What a start… late! Not even entered! Twit!!! I was quite looking forward to this one as it was my first proper go as last years birthday suit pacing run wasn’t a race, just a jolly. Having not done any speed work for a bit I wasn’t sure how my legs would feel, but a solid week before meant I wasn’t feeling unfit, which was nice. Nice 10 min warmup with t’other Sam then some stretches, ate my gel and started a bit far back (on purpose). I knew the desire to shoot off too quick would be nagging, so starting a bit further back from the front meant I had a bit more time to find my rhythm. It did mean me getting snagged up a little so I didn’t find my pace until onto the seafront really. The headwind wasn’t too bad and I drafted people as I worked my way casually through the field – found a nice broad AC runner to draft for a couple of km, he did a lot of the hard work for me ;-). I thanked him when I nipped past after the turnaround. It got so hot really fast with the wind behind but I managed to keep the pace mostly at around 3:55 ish. When I saw I was gaining on Joe I pushed a little more, same with Jake, so the pace crept up a little before the crazy golf, but maybe it was too much as when I hit that first little bit of headwind I slowed down a bit, then loads as I approached the underpass… getting slower and slower, felt awful but I didn’t have much in me. I had a word with myself as almost walked down the ramp as I was so f*cked, but knew I had to push a bit longer. Picked it up fine for the last stretch which felt good. Sub 31 mins would have been nice but happy with that time considering what training I hadn’t done! Was cooked at the end and needed 30s to recover, but then felt good (until the drive home where I had a wobble and needed to have a recovery shake and some cake – body telling me I pushed hard). Quite enjoyed it in the end, nice to see all you lot.