North Ryde Ramble STaR 31ks

I decided during the week that it would be better for the Sydney Marathon training if I kept doing the long runs rather than race a half today. So the Lake Macquarie Half bit the dust. Hope Wine Trail Runner found his pacer.

Headed up to Waterloo Park for the Striders STaR early this morning. Another small crowd with only the four of us taking off at 6:20am.
The course is basically run along the side of Macquarie Uni and down along the Striders Lane Cove 10k course exiting back up the Scribbly Gums exit. Through the Nth Suburbs Cemetery, Macquarie Park, Macquarie Uni again and back past the start park. Ray W dropped here after doing W2B yesterday, coming 3rd.
We then ran down into the Lane Cove National Park but onto the trail this time with heaps of water about. A couple of k's in here before the other two runners left me to my own devices.

From then it was a k before I exited the bush and did about a 5k road section through Cheltenham and Pennant Hills before getting back into the bush at Thornleigh Oval. Along the river was very cool and heaps of water on the path. Rolled my ankle a couple of times in here as the track is very rocky underfoot.

Finally came back out of the bush and had a short 1k road run back to the finish in the park. Not many left when I got there. Must have been a few people doing some weird short cuts today as the course map doesn't have any. Thanks to Truckie(Daz) for still being back there with cakes, fruit and drinks.
Finished with 31.1ks on the clock after adding a bit in one bush section and a road wrong turn as well. Ended up with 2:39.03 for an average pace of 5:06 per klm. Pretty slow in the bush after rolling the ankle a couple of times. Plus running on my own for 12ks is pretty boring.