Right, so mission sub 3 accomplished. It was a weird race. I didn’t look at total time or average pace once during the race. I crossed the line, didn’t even look at the time and pressed save. It wasn’t until a mate asked how I did that I actually had to bring it up on the watch. I was so focussed on the process, that I literally forgot about the outcome. It was a very refreshing way to run a race.
High level, I think it was about as perfect a race as I think I could’ve run with what I had on the day. Kms were consistent, and inevitable calf cramps only kicked in at km 39. Stopped to stretch, and then somehow managed to squeeze to the end without them totally derailing, with some weird forced heel strike. But more of that later.
So still hadn’t really decided what I was going to aim for when I drove up. Had been having a back and forth over days with a mate. He wanted to just go for 4.15s, I was leaning towards 4s. We started running and inadvertently ended up in between the two.
I’m not sure if I could’ve run a tad faster had I started quicker, or if my mate was my saviour by keeping me on a short leash for the first half. We separated at about 25km when he was clearly struggling. First lap went without major drama. It was twisty, we had to negotiate walkers and dogs and bikes etc as all was on public mixed use paths. But we knew that. Got worse on 2nd lap as it got later and wa s a pretty nice day.
Anyway, at 25km I kicked on from kms slipping to 4.12 or so, and dialled up to about 4.05s. Quickly picked up a lad we’d been trailing for miles, and surprisingly he latched on straight away. He ended up shadowing me for the next ten miles. We picked off another couple, but field wasn’t deep so knew we were well within top 10. The top 3 were all sub 2.40 so were literally miles up the road!
It was weirdly uneventful. I got my nutrition right, I took on lots of fluid, carrying water bottles for a few kms at a time. I took PH salt tabs. The calf cramps I think were fatigue/impact related as I was careful with dehydration. It got surprisingly warm running into the sun, with wind behind. I was chucking water over my head and neck. Nasty headwind back for last few kms though!
Cramps threatened with a few km to go. Here we go again I thought. Stopped to stretch, told my shadow to crack on. Picked up again, saw that he hadn’t moved away too much. Quickly caught him and dropped him. Really annoying as I had more in the legs, but I couldn’t toe off, had to flop hard on my heels to make sure the calf didn’t engage.
Still, very chuffed. Wi have to check, but pretty sure it was neg split. Slowest kms were 39 and 40 when cramps hit. 4.20 & 4.13 though, so can’t complain!
Sorry, that’s really poorly put together. Just on my phone with a beer. Maybe I’ll rewrote tmw a bit more coherently (maybe I won’t! 
).
6th overall. Another sub 3. Course seemed maybe a tad short (again) despite numerous emails to the organisers when we feared it was short. But that initial concern was over a km. This was 100m or so. But it was formally measured apparently. Who knows 
Frankly I don’t really care. If I cared about the time, I would’ve looked at my watch at the end.
Not a bad hit out relying completely on historical base and some cycling.