Set an alarm for 4:30am to get the tram by 4:45am but woke up about every hour during the night, probably in part due to the usual loud fridge problem. Reached the race venue around 5:15am for the 6:15am race start, outside in the cold air it soon got very cold standing around in a singlet.
Thankfully it was soon time for a quick two kilometre warmup then lined up at the front of Zone A. The stupid qualifying times are a near impossible 1 hour 16 minutes for men and rather easy 1 hour 28 minutes for women.
The started was a giant mess of people predictably, I couldn't run faster than 4:00/km and had no space to overtake. I don't understand how there was so many slow people ahead of me that must have come from the priority zone, even lots of men it seemed like.
Finally I was able to run properly after about two kilometres, but lost at least fifteen seconds off my target lap times. From five to fifteen kilometres I was feeling the best, averaging around 3:40/km that was even a little faster than I expected and didn't seem to hard. I had some gels along the way at eight and fifteen kilometres but skipped all the drink stations - it's a little hard to digest a gel while running fast but I got through it well enough.
Soon after fifteen kilometres the effort felt much harder but somehow the lap times remained the same, but really hoping the finish line would come soon. My GPS kept getting a bit further ahead of the markers each kilometre so I didn't know what my exact net time was going to be, although I calculated that I was moving closer to 1 hour 18 minutes. I only tried to speed up a bit coming into the final straight as 1:18:00 was showing up on the clock for gun time, I only missed out by two seconds for net time after all.
Got the tram back to hotel before the crowds, then a tram and bus up to Harbour Town outlet mall. The Nike store had 40% for members via the mobile app so I got some Pegasus Turbo that were already reduced and came out to less $100. I tried New Balance but they never have any good racing or training shoes in the outlets, likewise I assumed for Asics but they had a couple of models of their super shoes over 50% off so decided to buy the one that still had size thirteen.
By surprise found a Zambrero across the street for lunch before getting the bus back. I stayed on the bus instead of getting of early for the tram, this turned out to be a big mistake because there was still lots of traffic closures due to a very late morning five kilometre family race. The bus wasn't even moving so I got out to walk to the closest tram stop, but had to wait a long time there with the crowd of runners that had just finished their race.
Dropped off shoes at the hotel then had more walking across Pacific Fair. Just got some donuts again from Doughnut Boss and food from the supermarket, but all these shops are all the way at the other end of the centre.
Back to the hotel and watched the live stream of the half marathon, it was alright except the women's race wasn't even close - but an impressive 15th overall for the women's winner. My legs were feeling a bit sore after walking and standing up for much of the afternoon, although probably a bit better than last year. Stayed at the hotel to have dinner so I could rest my legs and watch some TV shows and AFL - doesn't even get on the main channel seven broadcast.
No comments:
Post a Comment