Long Sunday with (half) the Manly Crew (30km)

A long awaited return (10 months, in fact) to running with the Manly Crew for a Sunday long run.mlong convinced that the pace was too slow, I have come to realise that this has been one of my undoings over the past 10 months - namely, running Sunday too fast. After a few failed attempts of backing the pace off solo, the only was to go cold turkey was to actually run with the gentlemen. And bloody glad it did. It was so much nicer, more social - and felt heaps shorter. Joined by Tom, Scotty, Craig, Ray and Tim. The first few kilometers were just shy of 4:40's - so I was a bit apprehensive from the onset. Although it wasn't long before I completely ignored this, occasionally glancing at the beeping Garmin, noticing a consistent 4:20 or thereabouts. Just before we hit Dee Why, we snuck in a few sub-4's, before really upping the anti from the 22km mark - hitting a few sub 3:30's. Tom and Craig peeled off early, leaving Scott and myself running back to Queenscliff. Ran about 400m past my place at North Steyne before turning around to get the full 30km. Last kilometer was a swift 3:18. Lost everyone after - including Scott. No B&E roll, or, more tragically, no breakfast burrito at The Troubodour (the real reason I ran with the crew)! All good, luckily I made a batch of granola yesterday - will be the first time without my traditional bowl of muesli in well over 12 months. Who said I was a creature of habit! 4:10's all up, averaging a much lower 130 beats per minute - both of which are all time records for my Sunday long run (slowest and lowest respectively)!