Saturday, March 01, 2008

Striders 10k North Head = PB

Great conditions for the race this morning. Nice and cool at 15 degrees with a bit of wind getting up in the 2nd 5k for me.
Was shocked off the start at how many people running fast there were ahead of me. In the end I was beaten by 61 people and I ran 37:43. Seems the sharp end has caught word of the quickness of this course.
Set off from the start relatively easy, doing 3:45 for the 1st k. Was having a few battles with the female Truscott in-laws during most of the race. Ended up JT beat me and I beat Greta.

Came through the 5k in 18:49. Close to the pace I wanted, but feeling mentally like I wouldn't be able to keep it up. Surprised myself to keep pushing back out to the turnaround loop at 7.5k.
Had a few runners pass me back up the hill and then tried to take them back on the 1500m run back to the finish. Wasn't successful at all, but at least no one else passed me.
Ran 18:54 for the 2nd 5k, so pretty close to even splitting the course.

The washup was:

A new PB of 37:43. A PB by 23 seconds. My old PB was 38:06. Striders have a 38:10 for me from a different race in June last year.
My first 10k PB since June last year at the West Met 10k at Silverwater.
A course PB of 1:05 from the September race pre Sydney Marathon last year.

Glad to finally knock off that PB. Now I feel I can run faster.
Thanks for everyones comments.

9 comments:

David Criniti said...

Good run out there this morning mate. Looking forward to the battle royal between you and Blue Dog (and of course Blue Dog's mum) this year!

Gronk said...

It looked like you were hurting out there. Good thing that the PB made it all worth while.

Spud said...

Great stuff Flake, great time, lots of fast running it seems, well done.

Ewen said...

Congrats Paul! I always thought you should have been in the 37s. That's good 10k speed getting close to Canberra. The 5000 PB will go too, no matter what Blue Dog's Mum thinks.

I bet having Nigel and Bruce cheering for you made all the difference ;)

Jen said...

Fantastic result Flakey - congratulations!

plu said...

Hey,

Well done great stuff - things looking good.

Plu

Tesso said...

Fanatastic stuff Flakey!!! Must be such a good feeling to knock not just a few seconds but such a massive chunk off the PB.

Things are loooking great for April 13 :)

Mike said...

Congratulations Flake! Good job on the PB. You definitely pushed me for my 10km PB as well, as we kept creeping past each other on the second half of the course. I nearly lost a lung and only just finished a second or two ahead, and I definitely wouldn't have pushed as hard without you beside me.

By the way I just saw your post on your pace for the 36km run around Centennial on Sunday. That's smoking - your marathon plans are looking good! I will definitely be eating your dust on 13 April...

Anonymous said...

Wow a big PB Paulie but you still got hammered by a whopping 14 seconds by lil' Bluey who also ran a PB God bless his little champion heart.

Probably lucky you got caught in his slipstream as he blew past you around 4k.

Anyway at least you finished in the same postcode as Bluey for a change. Well done!

Blue Dog's Mum.