Monthly vet's handicap - Kowen Forest

Today:
Race distance: 7.5 km plus
warm up and cool down 8.2 km = 15.7 km
Race time: 31'45"
Rate: 4'14" per km
Finished 42nd
Weather: sunny,cool with southerly breeze, temp range 10-15 degrees,humidity 45%

A change to be able to run thru the pines trees again as most in the local area were destroyed by bushfires over the past few years. This course while not hilly is not all flat with a good mixture of short uphill and some fast downhill parts to complement the open flat fire trails.
The handicapper hit me one group after last month's result so now start out of group 39 with only the good runners behind me. That is enough to get the feet moving right from the start hoping not to be overtaken early in the race. In fact only 3 went past me so that was good.
I had a good race today with Peter Cullen who started out of the same group and there was not much between us all run. I lead early but Peter caught me by the 4 km mark and we pushed the last 2.5 kms home with both our km times well under 4 minutes per km. Held Peter out in a sprint by just a few seconds.
Very happy with the run at racing pace and finished 10 seconds faster than last year over the same course both times 2 weeks after SFT. Although last year I finished 17th and this year 42nd, no justice.
Finished off the day with a 6.2km cool down and now feel as if the recovery is complete.
Kowen is a very good venue and course and although the southerly was cool, a nice day was had by all.