No Heart, No fire , no drive, no b@lls, weak, soulless, scared, gutless, lacks character, Fidgety, Nervous, feeble, mentally fragile, potato head, and badly let down, were just a few words banded around this morning out at Homebush for the first of the Striders 10k series…………. But enough about Enda lets analyze where it all went oh so wrong for my shocker of a morning.
Picked up Fats along the way and then had a good 3k warm up with him and ‘The Leech’ very muggy morning and I was sweating just doing that, great then to catch up with some old faces and in particular Richie High, as well as the Chairman, Macca McClarnon on the start line for a long time, and even Damo Bray who managed to get a leave pass out from the ‘Shire’ (and without Laura standing by his side as well - impressive?)
The gun goes of and I just take it easy letting Macca, Leech and High go ahead, and go through the first k in 3.31, was puffing hard even then though and by the time I was to see the 2nd kilometre pass by in 3.49 I knew I was toast at this point and knew it was going to be a tough final 8ks L, Saw a truck load of people fly past at various stages and it was a battle just to stay out there, at one point around the 7k mark I was tempted to call it quits and return without going around the common area for the final couple of ks, Had ‘The Assassin’ Irish Eamo come by at that stage and offer some kind words as I attempted to hang on for a further 500m before once again falling away. At this point of time I reckon I would have been moving faster during my Sunday long runs (4.26s) then what I was doing at the 9k mark, Managed to get to the 9.4k mark where the little hill comes back onto the final road and was just about to walk when I see a smiling Renee Simon (Kenny’s partner) bearing down on me. Please don’t do this to me were my first thoughts as I stepped up the pace only for her to kick it down as well. With every yard feeling like it was a mile I somehow managed to hold her off all by about 2 seconds whilst the waiting crowd all were looking for ‘young Timmy’ to be ‘Chicked’
Think I came across in 42.01? To be honest I haven’t even checked out the results yet, pretty disappointed truth be told but I know I haven’t been training well since the New Year and without going into Endalike excuses some of the things that transpired over the past 48 hours didn’t really set me up for racing on Saturday morning.
Across the board, my Jock Mate Neil took it out with a 33 something, Tommy H was 5th(?) in 34.58, Fats 35.10, Kenny 35.40, Damo 36.4x, Macca had a good return, as did Richie H, The Leech was average with a 37 although was still good enough to take $20 from me after giving me a 2 minute start.
The BIG talking point of the morning was the NO SHOW from the man himself Enda Stankard, despite his non stop drivel over the past 3 months and constant stream of emails, texts on the Friday on what he would do to us all he not only let his Fans down, country down, the kids down BUT more importantly let himself down. Citing another head cold he refused to show, Still it wasn’t all bad news as both Tommy H and I cleaned up on him after he agreed to Tom giving him a 30 second start and me a 4 minute buffer. (Even with 4 minutes he would have smashed me).
Being the English Gents we are and in the interest of ‘Fair Play’ we have agreed to keep the same bet and handicap until the next Striders in March as a double or nothing match up ……….Lets just hope our Irish friend can rock up for that one.
The best news from the weekend came overnight though at the home of footy – the Britannia where Stoke turned over the champions Man Utd 2-1 , great result for the boys and eases the relegation battle a little. Just need another 4 wins this season I reckon to be safe.
Not sure how training is going to go this week will just have to play it day by day
Cheers
Bummed I didn't run Tim. Would have been good to get 2 up on you:)
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