Almost!

Well, I wanted two hours and I got two hours, three minutes. Still a personal best by four minutes. I'm happy. I honestly could not have given anything more today. I was on track and feeling strong for the first thirteen kilometres. The headwind on the return hit me as I knew it would and the last six kilometres hurt a bit. That's what you get when you've only been running a couple of times a week and your longest run has been 15km! With a bit more training and a few longer runs my pace wouldn't have dropped off so badly and I would have been able to make it under two hours easily. Shall we aim for 1.55? Yes, lets ...

Next year can we please not have young children stopping in the middle of the path or falling in front of me, women deciding they have to tie a shoelace RIGHT NOW, RIGHT HERE, and women who decide they need to use the toilet all of a sudden, totally cutting me off as they lurch from right to left. Although I wasn't as irate as the guy seen at the start shoving people aside, or the guy later heard telling people to get the f**k out of the way, I was a little vocal on the numerous occasions I found myself making physical contact with people who just weren't paying attention.

Enough of the negative stuff though. I had a blast today, despite the wind and rain. It was actually warm! It helped that I heard my name being cheered what seemed like every few minutes. Sorry if I didn't see you, but I was in my little head space and wasn't really noticing spectators. Sorry too to Sarah, who was an excellent pacer for the first half of the race. I felt a bit horrible about breathing down her neck. She didn't know I was there until Duck started cheering the both of us outside Freyberg, but then I got close enough that she could hear my slappy feet behind her.

I didn't win an iPod shuffle or a trip to London, but I did win a spot-prize of a pair of Adidas socks. That must be about $30 worth. I think it helps to smile at the people handing out the prize tickets! Last year I won a Runner's World subscription.

Right. I really should have a go at scrubbing off the pace times I wrote on my wrist this morning in permanent marker. It seemed like such a good idea at the time ...