city to surf 14k - 53.52 (70 sec P.B)

Had another good nights sleep last night and woke up feeling o.k but with the remnants of a cold - soon dispelled with a hot shower.
Bella was staying at a friend's place so that she could get to soccer in the morning and Ally got dropped off early so that she could get to Bondi with her friend's family to watch the race at the end.
Fiona caught the bus into town for the race and I jogged into the city (4k) to pick up my race bib.
Got the bib sorted but it took a while to get a bag to put my clothing in, but eventually got that sorted as well. It was now about 8.40, so did another brief warm-up to the start of the A1 pack. There wasn't as many people as usual so I walked almost to the front when a volunteer let me thru the barrier (cool !) and I found myself about 3 rows from the front, then someone said to me "you look fast, go to the front" and they hopped out of the way and there I was standing on the rope at 9.00am - too easy !
A little while later we were joined by the preferred and seeded runners and then the gun went off. Got a flyer of a start and was pretty much running freely within 50m or so. The pace was a bit hot early on but I felt people already dropping off at about 2k at the first hill. Vat cruised up to me at about 3k and said something like "why are they all running so fast - crazy - most of these guys will blow" - I took that to mean, just relax 26 and you'll do o.k.
At about 6k Lefty was on my shoulder and he said something similar to Vat "just relax and keep up a steady pace thru the hills and the field will come back to you " and it did. Got to the shops at Vaucluse and the pace picked up with most runners sensing the downhills and finish line about 5k away. Got to 10k smack on 39 mins and I knew I had it in the bag - mentally relaxed a bit here but kept up a firm pace. Had Vat and Mohammed in my sights the whole way but not really gaining on them with Mohammed about 50m in front and Vat a similar distance again. That last k is a nightmare - it goes on forever but finished strongly crossing the line and sprinting to the timing booth - forgot to stop my watch but the time card said 53.52 ! A 70 sec p.b. and a preferred start for next year.

Forgot to mention - a seagull pooped on me at the 12k mark (it's supposed to be good luck ?) - glad I had my mouth shut because it went all over my face, luckily the last drink staion was just a bit further up so grabbed a few waters and splashed myself clean.

Also, thanks to Striders volunteers for getting the drinks and tent together - what a great club.

Week 10 of 15 ended. Total 102k run, a bit less than normal with the race instead of a long run.
Can't slacken now though, 2.5 solid weeks with hopefully some quality long runs and some good sessions as well. 3 more 24k mid week runs and 2 more 35k long runs should see me thru.