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.

WAMC Lake Joondalup 10k : 34:33 ; 54 sec PB

Perfect conditions for racing ; woke at 6 today but still felt like I hadn’t woken up when I got to the course. I’d had green tea and a Sustagen Sport, then a long black. Picked up when I got to the race venue and the adrenaline started to kick in. Had a Torq gel 20 minutes before and then did a few k’s to warmup, so by the time I was on the start line I felt ready to go.

It’s a rolling hills course (map here) with a hairpin at the turnaround and a steep climb up to the 3k/8k mark to not the fastest course but not too bad either. Went out fastish but tried to hold my 2-2 breathing as I think that’s ~my 10k pace effort. Unfortunately I couldn’t get a group to run with so ran most on my own. Funny, some folks who I thought would do the 10 did the 5 and vice versa  – Emily Loughnan Steven Courtney (?!), and MArc See and Scott from Mona’s camp did the 10.

Scott was running close to another guy and I tried to keep them in sight ; went through 5k in 17:10, so game on. K’s 7 and 8 I let slip to 3:36, but they are the k’s with the biggest hills, so that’s OK. Picked up from 8k when I felt I was reeling Scott & co in and really pushed. I put in a surge to go past them and about 10 second later I though I was about to spew! Slowed down a bit then … problem with this course is that you can’t see the finish until about 200m away. Ran as fast as my little legs would carry me down the slight incline to the finish, and almost got squeezed out of the finish by a 5k finisher.

Stoked with the run, pacing was good, picked up a few places in the second half and a great result. Can’t criticise myself for lack of effort or anything so very pleased. I think the two 3:35’s were paying the piper, which had to be done at some point I suppose.

Splits: 3:19 / 3:29 / 3:32 / 3:22 / 3:28 / 3:29 / 3:36 / 3:36 / 3:24 / 3:19

Race was won by Roberto Busi in 30:50, first time he's broken 31. Second was Ethan Heywood and 3rd Raf Baugh, both a bit over 31. Kenji  Nener, Gerard Hill, Marc See were well placed in the 10 as well.

Biscuitman has also put up some photos from the race here.

Wally Cairns XC 15km 4th in 58:48

Since KOTM on the 27th, I've got another year older and put in another couple of 110km weeks. Definite training highlight was the 14km tempo run at 3:36min/km and last Thursday and the 30.6km (@4:22) run on the pipeline in the hills to my birthday breakfast at Glen Forrest. Have felt a little tired in the days since July 1 - mostly because I've done a few races in June, and also because of the basket of choccies and other bad stuff that I've consumed.

After a good 26km (@ 4:20 HR150 ) in the hills ( Mundaring-MtHelena Chidlow  and return) Saturday morning I turned out for the Wally Cairns Cross Country in King's Park on a cool and wet Sunday morning. It's a good strength run – it isn’t fast because it’s on the soft sand trails of KP. Bucketed with rain as well which turned the sand to marshmallow. Probably 300m of grass, 300m of paving and the rest on sand. Glutes and quads know they’ve been thru the grinder thats for sure…

Map here

Nice thing about this one is that you go past the finish on each 5k lap so you can decide when you've had enough. Foolishly, I did all 3. Finished 4th behind perpetual winner Scott Tamblin and Todd Ingraham.

Easy week now to prep for Lake Joondalup 10k.

King of the Mountain 16km ; 5th in 1:02:55

Really, really cold. The car said -2 degrees at Mundaring Weir. There was a bit of a breeze too to add some zing. Standing on the start in my Strands singlet waiting for the off I thought my nuts were going to fall off – I was starting to feel hungry as well – whoops! I also had a scratchy throat from being out the night before in a really load pub to celebrate a few folk’s recent races and a commencement of their time off. Didn’t really have an opportunity to do much of a warm-up, so a little after my Torq+Guarana Gel we were off.

Felt OK at first but soon the cold was starting to hurt my lungs – I was hoping it would pass and it did, but only after about 10k. Again I started to feel a bit stronger as it went on. A good turnout for the race ; Ingraham, Busi(!), Lee, Stockwell, Fuery etc.

The first creek was much lower than in previous years, so I only really got one foot wet ; the other a bit damp... was confused by the marshall direction here so lost about 10 seconds going the wrong way, so unfortunately lost touch with Liam. I'm easily confused when it's 2 degrees and I'm running hard.

I was overtaken by a couple of guys mid-way through, but I never let them get too far ahead ; It was weird, there was a string of 5 of us – the gaps lengthened down the hills, but compressed up the hills. About 5k from the finish I could tell that Stockwell and a couple of others were starting to struggle up the hills, and the line started to break up a bit.

I managed to pick off the first two to move into 6th,and then just before the big hill to the finish I overtook Stephen. I fully expected him and the stronger of the other two to flash past at any point. They never did ; the guy behind was struggling as much as I was and I managed to hold him off, and Stephen ended up being 15 seconds back.

Thrilled with the run in the end, I didn’t feel too flash but stuck it out and got a result. 11 minutes quicker than my effort in 2007 – admittedly that was 3 weeks after my first marathon.

Its a great event, with a good atmosphere and a nice breakfast supplied at the finish. It’s a tough run – the elevation profile doesn’t do it justice – its pretty bumpy with a lot of steep ups and downs. The Choo-Choo was ideal preparation though, I reckon it helped me outlast runners who would normally beat me.

Perth Relay Marathon - a win!

Fantastic run today. Felt really good right from the start. Simon Elliot gave our team a great lead-off, and Biscuitman backed up with an excellent second leg – I reckon he had the worst of the conditions. I was a 3:47 minutes adrift of first place and 7 seconds off second when I set off for my two legs - from Troy Park back to the finish, but figured all I could do was hit my pace, not burn out, and see what happened.see what happened.

Went into second place after about a k and just kept hitting my kms at a good pace - they didn't vary too much. Had a few problems getting past the 3:30 bus ; I had to wait behind runners for oncoming relay and marathoner, so the run was a little fartlekky for the first 8k or so until I got clear. Hit the changeover in 34 minutes (making the last leg ~32:45), and saw Jim Langford anxiously looking for his runner - the guy who *was* in second. At this point I was just over 2 minutes behind. Jim's guy was still 5 minutes away...

Just about had a heart attack when I saw the leading runner about 200m ahead with about 3.5 km to go. I could see that I was reeling him in quickly, so I relaxed, tried to go really really quietly and then went past him. I knew who it was and that all I had to do was maintain my 3:37’s and it was all over ; we won in the end by over a minute and a half.

Splits:
4:19(to 24k mark)/3:32/3:34/3:41/3:36/3:41/7:24(2k)/
3:38/3:35/3:39/3:40/3:37/3:37/3:35/3:35/0:41(195m)

18.6km in 1:06:45 (3:35 min/km)
9.4km Leg 3: 34:00 (3:37)
9.2km Leg 4: 32:45 (3:34)

Great team effort, and we ran the time I thought we would – 2:35:02. Didn’t beat the leading solo marathoner, but it was close. Roberto Busi had a great run and won it in 2:32. That’s next year’s target…..