Gold Coast Marathon - July 6th 2008

Well, the ankle held up, I had two comfortable runs early in the week and was well rested by Sunday for the Gold Coast marathon.

I couldn't have had a better preparation what with being able to stay within five minutes of the start at M1's and was very well looked after as she's done this event a couple of times and just new the lay of the land. Went for a quiet dinner at the surf club with M1 and Rachael (a friend of M1's who I've run with before), early night and all good.

What a motivator and guide. For both my marathons she's proven to be a rock of encouragement and inspiration.

40 minute PB with a negative split, couldn't have wished for more.

Briefly:

• My half split was about 1:50:20, so about a 1½ minute negative split.


• I took six GU’s – one 15 minutes before the gun, and finished each one of the rest as close to every 45 minutes as I could from then. I.e. I started them about five minutes before they were due so when it was time I already had it down me.


• Didn’t take on any Endura until about 30km and made do with probably about four cups of water until then (I was well hydrated beforehand)

The first five km was relatively erratic mainly due to the crowd (first km was 6:13) and I was actually pretty nervous/pumped and took me a while to settle in. I caught up with John Sellars, whom I've run with a few times before, at that point and decided to run with him for a while as he’s pretty steady. From this point I got into a really good rhythm and though I was going quicker than planned, I felt good enough. I figured I’d get to the start finish at about 26km and ease up for five to ten to set myself up for the last turn and the run in which would be about 7km.

I had planned to catch the 3:45 pacer by halfway and see if I could pull away. As it goes, I was about 1½ minutes in front. That’s how it panned out. Couldn’t have worked better. I think I ran as good a race as I possibly could with my current pace and from the first turn at the south end there were very few people who passed me.

It was pretty humid, got to over 80% I think (70% at 6:00 am). There was the wind too and some of the posts on CR suggest it was a tough day. I felt they were perfect conditions as though the humidity was up it was relatively cool, though there was a stretch from 30 to 35 km that had shelter from the wind and it got hot there. I was saving myself through that stretch anyway but it did occur to me that it was just as well. Anyway, I thought it was perfect and am surprised that some people have said the conditions were hard (it was raining like hell and blowing a gale the night before and until 5:00 am so it certainly could have been worse!

Also, while I enjoyed the course, I don’t think it’s as flat as everyone suggests. There’s nothing steep but there are a couple of slow climbs that would take it out of you without noticing I think.

It was good to see M1 get through a comfortable ½ marathon too as she's building from here injury.

Nice to beat Mr Hendry too!!

Anyway, the splits are nice and it's always good to see a picture, so here they are: