Up at 4:30, met Dave (dgrant) in Hornby at 5:40 and on the 401 cruising west by 4:45, just like clockwork. Plan the drive, drive the plan. I didn't sleep that well, but getting up didn't seem too bad. Found Springbank Park in London, just where they said it might be, by 7:15, and parked on the grass 100 feet from the start/finish line. Weather was just great, slight wind, some clouds, 9 degrees. Picked up our bibs and a great brown long-sleeved tech shirt. Then we noticed that nobody had chip timers of any kind.
We started off together pretty easy at first. I hit the wrong button on my Garmin, Dave said the first K took 4:57. I started mine at the 1 K mark. We ran together, or swapped the lead, for the first 5 K. Those went by at around a 4:40 pace or better. Dave went ahead for good around 6 K, I saw him ahead of me for the last time at 8 K. We had done a loop at the start before heading out the path, we turned around to head back on the paved trail at about 11.75 K. At this point Dave was just under a minute ahead.
My realistic goal for today was 1:43, whisper goal (that I might have shouted at times) was 1:42. My PB set on a rainy day in Waterloo this April was 1:47:14. Today at the halfway point, I was on pace for a 1:40! The first half seemed easy. Coming back, it started to be harder to keep up that pace, then I started slipping a few seconds each split. 4:43, 4:46, 4:50, 4:53. I knew that that was ok, that if I didn't crash and burn I was still going to end up happy. It seemed so hard right up to K17, then we came into shade and breeze, that helped a bit. I started doing the math in my head, and knew that 1:42 was possible but just. I swear that i picked up my effort level for the last 2 K, but the last full one was my only split over 5 minutes (just). The finish line seemed a long time in coming, and in the distance I saw the clock turn 1:42! Ended up at 1:42:09. [Whine Alert]: Garmins say that the course was around 200 m long, that's a minute! And there was no chip timing, just gun. [/endwhine]. A PB by 5 minutes and change. Still I dwell on those 9 seconds!
It was a good day, no problems, nice people. I got several comments on my RM shirt; one guy in washroom line said he reads us every now and then, "just to see what people are saying". On the course, a couple of , "Runningmania, woo hoo"s. Or was it tee hee's. We had some pizza and cans of OJ, and milled about for a half hour. Awards were at least another half hour off, we didn't stay. Back on the road home by 10:15. I must say that Dave is a fine travelling partner, he's much nicer one-on-one than he is online.
I was home by noon.
Your dedication is very impressive. The rest of this competition should be great.
(Even after that beer 
