Back in town

So here I am at work finding another method of not starting to work through the million emails I received while away. Got back yesterday after a great trip where we packed as much as we could into the ten days we were there. Only down side was that I managed to lose my stupid Garmin while I was there. I am sure I must have left it in our rental car but no sign of it yet- looks like the guy who detailed our car may have walked off with it!

Quick update on what happened on the rest of our trip. Saturday I headed out for another 6 mile run at Reigate Priory Park. Legs felt great for this one and I was feeling good heading into my 5k race on Sunday. Then on to the wedding to see Tom, one of my best friends, join the married club. It was a great day and a great party in the evening. A constant supply of a very good Shiraz and a superb variety of food on offer made for a very pleasant evening!

Woke up Sunday morning not actually feeling too bad having made sure that I drank gallons of water before crashing out. The fact that I ate so much during the evening also helped a lot. watched a bit of the London Marathon- great run from Hall!- before heading to my 5k race in the afternoon.

The race was at Dorsey lake, near Windsor, the venue for the 2012 Olympic rowing events. Very impressive facility and perfect for running a flat race! The 5k course literally took you from one end of the lake to the other and then back again. For some reason they didn't run the race around the lake so twice during the race you had to do a 360 degree turn back on yourself which in the slippery conditions underfoot was a right pain! Weather was blustery and wet, with the wind actually helping you the second half of the race.

My goal was just to try and run a solid race and I thought I was in about 16.30 shape at best. A new goal I set myself for the race during my warm up was to try and keep the previous night's excesses from re-emerging. My stomach really didn't feel too great!

So we started off and I found myself at the front immediately, alongside 1 guy with 3 others tucked in behind us. I passed through the first k in 3.09. I knew I wouldn't be able to keep that pace up but was feeling pretty good nonetheless. 2nd k in 3.17 and the group was now down to three. As we approached the 3k mark one guy dropped back and the other started to pull away leaving me in no mans land. I did my best to reel the lead guy in but he was strong and I wasn't making much headway so i pretty much settled for second place at this point. However, the 5 and 10k were being run at exactly the same time and luckily for me the lead guy carried on when we went under the finish line- he was doing another lap for the 10k! So I won by default in 16.10 which was much faster than I thought I was able to run beforehand. My splits wer solid and altogether I was very happy with the race. It sets a good baseline for the rest of the spring although it has to be said that this will be the fastest course I get to run on by far!

Interestingly that makes it three wins out of the three races I have started in 2008! I will be looking to extend that run this weekend at the 'Run for the Money 5k'. It seems getting a few weeks of consistent mileage has got me back to this point, now I could really do with stepping up and getting some good workouts in to put some icing on the cake

We flew home yesterday and after a long day of travelling I managed to get in a half hour jog to stretch the legs out. then this morning I headed out and did my long run for the week. Covered 14 miles, 8 of them with Tim- it was great to have some company again. Plus the weather was great! Legs were definitely tired towards the end but this was the longest run I have done in a long time.

Best get to those emails I guess.....