Canberra Marathon 19/4/09

We had planned a full weekend at Canberra but unfortunately I had to rush to a job at Tallowa Dam. Fortunately I still made it to Canberra by 4pm to see Monica and Greg and Heidi run in the 10k. Monica and Heidi struggled a bit and later that night Monica had a few fainting spells.

We had a very pleasant dinner with the Leamons on Saturday night, eating Thai take away. I slept very soundly. Got up at 5.45am and dressed, ate some porridge, guzzled some water and went back to bed for another precious 10 minutes sleep.

Ran down at 6.30 to the start and met up with Mike K who looked in good shape. Weather was perfect. Cool but clear and calm. Soon after the start I was able to settle in to 4.10 pace and as usual the first 10k I felt like a slug. I did the first 10k in 41.xx and the the half in 87. 30. All felt good.

I took a gu at 10k and 20k and sucked glucoden all the way. At the 25k mark Wayne Gregory caught me up and I ran on his heels until Cowbell corner where he kicked away. During the next 5k quite a few people overtook me which I thought was odd as I had maintained the same pace, getting to 30k in 2h 6min. That left me 54 minutes to do 12k if I wanted to go under 3 hours. MMMM....4.5min/k I should be able to do that shouldn't I?

Yes i should have. But in the end I came in at 3.03.xx. I came in with way too much energy. I clearly needed a little more moral fortitude and better pacing in the last 12k's. On the positive side it was a one minute PB and I never felt that i was going to hit the wall like at Gold Coast last July. Note for next time, don't fear the wall so much that you fail to challenge yourself in the last 12k.

After saying Hi to the family I ran back 4k to find Mike who surprisingly was suffering badly. I jogged back to the finish with him, hoping that my encouragement was a help, but he was in a bad way. Disappointing for him as he had put in a lot of training, and seemed very well prepared..

After the marathon I didn't feel particularly tired and so we all went to the markets at Kingston for a few hours. I must have walked another 42k! We had a great lunch with the Leamons including prawns and dips from the markets and an excellent dessert wine from the Snowy Mountains with some Baklava. Then I had a nap for a couple of hours and had to drive home.

Next day the DOMS was minor and on Tuesday morning I was able to go for a brisk 10k Golf course run with Heidi. By Wednesday all soreness was gone. I had a very fast 10k on the Golf Course Thusday, and finally on Saturday morning I ran a very satisfying Anzac Day special. From Home to Cape Banks, Henry Head, Browns Rock, Congwong Beach, Lap circuit, Up Anzac to Bueachamp (taking the line challenge along Anzac) and then my best ever run up Broome St, along the bay up Howe St and home. Very pleasing effort. All up 1hr 50min.