run race 31:31 [5] 7.85 km (4:01 / km)
shoes: Saucony Mirage 2
Probably a bit premature, but I found out during the week that I had already missed the first month of the local running club season, so used it as an excuse to force myself to wake up early for a change (have been struggling to get out of bed before 9am for the last 2 weeks).
Times have changed up here. Juniors all in fluoro orange vests, timing band ($10 for the season, 5 back if you return it at the end of the year). I signed up for the whole season. Not sure how many races I'll do, but at least I won't have t remember money each week.
Did enough of a warm up to know that my achilleses were feeling good - lie really good - no niggles at all, but didn't do any run throughs or anything sensible like that. After two days of rain! (we had the monthly average fall in 5 hours yesterday) it was surprisingly warm, and I know I am well underdone, so resolved to run with the leaders at the start and see what happened (at least confident that there weren't any top quality runners hidden in the field).
So off we went, and some young punk took off. Figured he wouldn't last, unless he was trying to camouflage himself with the footy jumper, and sure enough he faded after about 500m and I worked my way through the tangle of little orange people (who for some reason get the bonus of starting across the entire width of the start line) and into the lead.
Was feeling pretty relaxed and had opened up a bit of a gap by the first turn (about 1.2km), but was aware by the time we went back past the start/finish that I may have been a little optimistic. Could feel myself gradually slowing through the middle of the race, but second place didn't get any closer. At least managed to find a sustainable rhythm for the back half of the race, even if it felt slow.
Went for a quick dip in the ocean afterwards to cool off. Nice to do something other than a veggie jog on my own. Would have been even nicer if it wasn't on flat concrete, but at least my body held together and it was right next to the ocean.
First championship race for the season is next week. I might just have to have a bash at that too...