August Hounds and Hare

Having had some physio on Wednesday and rested and stretched on Thursday another month had passed and it was time for the hairy hound.

As I munched my gel at the start someone made a narky comment about why would anyone need a gel as it was only five miles. I was already feeling the need after the mile jog down from Alders. Let's call this guy black top, there's more!

Set off with only Chris B (4 seconds) and Stuart T (2mins something) behind me. On the first bend I nearly came a cropper as I ran into the path of some terminator salvation style pavement cleaning contraption. I leaped to the side. Chris joined me and I could tell he was not redlining by his chatter all the way along the embankment. I grunted at the appropriate moments and appreciated his company as it kept my pace up.

We got to the Horse Guards horror story together, I called the right side which was blocked then we doubled back and we were stuck in tourists on a narrow gap. Out the other side and either Chris kicked or I faded.

Made it all the way to the mall before Stuart caught me. Tried to let him go and focus on the back markers I could see ahead. Felt good here and was 30 seconds from the last guy. Then was destroyed at horse guards horror story 2 as it took 45 seconds to get by the tourists and and another 30 to get over the road. Dug deep and kicked for home.

At first sight back top guy was now 40 seconds ahead with one mile to clear. Perceived effort was increased and pegged him back to 20 with half to go. Held till 400 out then 3/4 of max to go past just in case he challenged but never any danger. Sprinted last 100 for the hell of it. The guy I went after at the end was the gel comment man. So I shook his hand and the highlight of the race was to be able to say to him "well done mate. You should have had a gel!"

30:05 turns out to be only a few seconds off my all time personal worst and is actually my second worst performance ever. Only scraped in 12 seconds ahead of Clive who's improved by 3 minutes (in the same period I have slowed 2 minutes) - he's annoying achieved this by a strict regime of beer, taking up smoking again, eating loads and only ever running once a month at the race and refusing to wear any running kit other than shoes - he wants to go past me looking like a tourist.

On reflection I think much of my trouble today was roadworks management. To prove the point, I intend to whip around a 5 mile loop sometime this weekend off road to see what the real 5 mile pace is. I can also hear some mile reps calling.....