Notes
Pouring rain at the start but otherwise not much wind and temperature was ok. Started off strong and felt like I pushed good the first 2K to stick to 19 pace but really slacked off on the uphill drag in the 3rd km. By then it was too late to make up the time lost. Had a lot of people around me the entire way to keep me motivated. GPS is screwy the first K so could only check my time at the K markers. Really tried to push on the downhills and uphills while just maintaining on the flats. Looking after I could see my cadence was lower than I would have liked around 193-195. Should be closer to 198. So possibly my legs were just a little tired from the last few weeks and that prevented me from turning them over. Strength appeared good though. After 3K I made a concerted effort to push on the downhill part and make up some time but it just wasn't enough. Breathing became accelerated in last 1300m. Turned onto the home stretch at around 16:11 so still thought I could hit 19:05 or so with a strong finish. Really pushed hard and was passing people so surprised to see the pace only around 3:45 or so for the last 800m. Thought I was going much faster.
Don't know what part the rain played in the race as there were a lot of puddles. Usually 40th place is around 18:40 so the race was definitely slow this year. Definitely feel I could have gone faster with a bit more rest and possibly could have worked harder in the third km. Despite this, pleased with performance and it gives me a starting point from which to progress. Achilles and ankle still achy but did survive and weren't as wrecked as they were after Sporting Life.
Splits were something like:
3:47
3:51
4:00
3:50
3:46