Highs and Lows!

July - 81
YTD - 841.5


It's less than 2 weeks now till I begin one month of my long service leave. I am heading down to visit the old folks on the Central Coast NSW for about 10 days. It is only myself and the little fella heading down due to Cass's work commitments and at a guess she will probably enjoy seeing the back of us for a while anyway :-)

The remainder of my time off will just be spent relaxing at home, nothing planned.

Anyway while I am down in NSW I have planned to run the City 2 Surf however this is in doubt as my leg is pretty messed up. For this reason I haven't worried about accomodation and will figure something out if I do decide to run.

In the memantime I haven't really done much training with only about 4 runs since the GCM.

This week I had a what work called an interval session however it was hill repeats and it was quite tough. 2 Days prior I went and got a massge to try and ease the pain in my leg which seemed to work and during the Hill repeats my leg felt the best it has for a while. About 2 hours after the session however it felt really bad and got worse during the night.

I rested it up on Tuesday but on Wednesday we had the barracks X country race. I had to run this as the way the Army works is that if you haven't got a letter from a medical officer saying you can't do the activity then you are required to compete, unless of course it is really serious. I guess I could have got out of running but decided to give it a crack.

About 300 - 350 people showed up in the drizzling weather. The course was quite tough with a few big long hills with mud and water everywhere. I started up the front and didn't know how hard I was going to go due to the injury. When the gun went off I took of at a solid but comfortable pace the leg felt ok so I decided to go as hard as I could. I had been running this course alot prior to the GCM marathon so I knew I needed to keep some in reserve for the mid section.

I quickly established a position with one of my mates around 5th placed. He was in good form coming in the top 10 at the J2J half so I knew he was a contender. I also knew that I had no chance of winning as Matt Skate also works at the barracks and is the current Queensland 1/2 marathon champion and an awesome marathon runner. He finished in 2.35 at the GCM just 3 weeks prior.

Anyway on the way down to the first climb I just stayed at the pace I was running on the flats, meanwhile about 3 other people passed me almost sprinting down them. They got about 70m on me by the time the hill started but it didn't take long before I caught them again. In fact I caught most people and was sitting just behind 3 place.

The course was 7.8k and at the top of the biggest climb we still had over half the course to go. From this time onwards no-one passed me, I remained in 4th place but the others were still in sight behind me. Jeff Rudd was one of those, who was the winner of the J2J 1/2 finishing in a time of 77 minutes. He was quickly gaining on us but by the time he was right on my shoulder the last climb hit.

I was hurting by this stage but so the was the fella in 3rd place. I was saying to myself 5 place is great you can ease up and just take that, but then I thought bugger it, just over a km to go, 5 odd minutes of pain and you could get 3rd place. 1/2 way up the last climb I took off, the legs screamed but no reaction from the other 2. At the top I just wanted to ease up and have a breather but I pushed hard. There was a long downhill section and for the first time I just let myself go and sprinted downhill.

There was no way anyone would be able to pass me I was flying, almost out of control. Exiting the bush the last section was back on the road and paths to the finish. I was confident from this stage that I had the pace to keep the two at bay. I was also catching up to second place aswell but ran out of time and he got me by about 100m.

I ended up coming 3rd overall, about 20 -30 secs in front of 4 and 5th and was exhausted but very happy with my effort. It really made up for my disappointment at the GCM and shows that I am more suited to the shorter events, not that I ever doubted that anyway.

The best part about this race which gave me more of a confidence boost as I was only 1.40 down on the winner and actually beat Jeff Rudd who can kick my behind over the 1/2 Marathon distance.

The downside to it all though was after I finished my leg was very sore and has taken until today with no running to walk around and not feel any effects. It is a crazy injury nothing I have experienced before. I am in two minds to go for a run tomorrow or just cut it away which will put me in huge doubt for the C2S. Not much training now and with more time off it wouldn't be a pretty result.

Anyway I will decide probably during the night when I am watching the TdF. I hope Cadel can do it and not fall short again this year. He deserves it so much, and is the best rider or sure just a shame that he doesn't have a better team, but in saying that it does make it more thrilling to watch. Imagine the pressure he would be feeling.