Oh, and I got a good result too (the power of positive thinking): I won! This was a surprise and was not my initial intention: I had wanted to take it pretty cruisily so that I could then run home from the race venue and make the whole thing my 'long' long run of the week. However, about a km and a half in, my legs sped up as if of their own accord and they felt pretty fresh and 'good' (despite a return to circuit and strength training just a day ago), so I went with it and managed to keep a better pace up and won first place! This was very exciting, and it was lovely to see everyone there. There is such a great running community here in Hanoi and I will truly miss it and everyone when I leave.
I did eventually get the remaining 15km in to make up the rest of my 'long' run for the week, in case you were wondering, but chose to do it around the beautiful West Lake (as per usual, lol) instead of back up the crazy busy main road that led out of town to Yenso Park (thanks again to a champion friend for driving me all the way home afterwards). Job done, but feeling a bit fatigued today. Going to opt for lots of the usual healing foods (green veggies, mushrooms, salmon, turmeric etc) and a short recovery run later on. The Bangkok Marathon is really not far away now! Will soon be taper time, so am looking forward to that.
Have a wonderful week everyone, lots of love from here in Hanoi!!