SMH Half Marathon Race Report

I had no idea what to expect for this race. Last year I did 99 mins which was just from post-Ironman fitness and 2 weeks solid running beforehand. This year I have less endurance fitness, but a lot more running under my belt. I felt I had been training pretty well for the past 6 weeks, doing regular speed and hill work. The only thing lacking a bit was long runs but I have done 3 longer than 20ks, so it wasn't too bad. I thought that the next nice round number down (95 mins) was probably a bit out of reach, but I might get there on a good day. McMillan predicted 96 mins based on my 10k time from 2 weeks ago and I thought that was do-able. My result was 97.20 gun time and 96 mins flat chip time (which I am taking) so I am happy, but not over-the-moon, completely chuffed, floating 10ft off the ground happy. But still happy.

I found the pacing a bit hard, and was never sure if I was going too fast or too slow. I don’t feel like I have enough experience racing this distance yet, as its only the 3rd half-marathon I have done. I was fairly happy with my mental effort, I pushed myself pretty hard, especially over the last few kilometres. But I lost concentration and probably slowed down too much a few times. I really struggled going up the Hunter St hill both times. I have no idea why because the Argyle St hill felt great and the Mrs Mac's chair pinch was fine too.

It was a beautiful day and the new finish in Hyde Park is a huge improvement over Hickson Rd. Afterwards we sat around with Mum and Danny eating bacon and egg rolls and drinking coffee and enjoying the sunshine. Its expensive to enter and very crowded, but this is still a truly fantastic race.

Tom cruised it to finish in 104 mins - safely under 5 min per k pace - and he really enjoyed himself. He claims he is now "back" which is great. We are both going to do the 15k NOSH footrace in 2 weeks and then Woodford to Glenbrook at the end of June.