Sydney Striders 10km Series - Race 9 Homebush (am) + 8km recovery (pm)

Everyone's least favourite of the three Sydney Striders' 10km courses. I don't know what it is, but the course itself is notorious for not being super quick, coupled with a somewhat bland scenery. Got up nice and early, picked Sigrid up and drove out to a glorious sunset. Thankfully the heat of the day hadn't set in (one of the advantages of an early start). Looked around at the start line and thought I might actually have a chance of taking line honours. Thankfully I spotted Matthew Cox, Chris Loader and Dave Criniti right before the gun went. I jumped in behind them, content to let them go (not they I had any choice, those guys are in a completely different league)! A voice said hello about 200m in, I turned around to see Quentin. I was stoked, as I knew that I could work with him - the past two Striders races I have been left solo, and was not keen to make it three in a row. Sat with Quentin for the first lap, crossing the halfway mark in a fairly comfortably hard but controlled 16:30. I was planning to make a move not long after, as I could hear Quentin starting to breathe harder and harder. But then flashed back to the same race in February when I thought the same with Tom and Hoey, only to hit the wall massively at the 8km mark. Took some turns back and front with Quentin, gradually winding in third placed Criniti at the same time. Got to the 9km mark, and actually really started to catch Criniti. Thought Quentin was dropped. Then got to my Achilles heel - that bloody bridge with 200m to go. For whatever reason, envy time I race here, I essentially come to a standstill at this point. Today was no different - looked around my left shoulder and couldn't see Quentin. Content, I ran to the finish line - only to see him blistering past me with 100m to go. I had nothing, so was happy (well, as 'happy' as I could be) to let him go. Crossed the line in 33:10, a massive course PB and second fastest time ever over 10km. Ecstatic with that. Went for a 3km easy cooldown with Quentin for around about 16km all up. Great start to the long weekend. Time to jump into the ocean once again!

Had to divert my easy run this afternoon due to the Manly Jazz Festival. Ended up running 8 x 1km loop from North Steyne SLSC to Queenscliff SLSC & return. Boring!!! 4:37 min/km pace averaging 119 beats per minute.