Beautiful Day - C2S 47.48

A difficult week, work was very hectic and it didn't help coming down with the flu on Wednesday evening. On Wednesady morning, I had a decent 800s session but pulled up sore that evening - knot in my calf. Tapering for me is cutting back but the flu and calf injury put me on the sidelines for Thurs, Fri and Sat. I was very cranky as I really wanted to run the C2S. Gerso came over on Sat, and both of us were just miserable coughing and sneezing throu' the Olympic coverage on sat evening. I got up early after sleeping with the help of codral. I went out on the road and after a few strides decided to give the C2S a crack (well Livo thought I was fine running up and down the rd). Ran down with Gerso and tried to avoid as many people at the start but ran into Tim, Mike C, Rich P, Tim C, Truscott, G Howard, Fats, K Bateman etc.. well everyone. The plan was to give it a crack until 3k and continue to 5k if I felt good. I could always walk up O'Sullivan road if I wanted to pull out.
Started a lot slower than normal, and I didn't catch Tim L until 2k. Fats was just ahead and K Bateman (Fossil) was about 100m ahead. Dipped into double bay with Fats just ahead (Durante's tips on how to run down hill definitely helped). We went throu' 3k in just over 10 mins, ran comfortably with Fats who edged about 50m ahead of me. I hit 5k in 16.42 approx. I passed Matt Palmer and he drafted in right behind me. As we approach heartbreak hill, Matt pushed around me and powered up the hill. I ran it pretty steady and pulled in about 4-5 runners (including Fossil who was struggling up the hill) and sat behind fats about 3/4 way up the hill. Just kept it steady until the village and pushed by Fats. At that stage, I was feeling pretty good and ran strong around the lighthouse area down to military road. I climbed the double hills just before 10k and was half expecting Fats to come by me, but it didn't happen. I hit 10k in around 34.38 and passed Matt palmer at about 10.5k, I had a quick glance around and I saw Michael Kilacoat running strongly behind me. I used an Uncle Dave trick of focussing in on the next marker and strong to each one. 11k, 12k and 13k passed pretty quickly. I head Enda cheer me on a 13km, I just ran steady for the last km, I got a big cheer from my beautiful wife Livo at the roundabout and kicked home for a surprising 47.48 finish. A huge pb for me as 49.02 was my previous best and I really thought the calf strain and the cold would prevent me from running a decent time.
Some great runs out there, most notably my good friend Tom Highnam who ran a super 46.30 today. Tucks who is so strong it's not funny, Mike H and Charlie Low also ran very well. Must admit I was very happy to hold off Kilacoat, Fossil and Fats who were just behind me. Methinks the C2S is the toughest run out there, I was just happy to be run it today. I ended up having a great brunch in Sonja's and good few beers with Tim L, Enda and my good friend Rich P (who has another little angel on the way ;)Nearly forgot to mention Gerso (my sis in law) who came home in 68 mins which is a super run with the flu and all. The really thanks should got to Livo who convinced both of us to run today.....both of us were oh so cranky this morning..it ended up a beautiful day!