Sydney Morning Herald Half Marathon

I am a little late posting about this race, possibly a reflection on my feelings of slight ambivalence. I had a goal of 100 minutes and I did 99.29 gun/99.18 net so I was happy. But it was a struggle and I did not feel like I was running very well. But I didn't really train for the race so what should I expect right? Anyway, it was a lovely day for a run and there is nowhere else I would have rather been.

Kirk came up for the race, just like last year. On Saturday night we had a yummy pesto lasagne for dinner then watched the crossword doco Wordplay until the dodgy pirate dvd gave up, so we went to bed nice and early. In the morning we got an early train and arrived at the start about 6.40AM (7.30 race start). We did the portaloo thing and dropped off our bags and then we lined up.

The first few kilometres Tom and I ran together. We went too fast for a bit then settled down to around 4.30 pace. We did 10k in 45.55 (possibly a new 10k PB for me) and I felt pretty good on the first lap.

It all started to feel pretty hard on the second lap, I lost sight of Tom and after passing the Mrs Macquarie's chair turnaround the second time I really started struggling. The kilometres started to get closer to 5 minutes, a couple even went over 5 - I exclaimed "shit" out loud after one.:)

For the last few k's I knew it was going to be fairly close for the 100 minutes, but I had nothing left to pick up the pace. In the final k, 3 seperate people came past me and said "not far to go now", or "nearly there", so I must have looked pretty bad. I was glad to cross the line and get my (crappy, ribbon-less) medal.

On reflection I think I have worked out why I did not enjoy it as much as I usually enjoy races. It was not a big goal race that I had worked hard for so my heart was not fully in it. As I was going around I was telling myself that I did not really "deserve" to meet my goal. But at the same time I had set myself a (arbitrary) goal and it was one I had to stretch for, so I did not let myself just race at a nice easy pace that did not hurt and enjoy myself. I have not figured out what I have learned from this - I guess its just a different part of the whole journey.

I was VERY happy that Tom met his goal and ran 98.10 - well done! :) Kirk did not do his fastest time but was happy with a solid 95.xx following his LA marathon earlier this year.

Thanks to CR and blogger sfGnome for the photo above - it is much better than any professional race photo I have ever had.