It was a dead flat course, in Christchurch, and at the time it was the hardest thing I had ever done. I wasn't a runner and I remember well how much everything was hurting by the time I got to the finish line. The official photo backs that up - I was a picture of pain and misery and I was experiencing the biggest challenge I had ever faced. But I did it and got a net time of 2:13:15.
Despite the difficulty and challenge, over the next 8 years, and with over a dozen half marathons under my belt, I never managed to crack that time. I came close, with a couple of 2:17s and 2:18s, but more commonly I would come in anywhere between 2:20-2:30.
That was, until today.
Today was the running of the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon. At only 14 days before my A race, entering was a bit of a question mark, however Coach Dave was confident I could use it as a training day and still have time to recover.
So it was a to be a training day for me and a blowout of the cobwebs for St Pete. The plan was to go at IM pace, take it easy and make sure I got nutrition and lead up right so I could finish feeling as fresh as possible. Quietly I was targeting around 2:20 as a goal finish time. St Pete, meanwhile, was going to take a break from plodding alongside me and go at his own pace for a change and meet me back at the finish.
Yesterday's pre-race rest day went well, albeit including a bit more activity than would normally be undertaken. I had got home late-ish on Friday night so decided to flag the swim planned for that evening and do it Saturday morning instead. I had an easy 30 minute spin on the wind trainer scheduled for Saturday so the schedule became light swim in the morning then bike in the afternoon.
The swim ended up turning into a 1km time trial and I was pretty happy with my time of 24:28. Considering I was supposed to be taking it easy I was pleased to do a negative split and hard last 50m. We did virtually nothing during the rest of the day - went into town and pick up registration packs but that was it. Did my light spin on the bike at around 4pm and then we had a light dinner (soup and roll) and it was lights out by 10pm.
This morning, then, the alarm went off at 4.45am - I had had a good sleep and we got up and I had mashed banana on toast for breakfast and we headed into town around 6.00am for a 6.45am start. The weather was good - chilly but not too cold, and no wind. We found the NRG club tent and dumped our bags and then headed down to the start.
There were wave starts so our group didn't get away until just after 7.00am, so there was a bit of waiting around, but it didn't worry me at all. Finally we got going and the first 2km was downhill, so that was good for me - a chance to take it easy and allow the body to warm up properly (much better than an uphill start!).
My first km split was 6:06 which I was happy with - given the typical crush at the start which forces you to go good and slow. The second km split came up at 5:48 and I was thinking "that's a bit too fast". However I was feeling strong and I knew we had this downhill stretch and then a flat stretch before the first climb so I figured I'd stick with that pace if I could and make the most of the downhill/flat terrain.
That sort of pace continued for the next couple of kilometres and then we started getting some undulating stuff. I was OK with it, though, continued running all the climbs and picking up water and Gatorade at every drink station. I checked my time at the 10km mark and it was 1:01 which was stunning for me. I realised I could do around 2:10 at that pace but did temper that with the thought that the wheels could fall off and so didn't get excited, just kept focusing on maintaining steady progress. I didn't have any aches or pains but I knew my heart rate was relatively high so it was a real unknown as to whether I could maintain it for the second half.
At the 13km mark there was a Gu aid station so I picked up a Gu there and at that point the uphills were more frequent than the down as we started heading back to the start. I had stopped tracking the kilometre splits by then, instead going by feel. On the flats I was running strong, changing to a shorter stride for the climbs and then using the descents for a bit of recovery before picking up the pace again.
At around 17km we were back up by the start line and had one more loop away from the park to do, down into the Botanic gardens and back up again and this was starting to get hard. There is one little steep climb there and so I told myself I could walk it, seeing as this was just a training run and I wasn't out to kill the legs. However in the end I only ended up walking about 20m of it (less than a quarter of the climb) which didn't worry me.
I did my final time check at the 20km mark and the Garmin was saying 2:04 and I knew at that point that I was on for a PB. Not sure how, but I managed to pick up the pace for the last 1100m (went from 6:36 pace at 20km to 6:21 for the final kilometre). I crossed the line, stopped my watch, looked down, saw 2:11 and burst into tears (with happiness)!!!
Such a woman :)
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| Nothinz - a runner's best friend post-race |
So, post-race, feeling great, considering. A little bit of tiredness, but could have definitely carried on running. We came back to Milsons Point, walked down to the pool and had a long soak in the spa. I've got no major stiffness and feeling easily in the best shape after any half marathon I've done in the past, and especially after my maiden half marathon all those years ago!
All in all, with 14 days to go, I'm feeling in the best shape I've ever been. No matter what, June 3rd is going to be a long day - even if it goes brilliantly I'll still be out there for 13-odd hours. And anything can happen to put a dampener on things. But with St Pete's never-ending support and Coach Dave's expert guidance I'm feeling ready to have a great day, no matter what Ironman decides to throw at me.
Today's events have been summed up quite aptly by St Pete (who, incidentally, had a fab day as well, smoking his race in 1:56:56):
I came, I saw, I kicked its arse
And I plan on doing that in a fortnight as well.
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