The time - 1:57:46. And I’m happy with that.
I’d been hoping to break 2 hours for the first time since my half-marathon PB of 1:50:07 in the same race precisely a decade ago. So it’s been a long time coming. All-up, it was the third-fastest of my 13 lifetime half-marathons.
It goes without saying that it was yet another great morning for a Gold Coast run, with plenty of chill in the air by the time of the 6:00am gun.
My race strategy was to hook onto the 2 hour pacers and stick with them until the 18 or 19 kilometre mark when I would look to charge ahead for a good sub-2. Which meant I was absolutely determined not to miss the 2 hour pacers this time. As a result, I decided to line up as close to the front of the starting pack as possible and then wait until the pacing bus and their black balloons came along before crossing the start line with them. And it worked!
There were two pacers and I started with the front man, whose name I think was Scotty. He seemed to be pushing it reasonably hard through the first few Ks, and we were constantly passing people as we motored along. Things got a bit wobbly at one stage when he stopped to help a fallen runner and a few of us looked at each other wondering what to do next. But soon enough he was back on track.
At the turnaround point at the top of the course, he picked up the pace and I was quickly dropped. It then occurred to me that maybe he was working on the gun time, which meant he had about a 5 or 6 minute deficit to make up, and that the second 2 hour, chip time, pacer was still to come. So all I could do was churn out the miles and hope the second set of balloons stayed out of sight behind me. As I ran along, I passed some of my pacing group colleagues from the first 10K who had been similarly blown away by the change in pace.
At around the 12K mark, I used up the gel I’d been carrying with me and that seemed to kick in nicely over the next couple of K’s. By the three-quarter mark, the sun - and the temperature - were both rising and I was into the 5K countdown zone, thinking of the many times in training that I’d run that distance.
I remember thinking that I felt much stronger over this part of the race than I had at the same stage in New York, and that the extra distances in the long runs were paying some sort of dividend.
I passed the overhead gun-time display at the 20K mark which read 1:56 something, so I knew then I was well on track for a sub-2 chip finish. And with 1K left, it was all hands on deck with a finish line collapse to look forward to.
It really is one of the great finishes at the Gold Coast half, with people lined up and cheering all the way along what is a reasonably narrow chute to the end. It also twists and turns along the final few hundred metres which means you can never really be quite sure which corner the finish line is just around. But when it does come into view, it’s a wonderful sight.
One of the highlights of the day was seeing the great Rob de Castella at the finish zone a few steps after I crossed the line in a state of absolute exhaustion. We made eye contact, he mouthed some words of congratulations and we shook hands. A memorable finish to another great day at the Goldie.
I found out about my time on the bus to the airport a few hours later and my exclamation in response to it attracted some quizzical glances from nearby passengers. Overall, I finished 3,698th from 8,782 finishers. In terms of pacing, my first 10K speed was 10.92km/h, slowing slightly to 10.68km/h for the second 10K after the gun time pacer took off, with the final 1.1K at a speed of 9.92km/h. It felt a bit faster than that for the final section but I was probably just putting more effort in for comparatively less return.
Post-race, I suffered the usual stiffness and soreness but nothing that won’t right itself after a few days.
All in all, a very good day, but with plenty of room for improvement.
And that’s it from me for a while.
Later today, I’m on a plane to Europe (via Singapore, London, Bordeaux and Bayonne) to walk the legendary Camino Frances from St Jean Pied de Port in the south of France, across the Pyrenees, to Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain. Just a lazy 800K at the height of what will hopefully be a not-too-brutal Spanish summer. Evidently the record for the pilgrimage is just over a week, but I’ll be taking about five.
I’m due to arrive back in Sydney the day before I line up for my 23rd City-to-Surf on 14 August. I’m not expecting a quick time, but it’s a race that has to be done. Then it’s straight back into another 11 weeks of training for the Auckland half-marathon on 30 October.
Buen camino!
