So the first half marathon of the year and the second of my life. Approached it with both excitement and nerves. Had essentially no idea how I was going to do, but felt it'd be a great barometer of where I am in terms of achieving my half-marathon goal for 2015; a sub 90 minute race. The aim was to run sub-100 minutes which I felt was achievable on a flat (ahem) course like Canberra.
Cracking morning. Absolutely beautiful with a real autumn feel. Crisp, blue skies, and a bit of colour in the trees. Took some lovely pictures on the way to the start line.
Arrived a half hour before kick off and, as is Victoria's custom, headed straight for the toilet queue. I have seen a lot of toilet queues at running events without ever really needing to use their service. Wandered about a little whilst waiting and took in the atmosphere. Saw the Sydney Strider's tent and some of the running royalty of New South Wales.
With a relieved Victoria, in a couple of senses, we made a dash for the start line with only a couple of minutes to spare. There went my hopes of starting with my pacing group. This was a, somewhat unknowingly, disaster. We were at the back and I had to make a decision about whether to try and catch the 100 minute guys or just run my own race. Decided to compromise and head off 15 sec or so per km faster than necessary with the intention of catching up over the first 4-5km and, if not, settle into my own race.
It's difficult to say with certainty, as this was only my second half marathon and I don't know what strategy works best for me (positive splits, negative splits, or even pacing), but I get the sense this early quick pace compromised much of the later race.
It also coincided with one of the first, of many, hills on Canberra's 'flat' course. I don't know where I'd picked up the idea that Canberra was flat, but the myth was soon dispelled.
So here I am, running around 4:30 per km up a bloody hill. 4:30 isn't that quick, and I've ran it comfortably over distances up to 10km on numerous occasions, but by about 5km I was feeling it. And still no sign of the pacing group.
I resigned myself to pacing myself and started running in the 4:45 - 4:50 zone. Too slow to comfortably break 1 hour 40, but I was hopeful of negative splitting the last 3-5km. Optimist.
It was around this moment a stool made its presence announced. Most unwelcome. Turns out it was a monster, but I had to wait until the end of the race to find this out as I only spotted the one portaloo on the whole course. Where the hell had it come from? My diet had been in no way extravagant in the run up, but this was certainly an extravagant stool.
At 10km there's a lovely steep hill up onto a bridge spanning the river/lake than runs through the middle of Canberra. And what's that I see in the distance! My pacing group! Ah ha! But all hope of catching them quickly evaporated as I try to increase my pace and my body says "oh no you don't, fella". They were about 400 metres ahead, but it felt like it would need a Herculean effort to catch them.
Over the bridge, up another stinking hill, and right into a short out and back. "Hi pacing group! Bye pacing group," as they pass me in the other direction. Bastards. I make the 180 degree turn and straight into a head wind. Wonderful. The stool makes another announcement. Things are looking bleak. But 12km have been passed! Over half way and I'm still on for 100 minutes, although it's looking tight.
It's a pretty boring section of the race here along undulating Tarmac. 4km later and another 180 degree turn sees us heading back toward the second river crossing and the finish line! I pass Victoria going the other way. She's looking good, sub 110 minutes. We allow ourselves a high five.
More hill onto the bridge. I'm tight on time and so the negative splits start. Oh, no they don't. Body says no again. There's a hill midway along the bridge. I'll summit that then increase my pace I tell my body. A compromise I thought, but the body was in non-compromising mood.
The last km or so is cruel. It's downhill off the bridge, in a wide arc, but all the time you can see the final hill that you're going to need to ascend. After 1hr 36 minutes it looks like Everest and my psych takes a body blow. I even consider walking the final kilometre, but no! Mind beats body on this one.
Up onto the final straight, a short out and back, and over the finish line. 1:40:32.
So I didn't meet my target, but set a new PB of approximately six minutes faster than Sydney last May. Victoria crosses the line in 1:46:58. A cracking time considering she hadn't prepared as well as previous races. Her second best time (of four half marathons) and only 30 seconds off her PB.
Mixed emotions. Nice new PB, but going sub-90 feels a long way off. I feel with a better strategy (not spending 30 minutes in a toilet queue, without using the service, and actually starting with my pacing group) and less stool issues (if 30 minutes are spent in a toilet queue, at least use the bloody toilet) I would have broken 100 minutes, but I was close to my maximum. Strava suffer score: 278. Epic.
Epic indeed.
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