Running race 2:13:36 [4] 30.22 km (4:25 / km) +880m 3:52 / km
shoes: La Sportiva Helios
Lightning strike 30km, main reason to do this was to get a 6FT qualifier and ideally get into an early wave as well. Start was at 7.30 but did get time to do a lap of the xc track to warm up. Wasn't sure how I'd go after not doing a lot of running over the last few weeks but decided to have a crack at a good run. Set off just behind acejase and watched sean clearing out with no-one going with him. Once we started heading uphill I went past jase then settled in about 50m back from the 2nd to 5th place group. The first 10km were undulating and was good running, with effort on the hills and a chance to recover going down. At the 10km it was back through the event centre and I could see jase not too far back along with the lead girl. Once we were back on the fire trails we were into the back of the 10km field, I pushed on through here and made up two places before the turnoff to the 20km loop. I felt good through the first 10km of this, then started to tire a bit on the climbs on the back of stromlo but kept pushing on through Ollies drinks station and then to the top. Down the steep hill and got a bit hammered in the quads, then on the last of the two pinches liam went past and flew down the hill, so not much chance of holding onto him. The thought that acejase was probably not too far back was a motivator to keep the effort up down to the crit track. Nearly went the wrong way here as a lot of the 10 km runners and the guy in front went left instead of right, so wasted a bit of time following them then turning round and going the correct way. Very happy with my time, should be 6FT wave 1 and better than I was expecting.