On Sunday I ran a half marathon. In short a PB. For the long, read on.Pre-race: Had the most restless night of sleep. I think I saw every hour. So did Mr T and our house guests. I heard their alarm at 6:30am and so I too got up.
Had a glass of juice and prepped a honey sandwich for an hour prior to my run. Had to be there early so my friends could register. This gave me plenty of time to wait in the toilet queue and have a chat with a first time half marathoner - it feels like forever ago! 15min prior to racing I had a gu.
Event warm up: My take on this is that 21.1km is plenty of time to warm up. So I just did some leg swings.
Run: 2:11:02 | 21.1 kms | 6:13/km. So the gun goes off and a plenty of people pass me. I am taking it easy, trying to run my own race and it feels slow. About 3km in people seem to have found their rhythm and it appears I'm the only person running 6 min kms. No one else around! It's like this until 7km in and only then do I start to pick people off. I find if I focus on my form I can put on a little burst and pass people easier. <- I can't believe I wrote that. Passing people! Unheard of!
At about 9km I started taking the powerbar lemon gel shots. I was determined to finish them, but it took me 9kms to do so. I definitely wasn't hungry.
I knew it was worth holding off early because I was going to struggle at 17km and onwards. That I did. It's not my favourite part of the course and then you have to run past the finish line to do another mini loop so it becomes more of a mental challenge. I just know as soon as I lost focus I slowed down. And it took a lot of effort to keep concentrating.
What would you do differently?
Attempt to enjoy my next race, I appear to be in a world of unhappiness in that top photo! It's going to be non stop smiling on the Gold Coast I tells you.
However, I ran the race I wanted to, and ran a PB!!! I'm happy enough.
I was aiming for an easy first half and consistent pacing and I didn't do too badly. I didn't drop off at the end at all.
According to my Garmin the course measured long a little long (~200m), my friend's was the same. Up until about the 8km mark it was spot on, then the kms just got further and further out which played on my thoughts a little. That said, perfect conditions for running, no wind at all, which is unusual for this course.
Warm down: I was cheered over the line by the Man and friends, then it was all about the Apple crumble! Oh my, the apple crumble. There's something about racing that leaves me feeling a little nauseous at the end, had it not been the case, I would have gone back for seconds for sure!
Event comments: The more I run the more I like these events. They are small and friendly in comparison to some of the other runs around. There seems to be a higher calibre of runners that attended these events, which is initially intimidating but in the end makes for some great racing.
Nice work!!
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