13k easy + PR 5k (17.19) + 4 easy

Messi sms'd me just before 8 to say that he was running laps ahead of Park Run so left a little earlier than planned to meet him. We ended up cruising for 13k before the start of PR but today for the first time on the summer course. This was slightly annoying as it's more on the grass than the 'winter' course. It's hard to tell but approximately 50% is on grass and to make matters worse it had not been cut and was soaking wet from the overnight dew.

I had told myself last night to go reasonably hard but having ran longer than planned beforehand I was unsure how the legs would cope. The 1st k starting on the grass buzzed up 3.24 as I started catching the positions from 10th down to 5th.  I could hear Foxy trailing me and about half way I summoned him to the front with the order to pull me home. All the middle ks were +/- around the 3.30 marker. On the back straight he then pulled away slightly and whilst I was tiring I was never really working at full 100% capacity. With a last k of 3.24, I finished with 17.19 per the Garmin and in 5th place (Foxy in 17.15). The course was long today so officially a bit slower than that. That said if it wasn't on the grass I reckon you could take off another 5s per k.

Next weekend I am going to give it a good crack and hope to get sub 17. It's annoyingly as there are 700 runners these days and so on the final lap you have to zig zag across the path to get by. Running is exploding here and there are now circa 50 park runs in London every weekend.

Everyone is running well at the moment:

- Messi has only been training for the Half and his main goal is Berlin in 5 months. Though I reckon he could still run close to 2.35 in London if he wanted to. He is undecided. He has kindly offered to pace me.

- Foxy like me is focussing on London. He has to be in with a shout of 2.35/36. Still being so young he has decades of time ahead.

- Daniel is the interesting one. I really think he could run a 1.19 Half and sub 2.50 marathon. He often beats me at Park Run and just needs to believe it a bit more. He though has taken the noble decision to allow his wife Gillian to run a spring Marathon and looking forward to seeing how she gets on in Brighton tomorrow. I reackon if he keeps the track going and starts committing to some of the longer tempos he will pull it off no question.

- Rory is also running well and no doubt will run under 1.30 for the Half soon and has already accomplished his 10k goal.

It's the Canberra Running Festival back home in Aus this weekend and nearly all of my Sydney Striders / HuRTs crew are competing. Really hoping that my bro (from another mo) Benny Streckeisen will run under 1.20. After all the training he's been doing he really deserves it.

Another stunning morning here and tomorrow will be 23 degrees celcius and sunny. This will be a nightmare if it is like this on the 23rd.

A massive sporting weekend ahead: the Masters, Grand Prix, critical Premiership games and most importantly the mother of all races 'Paris Roubaix' (this time Sagan will be too strong).

London full of cherry blossom: