One week to go till the Marathon...

Starts drumming fingers impatiently...
I applied online for the entry, then realised I had put in my email address wrongly. Typical. Must be nerves.
Did my last "long" run. Only 18k. Hope it's enough.

Perth Half Marathon

21.1k 1:47:00

I had been looking forward to this, as my previous 2 HMs (Perth and Freo last year) were a bit soft at around 1:54. I knew I could do a lot better, and was pretty confident of getting a new PB especially after all my marathon training.

I got to Burswood really early, still in the dark at 6:50am! I actually got lost on the way as I don’t know the area. There was hardly anyone else around and I had the toilets all to myself. I hate queuing for them.

After a decent warm-up I met up with a few other Coolrunners and then it was time for the start. The announcer said there were around 900 entrants which is a big increase on previous years. I started at the back which is probably a mistake because it took a good couple of minutes to get going. Next time I must get the confidence to start further up.

I had planned my 5km splits in advance, aiming for 27m, 26m, 26m and 25m. I also set my Garmin Virtual Partner to a pace of 5:10 mins/km. As it turned out I felt really good and the weather was nice and cool with no rain. I got the first 5km in 26:41 and the second in 25:17m. I knew I was well under my target time and just had to keep up the pace. I ran a lot of the way with fellow Coolrunner Mjail who set a perfect pace. At the turnaround at UWA I had a quick blast of powerade from the stand. I actually walked through all 4 drink stations as I find I can’t actually drink if I run. I felt really strong on the way back and the next two splits were both under 25 mins, so I knew I was going to be well under 1:50. With about 1km to go I decided to go for broke and sped up to overtake a few people, doing my fastest pace all the way to the end for a time of bang on 1:47. I was thrilled to take such a big chunk out of my PB!

The race was won by local boy Courtney Carter in the amazing time of 1:07, over 3 mins ahead of second place.

Next up is the marathon in 2 weeks, really looking forward to it now!

A bit better this week

26km @ 6:28 pace and 18km @ 5:43 pace

So far this week I’ve managed a 26k and an 18k. Not too shabby. Made a huge mistake on the 26k by setting myself a target of under 2 hr for 21.1k. Not normally a problem if I was racing, but in training I take it a lot easier for the first few kms so I had to do the 20 and 21km at about 4:40 pace! That’s my current 10k racing speed :-) So needless to say I completely smashed my legs doing this (I did achieve the goal though). I had to stop and walk, the next km took 10:44! I couldn’t get going at all after that and basically just walked home. I’m still recording it as a slow 26k, just to remind myself not to be so much of an idiot next time.

The 18k fared much better, I averaged 5:43 pace. Felt comfy the whole way, and for the last 6km was able to up the pace to about 5:10 min/km.

I still feel I am too slow to get going/warm up. Maybe that’s a good thing?

Couple of 8k runs

Slacked a bit this week so far. Was supposed to have done a midweek 15k but only managed 8k at lunchtime. Plus I did 8k yesterday. Not really marathon training distances, but I noticed my right knee was a bit sensitive and gave a jarring pain every so often, so maybe it’s wise I eased off.