I wasn't trying to be obtuse earlier ~ and I don't think that I am especially sarcastic - cynical, ironic, yes, but not so sarcastic.

I feeling a bit sorry for myself; I faced the music that the City to Surf (and hence our girls weekend away) wasn't a goer this year. I had thought about going along anyway, but I'm bitter and twisted if I wasn't able to run, and would feel self-conscious and like an outsider piker. Even if I did run, I would lose my A group start.

I ran Customs on Friday, thankful that Friar had adjusted my handicap an unreasonable extra 60 seconds. Thankfully, Friar has been conscious of my running lately, and hopefully the effort that I have been putting in for such poor results. I started hard, on the same time as Jodie (7:45) successfully putting her off guard with my yelp of pain at the start, and then racing away in an attempt to 'Go Hard or Go Home'. I wasn't going to run to my handicap, I wanted to run as fast as I could. Around 1km I caught up with Rad and Friar and grunted my way past. I would have like to pass on words of encouragement, however it was not going to be able to come out of my lips.

I saw some earlier starters in the distance and pushed to catch them. Ha! Before the ferry terminal, Jodie threw herself past me and started to disappear into the distance. The Podrunner track I had chosen today had the fastest rating I could find (174 bpm) and it did mean that I was turning over my legs like a wonky train. Between the 2 and 3km marks there was the unexpected exaltation to 'Speed Up Your Metabolism', 'Turn Up the Pace'. I tried to follow, it just didn't seem to work.

I saw Aki flying past in the other direction, and she looked comfortable. I couldn't talk. My vision was wonky, and I found it hard to maintain my focus and see much at all. Bob slapped my hand on the way past. The PRB had come along with a new running friend, L, and her gorgeous, active 2 year old daughter. L flew past me with about 1,200m to go and I tried to tell her that the end of the course was different to the start. I'm not sure if I was intelligible. Judging by her pace, she would not have too many people to follow on the correct route.

I plugged along, and looked towards the finish. It was hard going up the final rise, but I managed to finish. Not a great time - 29:48 (ish - my brain gets too addled to do simple arithmetic at the moment) - and I was going hard!

I surfed a bit afterwards but eventually regained my equilibrium. The highlight of the day was to see the look of delight on the face of Rad as he and L's daughter played aeroplanes. I wish I could have saved a copy of this for prosperity.

A Hot Soy Chocolate at the ever-friendly Hansel and Gretal at Belconnen was fun. I got tired very quickly however, and returned home and then to bed.