The camera never lies

I've managed to round up an impressive array of photos (more than from all the other races I've done before combined haha) from the race and have discovered an alarming trend. See if you can spot it.

That's right, I'm a heel striker:( For years I've been placing myself on a high horse, content in the knowledge that my form was perfect and scorning those unfortunate souls who land heel first. Now I realise that my happiness was just an illusion. I've been thrown in existential chaos. Who am I? My whole identity was tied into the idea that I was a midfoot striker, but it is blatantly obvious that that is no longer true. Or was it ever true at all? For the past three years I have been living a charade, and now like a cruel secret keeper with no sense of propriety, a photographer (thanks for the pics btw:D) has unveiled my flaw. In a way I am grateful, because I now finally realise why I have forever been laughed at during races. It wasn't my goofy hair-style, it wasn't my desperate attempts to pick up another place by sprinting past a 10 year old girl 5 m from the finish line, it was my traitorous heel! I will never be the same person again:(

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More pics: (copyright www.supersportimages.com.au)

(11k mark) (Going down the last downhill) (Finishing line)
The official results came out today: 1:26:57 - 77th place. I must've been in about 40th place for the first lap (42:18), but lost a lot of time in the second half (44:39). Big positive split, but I guess it just shows I paced it very well for a goal that was a bit too ambitious.

I should've done the 5k, I would've won (1st was 18:57:S) :P

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I've decided to take a few days off from running to give my achilles tendon a chance to heal. It's not so painful that I can't run, but it's getting worse and it's affecting me on almost every run now (didn't notice anything during the race though:)). I figure it's better to take some time off now to avoid it becoming a chronic problem. It's probably because I stopped stretching before runs. I never used to have any problems even after I switched to minimalistic training shoes, so that's the only variable that's changed.

In the mean time, I've been attacking the cross trainer with a previously unknown ferocity. I'm now hitting level 6 quite easily, which is a big step:) I should explain what I mean by level 6:
The machine itself is kind of like an exercise bike, but it also has arm levers, connected to the pedals, so you get a full body workout. There's a very rudimentary resistance function, which basically just tightens a band around the free wheel to increase the friction. It's controlled by a little knob, which can be turned round completely 10 times (hence the levels). When I started off, level 1 was a struggle, but I've gradually gotten stronger and have made big gains, especially in the last 6 weeks or so. My aim is to get to level 10:P Don't know if the machine can take it though. I tried level 7 yesterday and the chain slipped off haha.