SMH Half PB

Woke up to the surprising sound of rain at 5.30 this morning - unbelievable given that Sydney was on for it's driest ever start to May had it been dry today - first 19 days of May have seen no rain! Anyway, was only a slight drizzle as I headed up to Bondi Junction and was thankful for the cloud cover as it stopped the temperature being quite so cold. Decent crowd for this event of 13,500 and it has grown a bit since my last run in 2001. Saw Supercoach at the start but none of the other Hurts crowd so headed off on my own and felt pretty good for the first 6/7kms - tried not to get too excited with the fast start and keep to 4.12 pace. Got through 10kms in 43 minutes after a couple of nasty little inclines around Pyrmont and came through 14kms in pretty much bang on 60 minutes (good boost for the city to surf at this stage of the year). Knew the last 5kms were going to be tough with the hills up Macquarie Street and around Art Gallery road and I was right. . Looking back at my stats on the Garmin, certainly did it quicker than it felt and managed a decent effort for the last 300/400 meters. All up I reckon I have done a 88.33 as i didn't stop my watch quickly enough at the end for some reason - so I'm taking 10 secs off the watch time. Given I haven't done more than 15/16kms in one go for about 3/4 months I am pretty stoked with the time. Garmin stats are at http://connect.garmin.com/activity/179935976 Not sure what is going on with the official results which are saying a net time of 89.39 but very happy to see that I negative split the second 10kms by about a minute, especially on that course. So a bit of a break from the pb targets now until the C2S but I think a sub 88 is achievable for the Blackmores. Saw a few HUrts folks after the race and some great results all round - Laura doing an 80.40 and breaking 81 for the first time is probably a highlight. MC and Mike Race paced a couple of guys inclduing Indrajit who managed a 85.10. I doubt I will be out for hurts tomorrow but may hit the speed set on Tuesday.