Happy hunting ground

PHOTO - The chase pack at Kurrawa around the 7-8k mark - Myself, Beth, Pete in white singlet and Natasha Keim(rear)

Wed - 19k's @ 5:00mins/km
Did Green Bridge loop by myself

Thurs - 10k's @ 5:10mins/km - treadmill

Fri - 2/1/30 secs with 30JR x 2, 2min, 3 min
Worked strongly in Gardens with Andy C and i driving each other hard the whole way.

Sun - Kurrawa - 25k's in about 1:41:55 avg 4:05 mins/km - 5k splits- 20:28, 20:40, 20:00, 20:00, 20:50
The alarm went off at 2:40am after 5 hours sleep and before I knew it, I had picked up Slash and we were at Kurrawa at 4:40am. I went for an easy 1k warmup and was ready to go come gun time. Despite a lack of endurance training lately and a few missed long runs, I was quietly confident I could better last years time given a well judged run. I settled into 6th place running alongside my Wednesday running group partner, Beth with Pete and a few others in close attendance. I was feeling strong and relaxed but taking care to keep plenty of energy in reserve. I made a little surge at the steps leading to the 5k mark and broke up the chase pack for the first time, but I didn't push home the advantage, letting the others work a bit catching up to me. As the 10k approached, Beth and I upped the pace clearing out from the pack and we worked strongly together until I moved ahead going over the Currumbin Bridge to move into fourth place overall. Coming off the bridge I was overtaken by leading Australian ultra runner, David Eadie who was doing the 50k solo and looking in great shape. I decided to go with him and moved out of my comfort zone to do so - I only had 10k's to go and I'll be damned if I let a solo runner beat me!! David and I worked well together over the next 5k's keeping the pace ticking over and overtaking one of the Bayliss boys who had gone out with Jason Geraghty and blown up in the process. Just after the 20k I accepted my last drink from Slash who had done a great job of crewing me and told him to go to Duranbah and get ready. No sooner than I had said this, I started to feel the pinch. It felt like I was slowing down to 5:00 pace but I kept telling myself that it was getting hot and everyone else would be hurting also and just to keep pushing for one more k and see how I felt at the end of it. This continued till Burleigh where I got hampered by pedestrian traffic in the markets and was outsmarted by Eadie, who pinched a 20 metre break on me by running on the grass. I tried hard to bridge the gap but he was too strong and before I knew it I had reached the big hill at Duranbah. I worked up the hill strongly and then hammered it down the other side making up some ground to Eadie before tagging Slash to end my run in about 1:41:55, maybe a tad over 1:42. I had the wobbles for about 10 minutes afterwards with the last five k's taking a lot out of me but I was very happy to run a controlled but hard 25k on a light endurance base in a time that would have given me a half marathon PB and on a tough course too!!! I was fourth overall to Duranbah and the first team runner to arrive.

After getting over the wobbles and taking forever to find the car, I caught up to Slash 35mins into his run and began crewing. Slash was soon overtaken by Jess Kirley who assumed the overall team lead and the mixed team lead but we were still the leading male team with no rivals in sight. Over the next 15k's the gutsy Slash defied a throat infection and a total lack of endurance training to stagger home in 28 degree heat with yours truly giving him and earful the whole way!! We were third to return to Kurrawa behind the amazing Eadie who put a lot of team runners to shame and Jess and Natasha Keim who took out the mixed team title. Despite being 12 minutes slower than last year, Slash and I improved on our third placing to take out the first placed male team from in a time that was 35 minutes slower than Christian Cobbold and Shane George did last year. Just goes to show anything can happen if you turn up on the day. I was expecting that we would come about fifth and was truly shocked to get the category 'W'.

Pulled up very well - Kurrawa again being a happy hunting ground for me.