2 runs worth blogging

I am pretty slack with blogging and my last few posts have just been race reports. But I had 2 runs this weekend that are blog-worthy I think.

The first was Friday night at the CoolRunning Summer Twilight race at Silverwater. This is a very low-key casual chance for a good hitout at 7pm on a Friday night. I got lost on the way there and so didn't arrive at the start until 15 minutes after the start. But the host kindly let me head out then and said he would wait for me. There was a choice between 5k and 10k. I had planned to do the 10 but thought maybe I should do the 5 as I was late. But when I got the 5k turn-around I was feeling so good I really wanted to keep going. So I did. It was warm and very humid with a strong headwind from 1 - 2.25 and 5 - 7.5 and a good tailwind on the rest. I just concentrated on working hard and trying to go fast and it worked pretty well. I was really happy to finish in 47.38 or thereabouts. There were cold drinks and lots of friendly CRs at the finish, so it was a most enjoyable evening. And I am motivated now to try and improve my 10k time at the Striders series next year. And that leads to my other good run...

After nearly 2 years living in Sydney and no plans to leave just yet, I decided it was time to join the Striders. They have a 6ft training group that runs on Saturday mornings and so I joined them for the first time yesterday. We started at Marsfield and I think we were in Lane Cove National Park. I have no idea where we went, but there was lots of up and down, heaps of splashing through flooding creeks and it was brilliant. It was only a very short run of about 11k but that was enough for me - sore calves, and I got a great taste for what the group was like, and I loved it. So some more motivation there, hopefully enough to keep me going through the next 2 weeks of eating and lazing and holidaying.
Merry Christmas to all and Happy running. :)