21.1km | 98:02 | Race | PB We arrived at Milsons Point for the start with about half an hour to spare which allowed us to check out bags in and catch up with a few CoolRunners. I maneuvered myself over to the start and found a spot near the 100 min Striders Pacer. It was my aim to follow him out of the mayhem that is the first KM or so and then move ahead - and stay that way if possible. I had printed off splits for a 97:00 finish and hope to follow them as best I could. I was feeling pretty good over the bridge and down to Darling Harbour but did feel the pesky calf even then. Oh, many thanks to the young lady in the Goldsborough building in Darling Harbour who was flashing her breasts to the runners as we went over the fly over too. That got a cheer from the boys. But I digress. After a few Kms I hooked up with Strider Robert Conners who was shooting for the same time as I was. Trouble is that the lack of KM markers had us guessing our pace for most of the way. Still, Robert was confident that we were on target as we made our way up the City West Link to Liechhardt. Gee that was a long drag up that hill. I took an vanilla Endura gel at about 14km which seemed to pick me a up for the journey home (hmm caffeine). At that point Robert seemed to think that we were on about 96:xx pace but it was getting pretty evident that were slowing as we ran towards the city. By the time we hit Observatory Hill I struggled to run the hills with any real form and watched a heap of the field pass me by until I got back onto the Harbour Bridge. I was pretty wasted frankly. More hill work required methinks especially with the Striders Internal half coming up next month at Lane Cove. I managed to crawl home from there for a 98:02 which I am pretty stoked about. Time to lose another bunch of Kgs and get some long runs back into the weekend program. I just need to get fitter if I am going to avoid going all soft at the back end like i did today in future races. After the run it was great to watch the marathon runners come home from the Cheersquad vantage point on the Cahill Expressway. Some great runs by CoolRunners and Striders in what turned out to be quite hot conditions for the guys doing the 42kms. I am walking about with a tight right calf right now and may have to get it seen too if I aim to step up the training in the coming weeks as it just doesn't seem to want to go away. Mood: --->

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