Race Report - Half Marathon

Morning
Got up around 7am, I had prepped some oats the night before, and bought some white bread yesterday, but the nerves of this morning meant I just had my trusty oats, with berries and a little bit of sugar, I did make a cup of tea, but realised I hadn't had enough water yesterday, so ditched that and stuck to water. Left the house a bit after 8am (I live very close to the start), and wandered on down. I had filled my pack with an jumper for the end, some more water, a banana, my left over jelly snakes, and my wallet and keys - all to be picked up after.

It has rained all last night, and the wind, oh dear. The rain continued for most of the brief stroll in, and the wind started to pick up. I dropped my pack with a friend who was racing with me, and was rather quiet, no usual nervous chatter, the nausea started, I just wanted to start. We did some stretching, I hung out near the door, so the shock of the cold when I did get outside didn't hit me to hard. We got called up to the start and the race brief, the brief was very hard to hear, but I was sure if something was up the marshalls would let us know, I bumped into another friend, and tried to chat to the girl next too me.


Start
The gun went off and we headed down the concourse of the stadium and into the city and along the waterfront, I went out way too fast, but slowed myself right down, when I the 2:10 pace group pass me about 3-4km in. It started to pour, and the wind picked up and I was heating up fast, at that point I chose to take off my jacket, and just get wet. It worked, I cooled down a bit, and my pace settled in.

The Bays
The course headed around the bays, the fog had been there for goodness knows how long, but I did see the ferry, waiting for the tug boat. I clocked around the bays quite quickly, and grabbed water at the water stop just before I headed in to the bay loop, and just as I headed out. If I had known there was no drink stop at the half turn point, I would have grabbed some powerade - for some reason I was sure that there was a drink stop there, nope.

Airport
We headed toward and past the airport, I took this slow. Still running, but also looking for friends that were coming back from the turn point, I saw my two, and also two peeps from campboot! I tucked into my jellysnakes, and wished for the half turnaround, which eventually came on the other side of the harbour. I tried to make up some time, on the way back past the airport, not too hard, but just pumping my arms more, the legs followed. I did get distracted by a guy dressed as a rabbit, as in the full suit! That kept the smile on my face.

Back In

I hit the drink stop for the third time, and grabbed the powerade, and kept running, more jelly snakes, and hit the bay section. I had a bit of a tail wind, it was possibly more, but having run most of the race into one, it was hard to tell. I chatted with a few people on and off, and tried to increase pace slightly here and there. It seemed to be taking longer, only because I had miscounted the bay loops, and was expecting to see the city, when another bay appeared.

The beach
I hit the beach end of town, and hit my watch 2:11, I knew I would make it under 3 hours at this point, and with about 5km to go, I was pumped. I grabbed more powerade at the last drink stop, and more jelly snakes. And headed along the water, and around the waterfront, I slowed down a bit, as my back started to stiffen, and a blister started on my foot (from the soaked socks!).

Home stretch!
The last 2km were good, I took them slow and easy, and tried to increase my stride. In this race, you actually have to run up to concourse back in to the home straight, so I was aware of not going all out until I had gone up there, and could see the finish line. Once I got to the top, I kicked down the straight, passed some friends that had finished earlier, and powered home, and hit the line at 2:44.37

I was stoked!

I grabbed medal, had my timing chip removed, grabbed some more water etc, and picked up my goody bag and met my friends. Apparently I looked good ;-) Except for some leg stiffness, I felt great.

The post run massage was well worth the $10, and I walked easier out of the stadium, and headed home. My friend and I were going to head to the post race prizegiving, but chose a hot shower and brunch instead, we were cold! We got changed and header to Parade for some eggs and coffee, so good.

Random facts
I borrowed my friends polar watch and then found it too hard to use, or maybe I was just too nervous, hence why I hit the time button so late, up until then I had no idea how fast/slow I was going. Ha.

Jelly snakes are awesome, and the powerade didn't upset my stomach. I'm going to try more sports drinks and gels in the coming months, as the ones so far play havoc with my stomach.

I got one blister, small but annoying, from wet socks, I couldn't do anything about it.

I could only remember some of my time goals, so I looked at the sub 2:40 a few post back this afternoon and went nah, 2:44 is good enough!

No i-pod or music, my headphones died last week, and have not been replaced yet. Also since campboot, I've found it easier to run without them.

Finally
You are not too slow, too fat, too lazy, too whatever. Less than 12 months ago, I wasn't sure I could run ten minutes for campboot let alone anything else.

If I can do it, sure as hell you can too!