Hi all - lots of racing going on again this weekend - congrats to all PBers and not-so-PBers.
So here's to my report. I had a spate of injuries over the summer, which meant that my training did not go to plan and in fact I ran a poor 10K at the beginning of September @ 46:59, so was not hopeful about beating my HM PB of 1.33 @ St Neots. But Autumn was much better and I actually racked up a decent training block including a PB in the 10K 42:59. I wanted to go for a PB at St Neots, so decided to head out at 7mm and try to get to 10 miles at 1:10 and take it from there - with 1:32 as a general target.
The weather forecast was excellent all week, so I knew it was going to be a good one - and there were around 30 from our club doing the race. First 2 miles settled in nicely at 6:55, followed by an undulating 3 miles @ 7:08. So 5 miles in I was pretty much on target, feeling comfortable and already starting to reel people in. I knew that there was a drinks station at 6.5 miles, so would take a gel there. Next 3 miles @ 6:54, which consolidated my effort. At 8.5 miles there was another drag uphill, to take me into the final 5k. Those 2 miles were an effort @ 7:09. But amazingly got to 10 miles at around 1:10 as per plan.
The idea was then to pick it up in the last three miles, which were slightly downhill and blast it. I thought, jeez, maybe 1:30 is on here, just need to push on. But however the legs were not moving fast enough and I cursed not having a second gel, even just for the mental boost. So the final 5K was done at a good pace, but not fast enough - 6:49 for that stretch, during that 5K I had to write off 1:30, and at the final turn I had to ditch 1:31 as well, as I scored 1:32:04 for a new shiny PB.
Garmin clocked that at 6:58 for the race and getting below 7mm in a half feels like some kind of barrier has been broken. The Team Minni PB chart has been duly updated 
No more A races this year for me - just a load of XC and 5Ks to do. Starting the buildup to Paris marathon after a short rest. Looking forward to that already and provisionally targeting 3:23ish.
