"Running Strategies for Douchebags" - Hareth Bader

M7 Blacktown Half Marathon

"Fast course eh? Flat you say? Sounds great. Looks a little boring, but I'll give it a go."

And so I enrolled in the M7 Blacktown Half Marathon. Turns out it's fast because its competitors are fast. Only the seriously dedicated (read: fools) turn up to this dull bit of tarmac. And it's not flat. Just as Canberra wasn't flat. But it is boring, two out-and-backs along a cycle-path next to a motorway.

And it was a tough day.

I'd decided to target my 90 minute goal. A big ask seeing as I had yet to run sub-100 minutes, but the McMillan race predictor reckoned I could run a 1hr29 and another online calculator put me closer to 1hr28 (based on my 10km PB of 39:57).

I'm still tinkering with my race preparation, but now I've learnt that eight hours of boozing and bed after midnight the evening before an event is probably less than ideal. I'd also had a fairly tough month of running, with a 5km and 10km PB and a half-marathon in Gold Coast (although I did take that one purposefully easy). I hadn't really tapered my training and I'd neglected carbohydrate loading over a sensible time period (unless you count the carbohydrates in beer).

The race starts on the track at Blacktown Sports Centre. One and three quarters of the lap, then out onto the cycle-path. South for a short distance and then north for a longer distance. Motorway and cars on one side, nondescript overgrowth on the other. Ahead? Hill after bloody hill.

I had decided to run with the pacer. After Canberra's pacer fail (started well behind them, ran too fast to try and catch them, didn't catch them, blew up) I found the 90 minute pacer a good half hour before the start and attached myself to his hip. This was, hopefully, how it would remain until crossing the finish line. That or I'd overtake him at the end (see Hareth Bader; "Running Strategies for Douchebags*").

The plan did not come to fruition. There was a little discrepancy between course markings and GPS watches and the pacer, unintentionally, started running slower than equal splits. I was finding it hard work already and the thought of having to run quicker later was a psychological blow. There's a big confidence component to running and mine was shot. The pacer surged forward to make up time and I managed to hang on. Until he did it again. Once he'd gone, he'd gone. And so had I.

My pace slowed dramatically for the second half (4:12/km first 12km, 5:04/km the second half) and I limped home in 1:36:37.

The finish straight

Mixed emotions. My time represents a PB at the distance (by almost 4 minutes) and I've had a successful July (targets for the year met in both 5km and 10km), but sub-90 feels an awful long way away. We're almost into the last five months of the year and there are only so many half marathons left. There are some mitigating circumstances, that I will whine about in the next entry, but I'm going to have to work very hard if I'm to achieve the sub-90.

The blood...there were sweat and tears too

1. Bader, Hareth. "Running Strategies for Douchebags" http://cramic.blogspot.com.au/2015/07/sydney-harbour-10k-eggs-in-one-basket.html