Road Trip - The Eaglehawk Half Marathon
Fri AM: 6K @ long run pace
Sun AM: Eaglehawk Half Marathon. 1:56:20.
My weekend started on Friday morning (I've taken a day either side of the weekend off work). I decided an easy six kilometres would do the trick, and there is a nice little loop across the rad from DJ's place, where we were starting our journey.
We had a break in Albury, where I spent four years at uni. I left a shithole, I reurned to a vibrant university town. I sorta wish I could come back now. I took DJ on a tour of the flats I lived in including my all-time favourite address (and I promise I lived here):
2/269 Mount St
We got as far as Benalla (including a comical visit to Glenrowan) before retiring. Seeing as Friday night is the important one for a good night's sleep we got to bed early. The smegging smoke alarm in the room had other ideas - it chose 2:30AM to be the time it started warning that it was running out of batteries. We spent the rest of the night without adequate fire protection.
From there we had a leisurly drive to Eaglehawk, where we had not booked accomodation. When we discovered that the race was part of a "Back to Eaglehawk" festival we knew there would be lodging hassles. Eaglehawk is basically a suburb of Bendigo, so into Bendigo we went. With some Commonwealth Games events being staged in Bendigo we were running out of options. We managed to get a serviced townhouse near town and settled in.
Sunday morning started early as with most races. DJ had me organised and chauffered to the start an hour before the start for an easy warm up and relaxed preparation.
The course is a 10.55K loop run twice, and the race incorporates the only quarter-marathon I know of. I got away quickly, and after 2K I was on 1:50 pace. I stuck with it for another four K, but after this I started to slow, and I knew if I kept going at that pace I would blow, so I just went with running how I felt. I hit 10K in 52:58, and halfway in 55:53. From there I did quite a few 5:30 Ks, and with 3K to go I thought I was still a chance for 1:55. I tried to turn on the gas, but it wasn't there. I limped through to finish in 1:56:20. DJ was a brilliant support crew/cheersquad.
I must mention - this was the first race I have been in where I was the only runner with any Coolrunning gear. I did get a "Go Coolrunner!" at 5K from a bloke going the other way.
We're back in Albury tonight. It's been a top weekend thusfar. The race was not the result I wanted, so it's back to the drawing board. I'll fit in what I can for the next three weeks (I leave for a fortnight in Venezuela in a week), and them I'll start on a program for the Gold Coast Half.
1:50 will not defeat me!!!!!!!!
posted by Bennyr @ 5:30 pm
9 Comments:
Well done on the run anyway Benny. Keep plugging away and that 1:50 will be your soon mate. :)
Great run BR!!! Not far off your pb!
That's right ben - keep persisting and you will get rewarded with a sub-1hr 50min! It was still a good time regardless and you had a great weekend as well. Well done!
I reckon any half under 2hrs is a goodun - well done on a good solid performance Benny ;-)
Well done Ben!!! That was a great effiort.... good on you for pulling back rather than blowing up.. that shows some experience there! If you enjoyed the run that is all that matters! Pb's are icing on a fantastic cake that you put a heap of effort into. You will get there definately!!
Go Coolrunner! You'll be burning up the course with fresh batteries on the Gold Coast Ben.
That's an improvement on your previous halfs Ben when you have run yourself into oblivion. It shows that you have learnt from your mistakes. Mate, if you just stick with the training, your times will continue to improve.
That's a great effort, and you paced yourself well. The magic number will appear soon.
Top run Ben - whenever you're close to your PB, it's worth notching up as a result.
Hate those stupid alarms that have that reminder function too
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