Striders Equaliser-

The intention was to bash it at the Equaliser this year, looking at something in the range of 66-68mins. I have ran this race the last two years in 67:53 and 69:45 respectively.
Ran well to the creek, trying to hold back a little for the tough climb in the back half. Still it's hard to not get caught up in the early downhill pace and I made good time to the first creek crossing. It had rained hard in the wee hours and so the creeks were flowing. Straight through water almost up to my knees. Great stuff lots of mud, slippery trails, shame my legs felt like shit. As soon as I hit the hill back up to suburbia and the 1.5km of bitumen, I was knackered, no energy at all. Once on the road I recovered a bit and felt good re-entering the bush. The downhills were great, I was passing heaps of runners, but like last year I had nothing on the hills. I still was holding my position with the aid of the descents but the last 3kms saw me passed by a few. I finished bang on 71 mins feeling pretty shite really.
The only solace was looking at results from others, it seemed the conditions slowed most by a few minutes. Still I should have felt better out there.

After a few slices of fruit and a drink I recovered and then set off for another trip to the creek return. A more relaxed pace but still felt like shit coming back up the hill.

All up 22km for the morning.