Saturday - Parkrun

Another attempt at the Curl Curl Parkrun this morning. Conditions were slightly better than last week, although still relative humid. A great turnout today with Mike, Jerome, Jody and Eoin turning up - making for some great competition. And that is the way it stayed for the majority of the race. I took the lead from the start with the chasing pack breathing down my neck. I could progressively hear less and less breathing behind me, a sign that there were less and less of them. Just after the grass courts (about 2.5km) I decided to see who was there to discover Mike and Jody. So I let Mike do some work and sat off him for a bit. Then we had a sort of cat and mouse for the remainder of the run, dropping Jody not long after (although to his credit he never gave up and wasn’t too far behind at all). Got to the final straight (600m to go) and that’s when my legs started ‘rigging’ (that sensation when your brain tells your leg muscles to contract but your leg muscles ignore it). So I waved the white flag and went to survival mode, doing my best to stay with Mike to the finish line. He got me by one or two seconds (we’ll have to wait until the official results come out later today), but we were both stoked with our times - I finished with 16:21/2/3? (Forgot to stop my watch at the end, so again I’ll have to wait until later today). Nevertheless, it’s an improvement on last week using what was arguably a tougher race strategy today (I was the ‘pacer’ today, whereas last week I simply shadowed Andy and Harlan, which is always easier). So I’m definitely back on track - I know that when I can crack 16 minutes then I’ll be back to where I was at the end of 2015, which was at my fastest. A nice easy long cool-down along the coast for 17km all up.