Canberra Half Marathon 79.52

And so it was down to the Nations Capital for the Canberra Half Marathon, ventured down yesterday after picking Kanser up and all i basically heard all day was how 'crook he'd been the past two days. Anyway once down there and after checking in - A big smile returned to his face when he knew he was out for dinner with Uncle Dave Criniti. It was embarrassing, it was like meeting Santa Claus for the first time and he even moved Uncles girlfriend from the seat next to him so he could get closer to his idol :)
Well after a few hours of good food and chat, Kanser was ready to take on the world and was pencilling in Marathons from Berlin to New York to Macleay River and on top of that  he made a bet that he would smash me by 2mins20 over the 21ks on Sunday?
Up early and a short jog over to the start, saw a few friendly faces, Elvis (Costello), HuRTS #1 Girl Laura, Tongue, and a seeded Flaky , who was puffing his chest out even more so i would see his printed name on his bib:)
Had a race plan today not to smash myself but give it a good workout (with Sydney 5 weeks away the main goal), settled behind Kanser for the first couple of ks before he put 50 mtrs into me, David Tongue then caught me at 5ks and we run together rather easy as he was doing the Full, probably took it too easy here in fact as was chatting as we ticked the ks off (still keeping an eye on Old Kanser mind) , bid farewell at 16ks to Tongue as i hit the turnaround for home still felling good. Kanser was ahead in a pack of 4 that included the first female but i could see he was struggling to hang on, with about 2.5ks to go the 2nd girl came up to me and issued a challenge, it was then i decided to race and in the process got within striking distance of our little Irishman, Its a long stretch that last 1.2ks but i was moving well and only about 7-8 seconds behind now and a nervous Kanser looked over his shoulder and had one final kick to hold me off with 14 seconds to spare.
I hit the line in 79.52, not sure of the overall position yet and was very happy with the run overall and is a great confidence booster now with the State 10k 3 weeks away and the Half in 5. Looking back i perhaps shouldn't have taken it so easy chatting.... but that's fine.
Some very good runs out there today in perfect conditions i must add, non better then Laura (3 girl) in 81.00, and David Tongue 2.38 (must have put the foot down after he left me)
It was back then for a swim, spa and steam followed by a top breaky at the hotel, with Kanser phoning and face booking all of Sydney (not to mention aunt Mary in Ireland) telling everyone how he beat 'Young Timmy'................. Jeez, I worry about that bloke, here i am running at 50%, half fit on the comeback trail and Kanser is 'Pumping up his Own Tyres' on what a great victory its been - and he only run 79.38, at that rate even Enda would have beat him :)

Anyway great weekend, and happy that i made the effort to go down for the weekend, will be back into it straight away now on Tuesday for the 14 x 3 minute efforts.

The Famous 'Uncle Dave' Criniti  with Kanser hanging off every word at dinner, Think he even had the same meal as what Uncle did :)

Cheers
BTW, Also took a nice little $50 from Enda as well , who had no faith in me and suggested i couldn't break 80 mins for the Half............. Nice one Enda :)