We had a great day with the Tauranga turning on the weather as usual. The run goes from Tauranga city, over the harbour bridge into the Mt Maunganui industrial area. Then into the Mt CBD, around the Mt base track with a loop along the beach foreshore to finish on the Mt CBD main street. It is a nice fast course, apart from the Mt Base track which can really sting the legs, especially during the Mt Half Ironman. I ran the first 8km with Ben Ruthe and Kieran Doe but tailed off slightly before the base track. I just didn't have the leg speed to stay with Ben, the National Cross Country Champ and Kieran was running very nicely pacing off Ben. I ran to my own rhythm and lost just over a minute to Kieran and two to Ben to finish 3rd overall. I know I can go faster again, the focus for the next 3 weeks build to the World is on speed and power so I look forward to running as quickly there, only off the bike! I'm keen to use this race as a good annual test to gauge my improvement, 1.10 next year sounds really good to me!
After the race, the entire Milne clan hung at the park with my 5 nieces and nephews and 15 month old daughter Alex running riot with dozens of other kids on the play equipment. A good way to warm down and a good catch up with the whanau.
Next week its off to Hamilton to do a 10km run race for more of the same fine tuning. This time however there will a solid swim, then ride from Taupo to Hamilton on the Saturday, and a quality wind trainer session pre-race on the Sunday. Should be fun and I'm looking forward to the adventure.
Thought I would add in this quote from one of Lance Armstrong's "tweets", very cool...
Have fun and be mad.......
