i love hills

at least that is what my new book "Running Within" (Lynch & Scott) tells me i should be thinking as i run up said hills.

Got up at the crack of dawn to pick up the owl for our trip to the Striders 10k at Lane Cove. This was the Owl's second 10k and second trip to Lane Cove. My first trip to that course and I really do love running with trees rather than cars :)

I had a bit of a bad attitude because of the rain and all the tales of the nasty hills. Fortunately the rain was not torrential at any point although I was lucky that i chose to wear my 'rain' shoes because they got completely soaked. the hills were tough but a combination of my new positive hill thinking (i love hills... i love hills...) and imagining myself being carried up by helium balloons (ok - i'm new at this visualisation business...) really helped and although i found it ridiculously hard I didn't have that same conversation in my head about how there was no way I could make this and my time would be terrible and what was i thinking pretending i was a runner... etc. you get the picture.

in the end i was really happy to finish in a PB time of 55.43 which was a pb of 53 seconds :) avg pace was 5.36 which i was really happy with and I am inching closer to that 55 minute mark! maybe north head.... hehe.

EDIT: official time of 55.50 so only a pb of 46 secs ;)

splits were: 5.19,5.23,5.48,5.31,5.58,5.47,5.46,5.26,5.46,4.54 (this is a bit deceptive as my garmin was a bit out and said 9.94 at the end so that was shorter than the rest of the splits). not sure if that is a negative split or not - i think it was pretty consistent and i was pleased that i didn't even go over 6 mins in the hard hilly kms.

was great to catch up with everyone again and i really appreciate it all the fast people smiling or waving or even cheering me on - if i didn't reply it was cause i couldn't breathe! loads of great runs, but especially Will who stuck to the 40min Guz train with ease and also Gronk I think smashed his. noice.

had a great breakfast and chat with the Owl after, and had the most delicious pancakes which would have been great, except that it was the smallest meal i've ever had - i've had pikelets bigger than these pancakes! still portion control is a beautiful thing hey?? plus its nearly lunch time now...

ok - so i didn't last long with my plan to keep it short and sweet did it? ah well - can only fight nature for so long... i'm a writer at heart :)