Gold Coast Half Marathon

Fri - 6k's @ 5:00 mins/km
Sun - GC Half - 1:44:30

What a great weekend down the Coast! MJ and I drove down late Saturday morning and checked into the same unit we stayed at last year - a convenient 500m stroll from the start/finish area. I headed down to the Race Expo shortly afterwards and spent most of the arvo helping out R4YL publisher Dan Green at the R4YL booth, handing out freebie copies. Standing up for a few hours certainly took its toll on the legs and its certainly not something that I would I would do if I had a serious race the next day. A drive down to Coolangatta for dinner at the Aztec mexican resaurant with MJ and her mate, Megan followed. That would be another no-no for the night prior to a serious race! Then I had to get my race kit and home made 'Sub 1:45' sign ready before bed.

Awoke at 4:40 am to receive a textie from my brother Benno in the UK taking great delight in yet another Pommie choke at the World Cup and watching a nation in mourning! Before I knew it I was at the start with my pace group members gathered around me and several runners coming up and asking if they could tag along. A record Half Marathon field and the usual wannabes clogging up the front of the field ensured a slow opening k of 5:37. Fortunately, I had warned everyone that a slow start may happen. With the field opening up, I was embarrassed to over-correct with a 4:37 second k before I settled down into steady splits in the high 4:40's or low 4:50's. With a 'Sub 1:45 pacer' sign saftery pinned to the back of my singlet, I was picking up heaps of runners along the way who wanted to join in. Some humour for my pace group came when I ducked into the bushes at 6k for a brief toilet stop and then sprinted 400 metres to catch up with the pack. Shortly afterwards, I really got into the zone and reeled off seven consecutive k's of either 4:55 or 4:56. By 15k's some of my pack were feeling good and moving ahead but I kept everyone else in the mid 4:50's, telling them to stick with me for a low or sub 1:44. With three k's to go, I urged anyone who was up to it to go on ahead and was very proud when most of them did. The spectators were lined up everywhere in the last few k's and it was a great atmosphere. I stopped about 300 metres from the finish with my watch reading 1:43 and spent a minute urging everyone to dig in and break sub 1:45. Then i sprinted for the line myself, stopping my watch at 1:44:30.

I then made my way quickly through the recovery area and back to the PCRG tent to change, grabbed my notebook and media pass and headed out to watch the Sub 3hr pack run by in the Marathon. I then saw Troopy's win and was part of the media scrum getting quotable quotes from him afterward. Following that, I dashed down to the 1k mark for the 10k race to record some splits and then scooted back to the finish line to catch the sub 3hr Marathoners cross the line. It was very poignant watch numerous sub 3hr runners achieve exactly what I want to achieve next year. I was going off like a nut when Glenda crossed the line in 2:55:XX - it was a fantastic moment for Glenda who has tried so long and so hard to get that sub 3 - viewing it was one of the highlights of my day! I then caught the finish of the 10k race and hung out with team mates at the PCRG tent.

Normally, I'd have stayed down the Gold Coast and partied on but with my alcohol ban, I just didn't feel like celebrating whilst clutching a bottle of water and had to go to work anyway so it was back up the highway to Brissy for me. I did manage to head out to Suncorp Stadium to catch a gutsy Baby Broncos win over the Sharkies before heading into work. With R4YL going to print on Wednesday, I put together an intro and 10k race report to go with the rest of the article that Greeny will pull together before putting in a few hours work.

Gees - it was a long day, but I was very satisfied to get the most out of it!

NB - The above picture kindly provided by PCRG's Mike J shows me cruising down the finish chute about 500m from the line.


Km's this week - 45
Km's this month - 21
Km's this year - 683
Consecutive alchol free days - 35