Sufferfest - smiles and suffering all rolled into one !

Saturday could probably not have gotten any better. Warrnambool Sufferfest - mainly a triathlon weekend but this year there was a Saturday morning of purely running events also.    Running with friends (so much fun in itself) and I was down for the 10km.  After Friday raining and windy all day I was almost scared to wake up on Saturday. Yep still rainy in town where I live.  Headed to Warrnie way too early but eh. Rain had cleared but the wind!  It was a tad fresh to say the least.

Picked up bib and a very nice tshirt as part of the entry and decided to wear the tshirt so I did a public strip/shirt swap but discreetly behind a van.  Goodness knows if anyone saw.

Met up with the posse of our Runners Connect girls and a couple of other friends for some pre race pics.   Mel, Sarah and me - don't let the blue sky and obvious sun confuse you - it clouded right over and was flipping cold!!

The HM set off at 9 and it was great to cheer Kellie and Leah. 

The 10k started at 9.30 and off we went.  Most of this was my usual after work training route so it was good knowing the bends, the rises, the dips, comforting having that familiarity.  This was by no means a big field, but still enough to make it competitive and the field spread out.  The HM (after an initial 1km) would be doing 2 lots of the out and back of what the 10 were doing.  So it was a great course to see our mates out there, calling out to each other as we passed and high fiving on the run.

Photographers seemed to be placed at inopportune spots like at the top of hills. I called out to one as I was struggling up Granny's Grave hill "not fair!!" And he laughed back "we want to see you suffer" ha!   Honestly some of the expressions on the photos that have come back for me are cringeworthy.  But for the sake of transparency so that you realise I'm not always a glamazon ~~uncontrolled delirious laughter~~ here are some of the dodgy ones.

Quick smile for the camera, take a pic and he's done!

Oh flip, didn't he just take a pic, what's he still clicking for

This wasn't meant to happen, I can't look confident and come down hill at the same time.

Stop clicking will ya!

Really??!!??  Enough already

 Didn't see this one coming, where was he hiding, in the bush??!! 

Was I really crying? It looks like it.  It was a hill after all.

Oh whoops, spot the photographer, smile! (through gritted teeth)

Got past Granny's Grave and I was checking my Garmin and thinking how far I had to go, I was on track to beating my best 10k if I kept it up, if that wasn't enough to spur me on, heck. There's a great downhill area near the bridge at the end and I seemed to fly down it. Along the bridge and around the track and through the end. 10km PB by 48 seconds!!!!! (according to Garmin and I'll happily take it). 1:08:01.   Can't even begin to tell you how rapt I am with my average pace in the 6's!!

Got to see Sara and Kellie and Leah over the line (Mel had already blitzed the 10k) and we became a personal cheer squad to them. So much fun. A kick ass medal, it's really quite big and has a bottle opener inbuilt into the design.   Had to take a multitude of victory shots!  Sara was hanging up her runners, this was her swan song (although I hope like John Farnham she makes multiple comeback tours!!

Presentations and there was a mix up, they got to the veteran 10k and called the three place getters and when the third place getter was announced I thought OMG, we had actually cheered her across the line, I knew I was ahead of her so got a bit excited.  But my name wasn't called when they announced second or first. Oh well. Well not good enough for Mel she was going to have a word to the organisers and made them check their records. I saw a lot of paper flying about on a clipboard and a bit of finger pointing by Mel with Sara in tow and then the Race Director announced that I was first in the veterans 10km and they had a sufferbell presentation for me. Thanks Mel. I probably would have just ended up going home and then stewed about it.

Such a great day. Smallish numbers but everyone belting it out out there.  Great to support a local event.  Love my running friends, such a top group, they all rock.  What a great morning.

If it's on Garmin it must be true!!

Came home with all the intentions of the world to put PLAN (what was I up to?) C, D or whatever into action, and it fell in a heap.  I was so cold I crawled into bed and my little Lucky dog came and crawled on the bed and snuggled with me and I napped for a couple of hours.  After which there was no way I was getting out there, the mind may have been willing but the body was not.

Do I feel guilty that I didn't get my planned 17-18 in?  After all it's meant to be my longest run before the Geelong Half?  Yep a little bit.  But it's happened now, you can't cram for a Half.  I know I can do the distance.  So just continue on with the plan for the next two weeks.  My taper has just come early, right?