A hot date.....

Today: 24km
Week: 81km
Month: 127km
Year: 1957km

I had said to Bernie last week we had a hot date with sub 70mins coming to us ..... for a while there it looked like we might get stood up, but Mr 68 and Mr 69 came through in the end! We lined up nice and early and had a great spot on the start line. The time flew chatting with all the CR's and Striders and before I knew it the gun went off. It took me a while to warm up.... I had a stich and felt really stiff for the first two kms after all that standing around. Then I settled into a really comfortable pace and just aimed to maintain it. My goal was to reach the top of hear break hill in 40mins and the 10km mark just under 50mins. I thought if I could do that I had a good chance of a sub 70min finish. The kms seemed to fly by and it was the beginning of hearbreak hill. By now I was feeling really hot and decided to just focus on my form and not look up at how far to go. The hill was tough but I was holding back.... Sean had warned me not to use evrything up on the hill so I could run fast the last few km's. I was passing heaps of people which gave me a boost. At about the top of the hill I started to feel quite nautious and really hot. Evry time I tried to pick up the pace I thought I would be sick. So I just backed off a bit for a few hundred meters and then it disapeared... phew!! I got to 10km in 49:40 and thought Yes I can do this. I let the breaks off and ran hard on the down hill section..... again I was passing heaps of people and I was feeling excited. Just as I was turning into Campbell Pd Deanne appeared..... what a sight for sore eyes! I then just focused on keeping her just in front of me. I looked at the watch and had a quick calculation and knew I had a sub 70min in the bag and thought if I can keep this pace I might get under 69mins. Theat last km seems to go on and on and on and I was desparately looking for the turn. I could see the clock said 68:10 so I put in a good surge and had my eyes glued on the clock as the seconds clicked over. I crossed the finish line and the guy gave me a card that said 68:54..... WOO HOO!!! A 2min 20sec pb and a sub 70mins...... I was very happy, very pooped and soooo happy that was over :-) All the swaet girls ran really well!! Lots of PB's and happy faces :-)

We sat around in the sun and caught up with evryone before heading home to eat and have a rest. Once I was showered, fed and watered I felt great and headed out with Ray for a nice easy run and the a really good stretch.... and then ray gave my calves a nice massage :-) The legs felt really good after this afternoons run and stretch.... haha although I was pretty pooped. I kept thinking all good practice for that last 3kms in the sydney marathon.

Splits:
1km 4:46
2km 4:57
3km 4:53
4km 4:52
5km 4:37
6km 4:49
7km 5:30 (heartbreak hill)
8km 5:28 (heartbreak hill)
9km 4:52
10km 4:56
11km 5:03
12km 4:43
13km 4:12
14km 4:47
100m 26sec (4:00/km pace)
68:54