"Meh".....

 Sometimes you're flying high and other times you just aren't......for no real reason that you can put your finger on. I was a bit like this in the run up to Canberra......I found it hard to get myself excited for a race where I had no real ambitions, though I really wanted all the guys to run well....and unfortunately that "meh" feeling persisted for some time afterwards.

Most of my clubmates were surfing the PB wave, but I felt like I was down in a trough......if I'm honest I'd probably just been overdoing everything - running, working, stressing, trying to be everything to everyone, and something had to give. I had previously been talked in to entering the Sydney 10K and arranged to go down with the boys, but I was definitely in 2 minds about it. I'd been given a priority start number (with my name on it), but as I knew I wasn't going to have a good run, I positioned myself right at the very back of the start pen, despite people telling me to move forward.

It was a perfect course for fast times - flat and on relatively wide closed empty roads - and the conditions were ideal - cool, no wind and slightly foggy. I thought that starting at the very back meant that I would have a steady sensible run, but unfortunately (even though friends starting in later waves said that they did spot me way behind the other guys), the nature of the course and field meant that I was dragged along at a pace faster than I should have run.

It was a 2 lap course and I found myself passing the 5K mark in about 18 minutes which did rather freak me out as I knew that pace was a lot faster than I felt I had the fitness to run/maintain. I probably shouldn't have looked at my watch as it meant that I psyched myself out, and when I felt a niggle in my right hip flexor soon afterwards, I was convinced that I'd pulled something, and so I pulled up short and started walking along the road. From there, it was a walk/run right to the finish as I didn't want to quit and step off the course just because I wasn't having a good run, but neither did I want to push on and cause a more serious long-term injury. 

With several of the Trotters post-run

I think I was about 3 minutes slower over the second half of the course, but I got there and managed to see/congratulate everyone else on their fantastic runs.....so many new PBs were set. Not exactly a day to be proud of myself, but when I got back home, 2 of my fantastic girlfriends took me out and flanked me for a debut Terrigal oceanswim, so I did get to set a kinda PB after all.....love the girls for turning my day around :-)

Onwards and upwards......after all, you have to have the lows to appreciate the highs.....