Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon - I guess this means I'm now a Runner

When you talk running with people it seems there are certain accepted milestones that define the "real runners".  For a marathon, the golden finish time is always 4 hours, while 2 hours is the goal that people tend to strive for in a half marathon.  And I've always bought into the idea that my inability to break 2 hours, let alone come close in the 14 half marathons I've completed to date has confirmed my status as a "non-runner".

Last year's training day at the Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon was a great day out, and a PB. However at 2:11 it still didn't do anything to dissuade me of my non-running abilities.  Today, three weeks out from Ironman Cairns, that all changed and as I sit here typing this it still all feels quite surreal.

Not only did I smash last year's PB of 2:11 but I also broke the 2 hour barrier, coming in at 1:56:57 - 3 minutes to spare!

The race comes at a good time between my two ironman events this year.  It's been a couple of months since Ironman NZ, and so plenty of time for recovery, and it's just three weeks from IM Cairns. While last week was my last big bike ride before Cairns, the finish line of today's race marked the start of my taper proper.

Training overall had gone to plan, although it threatened to be derailed last weekend when I came down with a cold.  I had managed to run myself into the ground sufficiently enough that I was susceptible to every virus floating around.  Sure enough Monday rolled around and my head was thumping like a late night 80s disco, my throat had me coughing like an old smoker and my energy levels had dropped to that of an old sloth.

Careful management, promises on my heart to Coach Dave that I would take it easy at Bootcamp, and some good drugs saw me returning to almost full health by the end of the week.  Needless to say it was still a nervous Irongirl heading out for an "easy" 45 minute run on Thursday night and an "easy" 20 minute run on Saturday.  Neither felt particularly easy and I did not feel at all confident about an outstanding performance today.

Not that I was losing any sleep over it.  This race is, afterall, "just" a training day in my buildup for the main event in Cairns.  And so while Coach Dave and St Pete had decided I had another PB in me they were content for me to aim for 2:10 - hey, a minute faster is still faster!  I did the calculations last night and was semi-confident that I should be able to maintain an average 6:09 pace ... if I was having a good day.

So this morning dawned and we were up, as always, at sparrow's fart.  Porridge for breakfast and we were on the train into the city in good time for a 6.45am start.  It was a bit chilly but the skies were clear and there was no wind to speak of, so conditions were promising.  I was feeling calm and rested and I had Coach Dave's mantra/race plan sitting in my head...

Controlled Aggression.

After what seemed like an eternity in the start area trying to stay warm we were finally set off and it felt great to get going.  One of the best things about this race is that the first couple of kilometres is downhill.  I love this as it allows me to warm up and get going nice and easy with the aid of gravity...!

By the time we got to the bottom of that first descent I was in my groove and focused on the job.  I set a solid pace and had St Pete tracking beside me and we set about dodging and weaving through the slower runners - a first for me!

At the 5km mark I checked the Garmin and we were sub 30 minutes.  Another first.  I then had to decide, am I going out too fast?  Am I going to blow up, should I peg it back a bit?  Thinking about the rest of the course you know the last half is hillier and has more climbing than descending and so it's difficult to follow the negative split philosophy of doing the second half faster than the first.  So while I knew I was running a solid pace for me I decided to back myself and hang in there.

At the 10km mark I was at 55 minutes.  Another first.  Not only had I run the first 5km faster than I ever had in training but it was the first time I had ever run a sub 60 minute 10km.  I was still feeling strong and had the controlled aggression mantra in the back of my mind.  Although also in the back of my mind was the thought that at this rate I'd better make sure I allowed myself some decent recovery before Cairns!

My nutrition had been going to plan - a sip of water at the first aid station and then I took a gel at around 45mins at the second aid station.  At around the 12-13km mark I started struggling a bit and at this point I started to wonder if my first 10km was now coming back to bite me.  If I had gone out too hard this was where I was being kicked and would I now struggle to the end?  I put that thought out of my mind, though, just focused on my form (and dodging people around me).  Soon after we came to another aid station and I checked the time.  We were at 1:08 and I hadn't planned on taking my second gel until 1:30.  However I made a split decision to take it early and was glad I did.

Within a few minutes that gel seemed to have hit the right spot and I was back on form.  We got to the 16km mark and with 5km to go I did another time check.  1:25.   I had 35 minutes to do the final 5km and break 2 hours.  It was at that point I realised I could realistically do it.

The final 5km is pretty tough, however.  You come off the Cahill expressway and then chug up Macquarie St towards Hyde Park and the celebrations at the finish line.  However at Hyde Park you turn left and carry on down towards the Botanic Gardens towards Mrs Macquarie's Chair before returning back out of the park (a reasonable climb) back towards Hyde Park.  It's not over there, however.  There is still a 400m run away from the finish line down College St before you do a hairpin turn and come back the way you  ran, uphill and then finally around the corner to finish in Hyde Park.

The final section can also get a little crowded, with two way traffic and a reasonably narrow road.  So while I was feeling strong and confident, others around me were faltering.  It was therefore a bit of a dodgem course as I kept an eye on the time and tried to get past people.  At 2km to go I had 15 minutes left on the clock and then we got to the 20km mark.

1:51

I had 9 minutes to get through the last 1100m and I knew I had it in the bag.  At that point the blinkers went on and I went for it, posting my fastest km split of the distance!

We crossed the line together at 1:56:57 and it was the most amazing feeling ever.  However there was a dawning realisation making itself known in my head.  After I finally caught my breath I turned to St Pete and said...

"I guess this means I'm a runner"

Two very happy runners!

Sydney Half Marathon - Last Big Training Day Before the Taper

On the 6th of June 2004 I ran my first half marathon.

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 :)

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.