Herts 10k Splits

So this is now definitely an annual event. The 3rd outing of the Sunday morning troupe for the Herts10k route in 3x2.08miles with 3 minute recovery.
Paul Savage and myself have done all 3, Anthony and Big Paul have done 2 and today we were joined by Rob, Ben & Viddy.
The general rule is to push as hard as possible, take the mick out of your running mates and hope not to die in the process. We've come close in previous year's but not this time.
It was pretty cold this morning, 6-7c, and so a few of the guys were in their leggings and jackets.
We met at the George and headed up to the start line. Ben was late so had to scamper to catch us up. That didn't slow him down as he and Viddy set a blistering pace on the first leg. The rest of us were strung out with myself and Rob making sure no one fell behind. Anthony was looking strong and holding Paul's pace, while Big Paul pushed along behind Ben & Viddy.

At the first stop we regrouped and then too off again after the 3 min recovery. My legs were shot to bits. I was really struggling but tried to keep Rob's pace. He was running the second leg very strongly after the shock of the first. Up the hill was steady and then the long drag back to Roundwood where wee stopped and again regrouped. Ben & Viddy had once more set off like hares!

We lost Paul at this point. His biannual need to rush to a bog seems to align with these reps.

The 3rd leg takes us back down the Nicky Line and over the fields. Rob was on form and Anthony was cruising. I, on the other hand was whimpering like a git. The energy was gone. A bit of running, 3 swim sessions and a track session on the bike probably caught up with me. However I dug in and somehow came in with a reasonable final set.

So the 2011 splits were: 7:05, 7:10, 7:08.
Compared with 2009:  6:30, 7:03, 6:58 and 2010: 6:54, 7:37, 7:46.

So I was pretty happy with those in all honesty. There's still a few weeks to go and with a proper taper I might get close to the 2009 time which was a bit over 41mins.