Saturday, February 22, 2014

Striders Equalizer 14ks

Saturday.
 Decided to stay in the park after work and do the 5k loop that I was doing pre Christmas time in an effort to get some resemblance of speed work back.  Used to have the likes of Kanser and Taffy around when we did them but now it’s a case of toughing it out and doing them solo. Never felt great at any stage and even by the end of the 1st K it was another session where I was just happy to finish.
Looked like I’d been shot on the completion of 5ks – It’s not pretty.

Sunday.
Well after another late night Saturday due to radio and watching the footy it was an early start to Sunday heading over to Belrose for the Striders Internal ‘Equalizer’ race over 14ks. First picked up Fats, before then heading out for a couple of ks warm up. Not many of the HuRTS boys around for this one although good to see Irishman Johnny Bowe back after injury and HuRTS Hamish on the start line. Nice also to chat with who I consider still to be the best Striders runner in his day and top bloke………Glenn Guzzo.
It’s a fast start this race that sees the first 4k pretty much downhill and Criniti bolted out like a shot and was never seen again, romping away to an easy victory. Hamish was just ahead of me and I led Guzzo and a few others down to the stream at the bottom before the first of the climbs and unfortunately that was where I started to struggle. I had about 4 pass me even before we hit the road section at half way and I knew then it was a battle with the tougher hills to come.
Just hung in there where I could walking plenty of the hills (even the smallest of them), Even had Ronnie Swable (?) aged about 58 come past me and tried to hang on but failed.
Tried to lift for the last 1k once I had reached the top of the hill and crossed in 67 minutes, pretty slow but happy to get another tough race done and think it will stand me in good stride going forward.

As mentioned Criniti took it out in about 54 minutes, but I found the surprise was that Fats got done for 2nd when some guy took him at the BOTTOM of the last hill (can you believe?). Solid hit out from Fats although I think he will be a little disappointed in his 58.30(?) run, especially seeing that his 6ft race in less then a fortnight away.


Didn’t have the best of nights in the footy, although it wasn’t expected that Stoke could beat Man City, on a more pleasing note – the Red Rose of England turned over the 6 Nation contenders (or is that pretenders?) in the Union 13-10.. Great result by the boys and the defense was unbelievable as they kept the Green Men Out.
What made it even better was collecting from Enda, Ronan, and Paulie ‘Cement’ Hanley as well as a few drinks from others.
Enda has already tried to wriggle out of the bet (once more), says he wanted a 45 point start, or that the bet only included up to half time ………Does he ever stop? J

Pretty shattered now and the legs are sore, especially the quads, and I rolled my ankle a few times coming down the hills today, so I think it’s a celebratory Beer time over a few ales, If you see any of the Irish lads send them over to Erko to settle a few outstanding  betsJ

Will try to get back out in the morning for a recovery run – 10ks

Cheers

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