City to Surf 12k in 43:06 27th overall, 1st in 40-49 Age Group

Funny how life catches up with you. I just had no zip in my legs at all today, it was just plain unpleasant hard work today. At no point did I feel good. My HR hit 185 just before the top of Malcolm St hill and I wanted to stop from that point onward. Average HR was about 180 – hard to tell it dropped out a bit, but I was in the red zone for all but the first 2 minutes. I may have gone too hard at first, and after 7k all I wanted to do was give it away.

4k 13:35 (3:24)

7k 24:31 (3:38)

9k 31:37 (3:33)

10k 35:45 (4:08)

11k 39:44 (4:01)

12k 43:08 (3:23)

Some k markers were dubious so the above splits are not really worth much.I can’t complain, I’ve had a lot of good races this year, I’m bound to have a bad one sooner or later. It’s still 26 seconds faster than last year…. and another thing I can say is that I wasn’t overtaken by anyone except Mark Lee who pipped me on the line. Turns out I won my age group too :-)

A highlight for me, I did enjoy being amongst the leading women ; Melinda Vernon (winner of 2009 Sydney C2S) was just ahead and I had Tara Palm breathing down my neck at the bottom of Oceanic. I was alongside Lisa Weightman up Malcolm St hill, clearly she was just taking it easy. Then she put the hammer down and disappeared from view. Amazing athlete.

Perth HM ; 8th in 1:15:37

Thrilled with the time, sustained my pace well today. I liked the new course – there were quite a few challenging little hills and turns, but they keep you honest, and certainly present a good test esp. in the latter stages.

I ran the first 7k or so side by side with Scott Thomson (who also took nearly two minutes of his PB ; scary what he'll be doing in a year's time), until he dropped back going back over the Narrows after the turnaround. I was by myself from there on which is my one disappointment with the day. Stephen Stockwell ran really well today – I was ten metres back until about 8k when I think he spotted Sam May ahead and cranked it up a notch – he ended up fifth in 1:14:35.

Felt pretty strong, and of course had to dig deeper and deeper to keep the pace going. The carrot of having Sam May about 40m ahead ( I felt he was fading) was good, it kept me focussed. Going past the club and hearing my name called out and a bit of support was great, it gave me a lift, but it wasn’t too long before I was past the club and on the lonely path out to East Perth. The bridge is always a bit of a test with it’s twists and turns, then around Claisebrook and up that little bastard of a hill to start the run for home.

I was closing on Sam (and his second, feeding him from the bike) on the Causeway now only 15m ahead. As I came off, to go down and under and up to the finish I saw Kim and Trish (her pacer) and they gave me a big cheer which really helped. Surged past Sam about a k to go, and then just tried to hang on.

5k: 17:43
10k: 35:45
15k: 53:48
20k: 1:11:55
HM: 1:15:37

Ecstatic with the result, sub-76 and top 10 was unthinkable a year ago.