This race capped off a great 2010 for me - I would scarcely have believed I would be competing at my 2nd major championship of the year if you'd told me in January! My build-up had been good, although was more of a fitness top-up as I had to balance recovering from the Europeans in August with getting fit enough to do myself justice. My main concerns before the race were that I wasn't sure what to expect. Runners hate 'unknowns' and this race was full of them! I'd read a report by Australian legend Robert de Castella that the conditions were the harshest ever and that he only expected 30% of the field to finish. So I had to balance actually doing my best with making sure I definitely finished the race!

The race was at 6.30am, when the sun is just rising and we'd been checking what the conditions were like at this time of day and although temperatures was in the mid 20's, it sometimes shot up to about 30 at 8-9am and humidity had been 100% sometimes! I'd learnt a lot from the European Campionships about running a marathon in that heat but humidity of that level was a complete unknown and I had no idea what was going to happen to my body in those conditions. The other unknown was the quality of the field. I'd seen a few PBs of those involved but the Commonwealths is rarely full of household names, but more comprised of talented runners who rarely race outside of their own country. 

I'd already decided to forget about the field completely. I was going to run my own race. I was expecting a very tough 2nd half and so wanted to reach halfway feeling full of running. I hadn't set any strict goals but I knew a top 10 finish was possible and out of the 24 on the start list I was ranked about 15th on PBs, so to better that would be great. I obviously knew all about Andi (ENG) and Martin (SCO): Andi was in good shape and desperate to make amends on his DNF at the Europeans, while Martin had had only a few weeks training under his belt and so wasn't going to take many risks early on.

Conditions felt good when we started, the sun was just rising and humidity didn't seem bad at all. We ambled through the first mile as one big group in 5.45, and it slowly wound up from there. The next 2 miles were 5.25 and 5.15 and at this point I let the lead group go as I wanted to settle into my own pace. This left me with Martin, Andi and 2 or 3 others, including a guy from Lesotho that Martin abused for taking his drink at the drinks station! Martin got revenge by squirting Powerade down his back though - the guy had no idea what was going on!  We were very near the back and it was really hard to make this choice as it felt slow and conditions weren't that bad at this point, but I had to have faith that it would get worse and people would come back to me in 15-20 miles time. 

The pace stayed even at mid 5.20 miling and I was at the head of the group most of the time. We went through 10k in 34.10 and I was trying to ignore how boring the course was! It was originally going to be 4 loops but then that got shortened to 4 times out and back on the same road! Also there were no spectators at all except for a few at the start/finish so we went through that a few times but the rest was just long, boring, quiet roads! I was actually very grateful for the company and by the time we reached halfway in 72.04 we had passed 2 people who had come back and Andi was just starting to struggle. I was just starting to push slightly now and me and a Rwandan were running together at the front of the group. As the 3rd 10k wore on we actually pulled away a bit and got into a bit of a tussle. He was really irritating me as he kept bumping into me and we were testing each other a bit without actually making a big move. Either one of us would gain a yard or two and then the other would pull it back. This caused me to pull away from Martin a bit and I also started to be quite aware of the sun being much brighter and feeling much hotter on the exposed sections of the course.

Just as we passed 30k, with another even 34.18, Martin caught me by surprise and came back past me. The Rwandan went with him and I didn't feel like I could follow them. At this exact point I picked up a bit of a stitch, which could have been form taking on lots of fluids, or could be from the new Shotz gels I'd been using, with added caffeine. They're a bit thicker than the SIS ones I'd used before but made sure I drank with water. It's impossible to tell what caused it, but all I knew is my breathing had to be shallow and I didn't feel as comfortable as I had done. My Garmin tells me I slowed here with a couple of miles in about 5.35 but by 32k or so I felt better and was starting to gain on the two ahead of me again. I reached them and went straight past at about 34-35k and this time no one came with me. Martin even said 'Not you again' which was actually quite funny and he was probably getting me back for suggesting a monkey we'd seen on the course earlier was a member of his family!

I kept pushing on, and finally people started coming back. We'd gained no places between 20k and 30k, being 15th or so but finally the race plan started to come together. I was going past people from 36k or so onwards and even though I could feel my legs starting to tire and I did slow down a bit, I was doing much better than those around me. I passed another 2 people in the last 2k, and was fast bearing down on 10th place but he managed to just get to the line before me. I found the last 5k tough to call as I could feel my legs tiring and so didn't want to go all out to catch people who were actually quite far ahead but were moving so slowly that they came back much quicker than I expected. I was still conscious of the people behind me and wanted to make sure I didn't lose any places by a rash surge in pace backfiring! I think if I had gambled a bit more I could have got 10th, but I won't beat myself up about it. I'm more than happy with 11th, in 2.24.34. My last 10k was only 10 secs slower in 34.28 and it was also good to pass an Australian in the last 800m who has run 2.13 this year.

Martin Williams had an awesome run off so little training. I really expected him to fade and end up nearer 2.30, but he only lost any time on me in the last 4 miles. Andi had to pull out at 30k with a hamstring injury and I know he's gutted to DNF again. I know he'll be back stronger than ever next year though.

This caps off a great year for me. Time to recover properly now and come back in PB shape in 2011!