BRRC 10km Champs 3rd 34;33

I reduced my Friday and Saturday runs to 10.6km for a  mini taper for this event but was still running with over 100km a week legs.
Up at 4;30am.
The  Race starts at 6;30am. Conditions were cool with some wind.
A huge turnout of non members bolstered by Queensland Masters Athletics combing the QMA Championship with the BRRC Championship.
130 finishers in the mens comp with 80 women joining us (plus those who only did the 1x5km loop).
I started OK ,leading for a short way before the likes of Patrick Nispel Elliot Carr Peter Run and Osman Saleh formed into a group as we headed down to the 2.5km turnaround.
I managed to hang with these guys till that point running 3;17 and 3;20 on the way. We had to contend with a headwind on the journey back.
Peter Run who it turns out was only running 5km, was surging and coming back to us.
Osman was the first to drop, then me just as were closed in on the fisrt lap and passed the second 180o turnaround at 4.9km. The leaders went over the line in 16;56.4 and I was 16;59.
Nice to break 17 on that course but still somewhere below my expectations. Perhaps my mini taper wasn't enough. The two inclines we negotiate each lap dont look much on paper but post race analysis of my pace on Connect/ Strava shows significant slowing on those 'hills' (only just under 4 min pace!). The 180o turnarounds aren't so bad as you get used to the slow down and speed up requirement (see graph below).
Elliot and Pat drifted off in front and I retained a modest gap over Matt McDonald who was running this mid long run (he'd put in an hour before the start). My second lap was a disappointing 17;34.
Pat Nispel ran incredibly even paced (another taking this as a training session) running 16;56.6 for his second lap to win in 33;53.0 with Elliot a close second in 33;58.2.
My time was 34;33.
I must dig out my list of 10km Road performances for comparison as when I first started back into masters racing ten years ago I would regularly run 34 minute 10k's.
An easy two weeks for me now as I fully taper for Gold Coast Half. I had hoped to have a crack at Ronnie's 72;19 there but I need to be able to cruse 33;30 for the 10km to run that!

My first sub 17 lap around West End

Peter and I at end of first lap

End of second lap contemplating what does it take to run 72?

Coming towards the end of the first lap, Elliot, Pat and Peter

Sandgate parkrun 16;36 14th Nancy boys V Bertie boys

I was recovering from last Sundays 30km effort all week. It certainly reflected in my average pace and with all my other current niggles, I was only able to put in steady runs all week.

A challenge between two running groups (the BERT squad and the NANCY boys) brought a huge turnout of quality runners to Sandgate parkrun even though it clashed with a Queensland Athletics Cross Country Relay Championship.
Peter Bracken has put together a formidable squad of guys for Tuesday morning sessions at New Farm park. They have grown exponentially. With all the training and banter its morphed into a 'club' or squad that they call the BERT squad, British Ex patriot Racing and Training.
The NANCY Boys were created by irascible Masters legend Peter Reeves, as a counter foil to the perceived elitist snobbery of the BERTY boys squad. Not for them the esteemed suburban training grounds of New Farm park but the slag heaps of the industrial West (Ipswich). Not for them state of the art technical running singlets but ten year old cotton tee shirts advertising the firms of lawyers mired in the controversy of their former local major Paul Pisasale.

Conditions were cool and just a little too much wind for my liking.

Some friendly banter on the start line and we were off.
The crowded start got my nerves on edge and I fired out to a too quick 3;10k first km.
Even so I was gapped by Pete Bracken , Clay Dawson and Adam Fogg.
As I tried to get myself back to feeling comfortable I was overtaken by literally hordes of guys. The psychological affect of being passed in any race gives the "I am running crap" "I feel crap!" and a self fulfilling prophecy takes effect as you drop further back. I am not sure when I found my level but probably not till 3km when we were back off the pier and heading home.
I started to catch and overtake rather than the opposite. It sure was strange having so many runners to run with during a parkrun.
I finished 14th, my worst ever placing but a testament to the quality as 21 guys ran sub 17 minutes.
I had good competition in the age grading with Ian Cameron 91.7% and Albert Borzillo a M55, running a 90.7%,
My 16;36 equated to a 92.7%.
Full results are here
I did a quick 5km warm down.
Sunday I was up at 5.00am though the rain had woken me about 4.30am. I didn't much fancy running 30km in torrential rain but I did. Parts of the path were completely flooded so I ended up splashing through rather than trying to run around. I always find that the rain seems to get into my joints and slows me up but the outward journey was also hampered by a headwind.
I love starting off in the dark and seeing the sunrise over Moreton Bay but Sundays rain meant no sunrise as darkness led to greyness!
BOM listed 47mm of rain between 4;00am and 9;00am.
Check out this cool flyover view of my 30km run along the foreshore footpath - it lasts a minute.
Herehttps://www.relive.cc/view/1030490409
Photos from Saturday;

How lucky are we to have this on our doorstep? Looking out to Moreton Island with Pendragons Dragon Boat Club in silhouette.

"Now please respect your elders out there today!"

Clay doing the Cobra pose, Pete and Pete discussing tactics

What was Clair doing?

Clay pulling a peach of a face

I'm in 7th! about 10 overtook me from there but I managed to take back a couple of places

Foggy looking very comfortable as does Pete

Some seriously talented kids today check the results!

Foggy and Clay about to sprint for the line

Looking really easy today

The Garmin pose, I didn't put in any effort whatsoever

Thanks to Barry and Olga for the photos.

BRRC 30km 1;51;36

My feet were OK after my run Saturday so I decided the opportunity to 'race' 30km was too rare to miss and rocked up at the South Brisbane Sailing Club House at West End at 6;00am for the 6;30am start. A brief 1.5km warm up and we were off. This event was even more low key than standard because of a huge City to South 14km and 5km occurring at the same time across the river, a charity Half Marathon and associated races at Pine Rivers and another Half Marathon up in Mackay taking away some of the regulars. It was quite chilly, on;u 12 O C and 82% humidity, just felt a little wind at the far turnaround and on the way back. I decided I needed to restrain myself on the first lap (5km) and try and ease into it. I had company for the first 5km but the lad mainly sheltered behind me rather than taking the pace. Through the first 5km lap in 17;47.
I was comfortable enough but a sore rib (possibly injured due to an aggressive sneeze!) was giving me some gip (any deep breathing has painful all week). 
Only 5 laps to go. 
Its hard to say I was fully racing as running alone its just the mind-games you play with yourself to push as hard as is comfortable. At times I was pushing myself at other times I was just cruising not even thinking about anything in particular. Lost in thought or listening to a marching band play Amazing Grace with bag pipes and drums drifting across the river for the City to South festival. A Calypso band was playing further along the river but I was unable to distinguish any of their tunes.
The good thing about doing loops and crossing a start finish line with a running clock its easy to check and compare on progress. 10km in 36;21 (18;33) wasn't as quick as a fortnight ago during the 25km. 55;10 (18;49)  at 15km I was about a minute behind. I wanted to run around 1;50 and realized I was going to miss that target at 20km 1;14;18 (18;58 my slowest 5km but happy to at least keep them all inside 19 minutes).
25km 1;32;58 (18;49) compared to last fortnights 1;30;46. I needed to run 17mins for a 1;50;00.! Instead I  finished off with a 18;38 to record a 1;51;36. (on my Garmin/Strava which recorded 30.2km that's 3;41min K's). 
The Colossus of Master Running, Norm Green ran 30km in 1;46 at 56y.o. and 1;49 as a 57y.o. incredible.
Read about the Rev. Green here; and here see his running stats here some discussion about his incredible training regime here
Mightily impressive!
I had some pain in the feet during the run but nothing too bad, the rib had far more of an impact. I hope to get back into some mileage this week after recovering from Sunday.
Gold Coast is only 4 weeks away now.

30km splits

25km splits for comparison

Splits from my Half Mara in April where Clay dragged me around the first 6km.

Year to date 2724km

It is now one year since I got back running from my last injury layoff with the Plantar Fasciitis. I built the mileage steadily at first towards the World Masters in Perth at the end of October beginning  of November 2016. Following Perth my form dipped away and but in December I embarked on a new regime for me, 100+km weeks. I have really enjoyed running what I regard as huge mileage. I was used to running 80km a week through my Masters career, so to get up to a high of 161km in a week was new ground. I accepted the risks. Running just mileage alone contravenes my belief that high intensity/interval work is more beneficial for Masters runners.However I am happy with my choices.
I have run 2724km so far this year averaging about 550km a month.

However, I have had lingering pain in my foot for a year. Unusual location at the top of the foot, equivalent to the top part of the shoe tongue. I now have it in both feet, it having started in the left foot. The fact I have it in both feet leads to me think its not a stress fracture but possible tendinitis of the tendons running over the bony bridge of the foot. I changed shoes about 3 weeks ago but am wearing the same model Adidas Energy Boost (about my 5th pair). I noticed the lacing hole arrangement on the newest pair is constituted from 2 mm thick plastic but the older pairs have a less rigid structure. This morning I wore my old pair and didn't feel the pain! 

The pain caused me to cut my training right back this week to just a steady Lake+Roo - the reverse way round (Roo+Lake) to get the benefit from street lighting for first half as second half has none and its pitch dark at 5;30am. 
I will see how I feel on tomorrows run before deciding if I will go for a fast tempo 30km at BRRC on Sunday.