5.49 a 26min PB in my 5th 6inch despite illness

Results
5 people!!! went under existing course records. Bernadettes 4.15 outstanding! Gerry won in 3.25. Nathan Doig took out inaugural King of the Mountain, AND finished in 4.06. 79 finishers. a lot of highlights. I did a 26min PB with a 5hour 49min effort.

Hit 17k at Del Park Rd in 1.53 which is 28min quicker than last years 17k split and 13 minutes quicker than my previous fastest first 17k at 6 inch (in 2008 when my ankle blew up in the last 15km.)...Worked hard through Whittakers, and then had another couple of surges with Scrooge Steve about 12k to 15k, before backing off a bit after reaching my target split of a sub 2 hour effort in the first 17km. Awesome encouragement from people like Aaron (he was everywhere!), Rob, and Claire, lots more officials/helpers out there on course this year...

After Del Park Rd, I walked a bit on the climb up to Scarp Rd, and then tried to settle into ma solid, but not as attacking rhythm as in the first 17km, right on cue, Catherine Ross (who went on to do 4.54) caught me about here, and we chatted for awhile, told her she was 3rd woman, and she told me about her experiences doing the Maroondah Dam run, if I remember correctly. Tried to stay with her for awhile, but was finding the pace a bit too hard, so decided to let her get on with it, and get back to some solitude, which in some ways is better, although a bit of both is good.
About 23kmish I asked some helpers how far to aid station, and they said about 7km, although in my tired state I may have misheard them.

Got to 24km (first aid station) in 2.21, then struggled with legs going very heavy/lactical after all the hard attacking surging I did in the first 17k, plus taking on hydration pack with 3.5 litres of drinks in it...Got to Oakley Dam in 3.12 (compared to 3.37 and 3.28 the last 2 years), and at this stage although I could feel I was struggling, had made it through two big hills, and still felt 5.30-6.00 was possible.

Did not handle Oakley dam hills very well as per usual, but managed to hang in there while getting passed by a lot of people with a toilet stop, a lot! of walking up steep hills/difficult terrain with my 3kg pack, and some occasional jogs when i could find the energy to slowly edge through a tortourous 5km in 62minutes, to reach second aid station in 4hr 14minutes still well ahead of the 4.32 and 4.49 of the last 2 years. I knew the last 11km didnt have a lot of uphill, and with some encouraging and wise words from one of the helpers (Claire) in my mind, and a Hammer Gel (from the smorgasboard of about 6 different flavours and scores available...) ensuring I was getting some stronger concentrated Carbs into my system, I gave myself a a good chance of a PB and a very small outside chance of going sub 6 hours.
Steep downhill was very hard to get through but got some good rhythm going on the flat sections, and although Sarah passed me on a hill, I knew I was still going well. When I got to Marrinup just a handful of minutes over the 5 hour mark with about 5km to go I knew that all I had to do was keep about 8-9 min K's ticking over with some solid jogging, and a sub 6 was mine. As I started to get closer and made it to 45km in 5.42 I revised my target to 5.50, and managed to just sneak under the 5.50 by 3 seconds.

Battled a runny nose the whole way (Have had that for 3 days), and my training while good enough could have been a lot better especially on short stuff, but the 8km tempo runs in recent weeks and the 5k race helped me to attack in the first 17km...
A 5 hour long run in hindsight would have been helpful, although I think my long runs were some the best 4 week blocs of long runs I have put together.

A sub 6 hour 6 inch is a 6 foot qualifer, so very pleasing to get that.
Heaps!!!!!!!!!!! of highlights see link at top of this post.
Photos coming soon. There is lots of facebook already....

Friday;
Ran 8km in 43min 20secs. HR 159 at end. @ 5min 25 per Km average pace.
4km splits 21.54 / 21.26 (a negative split so sort of a cross between a tempo and an easy run).
1km splits; 5.22/5.50’s x 2 / 4.52/ 4.47/5.35’s x 2 /5.28.
Felt pretty unwell in the last 24 hours (runny nose/sneezing), and RHR very nhigh today at 48, after 40-43 earlier in the week, so this run was an attempt to try and sweat out some of the yucky stuff, and/or just get me feeling better in general. As such started out jogging very slowly, and then trying to build into some rhythm on the easy downhill in the first 1km. Pretty slow at 5.22 compared to the 4.28 and 4.33 first 1k splits on my first 2 attempts at this hilly street circuit last month. Started to feel better about 3k into it, which coincided nicely with the flat section, and resulted in a 4.52 and a 4.47 (but not really at the same level as the 4.10-4.46 stuff I did the last 2 times)…Not feeling well, and no desire to attack hard today for various reasons, so coasted through the rest of it at about 5.30 per KM, and the lack of attack on the last uphill Km shows with the very low finishing heart rate of 159. felt better for a few hours after that, before feeling sick again in the afternoon. Need to shake this out of my system with Gods help if I am to race 6 inch well, in fact today, I have doubts about even starting the race, but at this stage I am still going to go for it, and the fact I can run under 5.30 per K at such low intensity oin a hilly course is a good sign…
So what do I take out of this. A good solid easy run, that should help me get to the start line in good condition if I am not too sick…we shall see…If nothing else a good conditioning maintenance run…

Thats 54km for this week, (including the 46km trails race so equivalent to about a 60km-65km week of road running?) or a better measure; 393 minutes of running.

When I can shake this sickness (God willing) I have something to build my 6 foot prep off, and start my track racing this summer in earnest I hope. Extremely happy with the big 6 inch PB in trying circumstances, Car insurance hassles still ongoing almost 2 months later, demanding but much better new job. Kathryn my wife did a good job of looking after the kids while I was running 6 inch. So a lot of positives to work with...