You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows

Sat 10k race North Head
I could think of plenty of Dylan quotes that could describe the weather on Saturday morning. The change in the weather was definitely extreme and with the 10k race in North Head there was no Shelter from the Storm.
The officials banged on about how bad the weather was and nobody should expect a PB, this basically let everyone off the hook. Uncle Dave asked me if I was planning on running it hard 'i'll give a crack but i'm pretty tired at the moment' Kanser now had two excuses tired legs and the severe weather.
Took off with the lead group and ducked in behind Charlie, I hit the 1k marker in 3.30 and didn't like pace so I had two options. Run it hard for 5k and then back track help Gerso for the last 5k OR be really selfish and just run it as marathon pace run. Opted for the latter, dropped off the pace from around 1.5k and stuck at around 3.43 avg pace until the last km and ran it hard to dip under 37 mins. I had a good look around and it was pretty obvious that the majority took the advice from the official and took the race relatively easy. Difficult to tell with Uncle Dave but I'm pretty sure he was put in the effort. There was talk at the start of forgetting about PBs but there is always one exception to the rule. Young Gerso (who's been working hard on her 3k's and 800s) banged out another consecutive pb. Tom commented afterwards that her pb in Lane Cove was obviously soft but no matter what race or how bad the conditions are Gerso runs a pb. Gerso first race was back in North Head in Sept 2007 and she ran it in 54.32, she now running 45.43 and I expected her to dip under 45 mins. Big Bear was back in action, he was suppose to pace Gerso but he's obviously been feeding on too much salmon. He struggled home a few seconds behind Gerso. Looking at the published results the majority ran about 60-90 secs slower...
Sun Long Run
None of the boys were keen to come out and run 36k with me but I got a call from Terence who was up for the challenge. I told him I wanted to run 28k at 4.30 pace and the last 8k just under 4 mins pace. Terence who is not blessed with natural speed but has the ability to run strong for long periods of time. He demonstrated his endurance capacity running 3.53 for the sixfoot and 2.47 in the Gold Coast.
I ran 2k to Centennial at 4.30 pace and continued on with Terence running the relatively flat 8k loops I tend to use for tempo sessions. I didn't feel tired when i woke up this morning so the 3hr afternoon nap on Saturday definitely helped. After 3.5 loops (28k), we upped the tempo and brought the pace down to 4m/k. The change in the pace was pretty comfortable and after 4k the pace was at 3.57, we then cut throu' the centre of the pack to finish off with 4 1k reps. The pace dropped to 3.55 and after 2.5 reps Terence fell off the pace slightly. My garmin battery died and I pushed the last 2 reps pretty hard (don't know the pace probably around 3.45). I ended up running home from centennial to bring the morning total to 40k in approx 2.55.
Good to get the last long run out of the way, pretty impressed with Terence's effort he was only 30 secs back at the end. He's looking to run some ultra's in the near future and I don't think he will have any difficult with stepping up. With 3 weeks left, I now enter the taper phase so I will gradually reduce volume but keep the intensity. I also need to get my nutrition right for the big day. In every marathon so far I tend to stop for a wee and lose 40-60 secs in the process - it's not happening in Berlin. People keep asking me how fast I'll run in Berlin. The answer my friend is blowing in the wind ;)