I was bothered last night by a very sore throat which developed after the run yesterday, and painful ears overnight which made sleeping difficult and disrupted ~ not helped by the return of night sweats. Pretty good on waking though, the glands (specifically, those under my right ear) continued to be sore throughout the day. That said, I had a top day!!!
Spent the morning kneading a batch of dough for Bob's bread rolls, starting a pot of soup on the stove, doing a few loads of washing. My intent had been to do a geocache or two before Customs, however it took longer than expected to find out about the computability of the old Thule roof-racks in the storeroom (for a 626) with our current car, a Magna station wagon. Unfortunately the news wasn't what I had hoped for.
A good chat with Friar on his return, and then the other early attendees took up all the time. I was surprised to see that my handicap was 7:15 (Aki's is 14:30!), a stark reminder to how poorly I had been running leading up to us going overseas. With so little running under my belt, and nothing timed to a pace for so long, I went of my handicap and planned to maintain the fastest pace I could for as long as I could. No chance of anything like a 22 minute run today (I wish . . . and I remember when), but my gut told me that I would be better than the appalling runs I did before I left.
Sure, I may have started out a tad fast, but even splits were never going to be on the agenda! The good news, albeit due to me running off my soft, "when I was sick" handicap, was that I wasn't passed by a soul, and only failed to catch two others in front of me. My watch beeped it's not-so-cheery 25 minute warning as I came around the trees leading up to the pavilion at the top. I wasn't sure at how long it would take to get to the finish - I know that Jodie did it in a minute, but she has an effective and strong finishing kick!
A lot slower for me! A finish time of 26:45 was a little disappointing immediately upon finishing, however I am reasonably happy with it with the benefit of hindsight. Most importantly, I didn't experience any of the groin pain or shivering shakes that so plagued me before. Slow, but good!
The most exciting thing though was seeing the sprint to the finish by Aki and another, seasoned and talented runner, CT. It was brilliant to watch and they both turned on the juice to get to the line, with Aki finishing well clear in a magnificent 21 minutes 16 seconds for the 5+ km. Work has begun on floriade and the course is a little longer than usual.
Afterwards coffee with some of the girls on the Deck. A good day was had by all, however nothing can surpass the excellent PB by Aki. Her personal training plan is going well and paying dividends in spades!
A great comeback, Carolyne! Good to have you back home! Stay well now.
And a first placing over the field.
Now you'll get a tougher handicap.
:-(
:)
Good to have you out there.