I dipped under an hour for the first time in one of the G3 10Ks, 117th/283 overall, 44th in my age group. Big smile on my face. I felt rough this morning waking up at 6:15, I’m still getting over a headcold so lots of gunk flowing (sorry, TMI) and haven’t run or done any activity since Tuesday.

I had a caffeine gel before I started, and went for it. Starting near the front, I got pushed along with the big boys and girls and first mile was faster than I’d normally run. There are lots of long downhills and uphills on this route, and when I’d been overtaken by a couple of dozen people I got a bit disheartened and put this one down to experience and started to enjoy it rather than go hard, and stopped worrying about being overtaken. I started walking the steeper parts of the hills – walking quickly, but still walking. When I got to the last mile or I could see loads of people in front of me but I felt fairly OK, and I knew exactly the route and how far it was, so I ran a bit harder. I looked at my watch with a few hundred metres to go and saw it was 56 minutes. My heart started to beat a bit quicker – in the same race, same route last year I finished in 1:04:35, and at that moment I realised that I might be able to get under the hour this time. I fixated on the guy in front of me, and the sounds of the people behind me, put my head down and ran as hard as I could, keeping form as best I could with some fairly oozy mud involved. When I could see the finish line I glanced at my watch again, 58 minutes. Could I do it? My legs were hurting and I could feel myself slowing, but I was keeping up with the guy in front and those sounds behind me were keeping at bay, so I had one last push and sprinted over the line.

For me, knocking 5 minutes off the last year and dipping under an hour felt like winning the bloody thing. I scooped up a banana and a couple of flapjacks and some water, and went and bounced off some walls for a bit. Then I ran two miles cooldown, which I never do, but I just felt like getting rid of this excess energy I had, and I really enjoyed that last little run.

Now my calves are like rock. Time for some R&R with Sarah and the kids, and maybe a spot of rolling later on. Not sure if that 10k is good miles or bad with the big races coming my way, but it was real fun so I’m going to take the former. Bosh.

http://connect.garmin.com/activity/279158351