and having a nice 10k romp on the calendar (Lane Cove? Romp? Yeah, Right!), I set out to do something about it.

As Lane Cove is not so much an out & back course as an up & down one, I figured that the key was in the hills. In previous races I'd done the back half pretty much as fast as I could, so I decided to really push the up hills and see if I had enough left in me to cope with the downs. I went out with Nicho, who, after much chiding from me about his propensity for going out too fast, decided on a more conservative start. Added to that, someone nicked the first few k markers, so we were running blind for a while. I know that I was ahead of 'normal' time because I got to the bottom of Scribbly Gums (a short - and seemingly near vertical - side track used to make up the distance) before the lead runners got back down. I felt pretty good in spite of pushing harder, so I was hopeful that a pb was possible. The hill from 4 to 5.5k (the turnaround) is really ugly, but I got to 5k in 21:40. Now I was sure that a pb was possible.

I rested a bit on the way back down the ugly hill, and then at about 6k I started to put the foot down. Nicho was having breathing problems, so I left him there (great friend I am, huh! :-)) and started picking people off. At 9k, I only needed about a 4:30 to get a pb, and I knew that I could go much faster than that. Seagull was just in front, and I worked on getting on to his back before the final turn across the weir. On the weir, I just floored it and shot past him for the one and only time I'll ever beat him (I found out later that he's been crook all week, so no wonder. Still, I'll take 'em when I can get 'em :-)).

Tiger angel was doing her duty as a recorder, and as I came through, I said "missed by 3 seconds" as the time clock was showing 43:03. It wasn't until later that she found out that I'd actually beaten my pb by about 30 seconds. We're strange people, aren't we (or at least I am). If I'd come through at say 43:25, I would have been overjoyed by taking 10 seconds off the pb, but because I missed a long dreamed of goal by 3, I was disappointed!!??!! Still, I wasn't disappointed for long (maybe 3 milliseconds), and I'm wrapt by such a big slice off, especially on such a difficult course.

The results have just been posted, and they've got me down at 43:09. Don't know what happened to the other 6 seconds, but the finishing order of the people around me was right, so I guess that the clock must have been out. Still wrapt though :-)

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Tiger Angel went out for a walk this morning, so I stayed home (in bed), intending to do my run this afternoon instead. I have to admit that I got a bit annoyed when she got home and told me that she'd run after all (4k @ 6:20), but I find it hard to stay annoyed with her for long ;-). She's feeling a bit tired & sore tonight, but otherwise OK.

The continuing saga of her health took a new turn this week. Added to the other issues that we've discussed over the last 6 months, the docs have now decided that she is also dealing with reactive arthritis brought on by a bout of Salmonella poisioning she got while in Cambodia. This accounts for some of the pain she's been suffering, and also provides yet another bit of hope for the future. Yes, it should go away with time.

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After church (tiger angel spoke; it was wonderful), having lunch with friends and then watching the last part of Micro's footy match, I finally buckled up for a run about 4:30pm. I was aiming for 2 hours, distance unimportant. It's lucky that I wasn't worried about the distance, because I only ended up doing about 19k in the 2 hours. That was a bit surprising, I didn't think that I was going that slowly, but I know that as I was still feeling a bit whacked after yesterday's run, I wasn't pushing it either.

Anyhow, that's another week ticked off (60k). My aim at the moment is just to retain my endurance/fitness/speed while I decide just what I'm going to aim for next. A few ideas are starting to percolate to the top. Watch this space...

Gnome