Numbskull At North Head

Yesterday (Friday) I thought I should have a gentle 15min run before work just to stay fresh for the 10k at North Head on Sat.As usual the heart ruled the head and 15min turned into 40min.So 7.24 km in 40m38s; exactly the same distance I ran on Tuesday at the bay run when I overshot the 7k mark - uncanny coincidence.There was a slight twinge at work after Friday's run , enough to make me think twice about tackling the 10k.Then I received 2 encouraging msgs from fellow CRs and decided that the reason we train is so that we can run in events like a Striders 10k - settled then.
Saturday dawns (almost) and I grab the usual stuff; taking particular care to include the forerunner and hrm strap because I knew I couldn't trust myself to run at the gentle pace I had set for myself. I arrive at Manly, get my number and turn gps on to discover that there was no battery life left!I had forgotten to turn the wretched gizmo off the night before and it had spent the night bleeding power and there went all my confidence with it.
No point worrying about stuff you can do nothing about so I resigned myself to pester other runners at various points to get a handle on my progress.Brief warm up run then some of my funny looking stretches had me at the back of the pack 45sec prior to the start.
There was none of the usual adrenaline or stress to get through the crowd and start a steady pace; just avoiding other runners streaming past me again and again and again.No enjoyment yet!
One thing about North Head is that you get to see the faster runners 3 or 4 times.I kept trying to spot runners that I used to spar with, wishing I was at their pace rather than where I was.Again, no point worrying about shite you can't do anything about so just plod on.To add a bit of amusement to the run I decided I would let myself go a bit, down the hills (less braking stress on the legs I rationalised) and it worked well for a while.Then I'd spot the faster packs of runners coming the other way and get disheartened again.So I decided that I'd make it a bit tougher on my pace but easier on the back by running on the verges of the road.The surface varied from lush grass to sandy mud to scattered fist sized rocks.I didn't care what other runners thought I was doing, I just knew that the hard asphalt was doing me no favours and I had a feeling that I was pacing too fast.
As the km markers wound down toward the 9k point, the anticipation of needing to finish fast just wasn't there like it usually was.I nearly didn't bother with it but in the end ran strongly the last 700m to the finish - all downhill and all on sandy or grassy surface.
I had no idea what time I ran until about 10pm tonight - forgot to look at the clock as I ran through!I just knew I had to stretch the niggle I could feel in my right glute and get back home to roll around on a tennis ball for a while.
I'm glad I ran today, I may have gone too hard but only the next 48hrs will tell.As I write, it's only the glute that's a bit tender not the SIJ and may just need one of those godawful massage sessions to release it.Massage used to conjure up lovely,peaceful,soothing thoughts until I found the unique, breathtaking pain of a sports massage.