Canberra Half Marathon

It's not the most popular race of the season

First race of the year that would be comparable to those ran last year i.e. same race on the same course at the same time of year. A good yardstick to see where I'm at compared with 2015.

Hadn't initially planned to race here, but a few friends going down and, more importantly, drinks afterwards, persuaded us to make the trip. Goal? I'd be happy with anything better than last year (01:40:32) and not almost shitting myself from kilometre six onwards. Ended up setting an even more optimistic target, due to Dick Turpin's rorting, of running with the 90 minute pacers. I was expecting a blow up, but hoped I'd have done enough by then to finish under last year's time. Even if I was crawling.

Drove down on the Saturday with Timmy Lindop (aka Dirk Turpin), Taffy James, and Vic. Much more comfortable than last year's "First Class" train ride...the Murray's Coach. Expo was a non-starter, with only a sock stall open, but pre-race dinner had a good turnout even if there were a few complaints regarding the food. Well, if you're going to order a sausage pizza?

Taff James and Timmy Lindop, joined at the hip for the weekend

Pretty pleased with the taper. Chester White's peccorino spaghetti on the Friday was the highlight of a number of pasta meals, plenty of Saturday hydration (not the alcoholic stuff for once), and only 30km of running in the week leading up to the race (mostly quality).

Chester Whites: best pasta in Sydney

Perfect conditions on Sunday morning, much like last year, and enjoyed a brief warm-up with Timmy and Paul Birch. Timmy's knowledge of public toilets proved invaluable once again when he led us to his own private facilities just outside Old Parliament House.

Lined up next to the 90 minute pacers and we were off. Hilly start, up around Parliament House and I didn't force the pace, just allowing the pacers to gap me a little with the intention of catching up on the downhill. Managed just that and then stuck with them through kilometres 3 - 8. Last year I had a dramatic loss of power around 6km, but no such woes this year. The route was reversed around New South Wales Crescent, with a sharp rise kicking things off. Again, the pacers gapped me a short distance, but this time I decided not to make it up afterwards as my splits were still within target and I felt they might be going a bit quick.

Splits and gap were maintained over the bridge and around the 12km hairpin, but it was here I started dropping into the 4:20's. It's a long, undulating, and boring part of the course and I realised I was in trouble. Again decided not to force it, and risk a big blow up, and just persevered with 4:20's.

The new pace was fairly tough, but never really felt in danger of a blowup. I was still able to spot and shout a hello to the guys ahead of me, but my greetings were not returned (Jeet, Tim, and Birchy). I think they were working harder than me, for their far better times, and that's probably something I need to work on.

After 16km comes the turnaround and a couple of kms before returning, over the river, to the government/museum quarter of town. Missed a couple of kilometre flags (17 and 18) AND my Garmin malfunctioned, unbeknownst to me, and stopped recording distance. This perfect storm led me to believe I had a lot further to go than I actually did and I almost threw my toys out of the pram and into Molonglo River.

Flag 19 saved any hissy fits and I tried (and failed) to power around the final loop, hill, and out and back past the finish line. Felt a lot stronger than last year at this point.

Chip time matched my watch time of 92:02 leaving me very pleased. Eight and a half minutes faster than at the same race last year and actually my second fastest half marathon ever. At this stage of the season, and at my current weight, I feel very optimistic about the runs to come.

Happy racers

Victoria ran her third consecutive personal best of the year and achieved her first sub-100 half marathon. A fantastic achievement. Two minutes faster than Blackmore's and even faster than her predicted time from McMillan. Faster than me last year so I see no reason why she can't go sub-90 this year or, at the very least, get into the low nineties.

Timmy ran sub-85, completing his rorting of me, but lost out to Paul Birch who ran a comfortable sub-90. James Matthews, impersonating Lazarus, ran a cracking 3:10 marathon earning a Comrades qualifier. He could barely finish 10km the weekend before. And Elite Jeet ran his socks off to PB in 78:57.

A cracking bacon and egg roll (with no less than eight layers of bacon!) before driving back to Sydney for a night in the Dove and Olive. All gets a bit hazy, but tales include being kicked out of the unkickable-outable Low Bar, still no chicken dinner for Tim, falling down the stairs in the Columbian on Oxford Street, and waking up to find Taffy James asleep on our living room floor.

Really good weekend. Few more pictures below.

He'll have the shirt off your back

Good turn out at the Dove and Olive

Vic, Jeet, Jackie, and a startled Taffy James

Rorting the rorter

Sydney Striders 10k - Lane Cove

Striders North Head was an unmitigated disaster and made all the worse by two days of abstinence from anything fun beforehand in the name of taper/race preparation. Lesson learnt; out on the beers from early afternoon on Friday with head hitting the pillow at 1am.

Timmy Lindop was picking us (myself and Vic) up at 0610 so only a few hours sleep later and I took myself, singlet and skimpy shorts to the corner of Crown and William. Paul Birch was also in the car and we all had to hear about Tim's "fair" bet with James Matthews which sounded, to the rest of us, like a rort.

Never ran Lane Cove before, but heard it's a tough course with two big hills and plenty of undulation. In Birchy's words, "it's not a fucking quick course".

Almost pitch dark on arrival and bibs were handed out under torchlight. A 1km warm up with Tim and Vic, at about the pace I ran North Head last month, and we were about set to get underway.

Time-wise I was thinking about sub-40 again, definitely after hearing Mike Ho was pacing that time. He runs close to 32 minutes so 40 minutes would be easy and I had confidence he'd do a good job. I figured I'd just try and stick with him, but drop away early if I was feeling the pace to try and prevent a blow-up.

From the gun Mike and the 40 minute group got a bit of a head start on me and I was left in a slightly slower group just behind. Could see James and Birchy in the 40 minute group and managed to bridge the gap. Felt pretty comfortable, but the first hill (2.5k) saw Mike make ground on me, and a few others, and I decided not to go with and ran my own race from here on.

Lengthened the stride coming down, but felt I was stronger compared to others on the way up. Downhill running is something I really need to work on. Back on the flat (read; undulating) and I kept it comfortable around the 4:10 pace being well aware the next hill was reputed to be even tougher. And so it proved. Just didn't seem to end, but again made ground on quite a few of the guys around me, only to be lost on the long downhill.

There's about 4k to do after coming off the hill and I just fell onto the shoulder of some girl doing a similar pace. I'd pass her on the uphill sections, she'd pass me on the flats/downhills. I was just starting to think about pushing hard and dropping her over the last one or two kilometres when she went up a gear and left me for dead. Chicked again. Didn't even bother giving chase.

Came in on 41:12, which I was pretty pleased with over a tough, tough course. The downhill finish is nice, but I'd say that's the hardest 10k I've done. Enjoyable though. Paul Birch was pretty close behind with me being 55th overall.

Confidence building certainly. That's about the same time I did my first 10k in last year, in May at the Great Manchester Run (41:06). A much easier course. As such I feel I'm probably faster than I was and a month earlier. McMillan predicts a 91:51 at Canberra next Sunday which I'd take your arm off for.

Another top result for Victoria who got her second 10k PB on the bounce, by about 20 seconds, on a tougher course to North Head. Exciting to see where she'll finish this year. She's almost 2 minutes up on her PB (Manchester) from last year already.

And Timmy's bet/rort? He'd given James a 90 second start and subsequently ran a 38:43 whilst James went round in 43:02.

The little Stoke battler/rorter. Still, I fear the bet he's given me next week is even more one sided...