Lady Carrington Drive

This was the route for my 20k test yesterday. It is a 10k fire trail in the Royal National Park south of Sydney. A great place to run in the summer as it is shady and cool. It is an 'undulating' run with some testing hills both out and back. I was actually looking forward to getting there as I had spent some time training here 12 months ago and remembered it being a good run.

Early goals were:
Finish in 2 hours
Attack the up hills ie, don't slow to a shuffle but run with power to the top.

I was going great, on track, ran the first 10 in 1hour 2 mins. Next 5, still strong and timing was good, I was even planning to up my speed for the last 5. But I lost momentum and focus at around the 15k mark when I couldn't find my water bottle that I had left against a tree on the way out. For about 500m I was looking back at every tree. Once found and some consumed I found it difficult to get going again. There was some walking :( Another challenge for the morning was the constant need to blow my nose as the sinus hasn't improved.

Reassessing my goals, talking to myself all the time, now they were:
To finish
Continue to attack hills
Not to trip up as I get tired on the uneven surface and
I didn't get out of bed at 6am on a Saturday morning to walk!

Mark came back and pushed me for the last 1.5ks so it was a strong finish. Final time was 2h12min. Lady Carrington you got me this time, but I'll be back!

Positives from yesterdays run:
I feel ok today, actually ready to go out for a beach run this arvo.
I did attack the up hills strongly
And I didn't need a bush stop! yey.