Blackmore's Half: Enjoying your running vicariously

Upon reflection I'm not too disappointed with my result for this race. I had a net time of 2:03:50 and the goal was 2 hours.

It looked dodgy a couple of days before the start when my old enemy - my left ITB - started to tighten up after some lax stretching in the previous week. I jumped all over this immediately, and saw a physio on Friday, who gave me a proper working over, and after a little jog with Bop on the Saturday I figured it would be OK.

I caught the train in and met sfGnome near the start. We joined the toilet queue 45 minutes before the start, and poor Gnome, being a pacer, got very nervous about missing the start, but we both got there 10 minutes before the gun fired.

There was a huge Coolrunning contingent in the 2 hour pace group, but it appeared to me that we splintered soon after the start. My ITB felt a little tight for the first K, but settled down, and I didn't even think about it after that.

I found myself sticking close to Gnome and running with Nite_Time_Runner. I stuck with these guys for the next 14K. I had a fair idea after 5K that 21K at this pace was going to be too much for me. Luckily Gnome was walking through the drink stops, and I needed this respite, but after 14K I decided that much more and I would definitely be a chundering mess, so I took an extended walk break, and continued at a slower pace. To be honest I got lazy between 14 and 19. After admiting that my goal time was out of reach I found it difficult to motivate myself to push hard. At about 19K Blkbox, Will & Ellie80 caught me on their charge home in Ellie's first half. At this point I thought it would be cool to stick with them, and that's what I did. They dragged me home in a couple of faster Ks. It was a real buzz to finish with Ellie. 2:03:xx in a first half - top effort.

Soon after finishing we ran into Belinda, who was just beaming. She had just ripped her half marathon PB to bits. We have a habit of running into each other during and after races, and like always, this was an uplifting experience. Congratulations, Belinda.

Up into the recovery village, and I inhaled a couple of coffees and mulled around chatting to people (I got to say hello to Lucky Legs!), and then I hobbled over to the Quay to meet DJ and the girls, who had caught the ferry in to hang around in the city with me. On my way over, I heard the announcer congratulating David Criniti on his awesome performance. So I applauded pretty bloody loudly, and went over to congratulate Unc'. His Dad looked proud as puynch, and why wouldn't you be? Well done, Unc.

So, as you can see, I didn't run to my potential, and I had an ordinary race. It was a day I enjoyed because despite my own performance, I was able to enjoy watching a bunch of other people exceed their own expectations. This is one reason I love being a Coolrunner.

As a postscript, I heard Nite_Time_Runner did go on to run under 2 hours. For a guy who through circumstances beyond his control can rarely train more than once a week, this is a massive performance - well done.

Now, for a hard decision I have come to.

I'm going to scale back my blogging to major race reports and earth shattering developments in my life. Work has become manic for me, and home life is nearly as hectic (but far more enjoyable). It has got to the stage where I just can't find the time to do it properly, so I feel I would rather spend my available time reading other people's blogs (something I haven't been doing for a while) and browsing Coolrunning.

I'd like to thank everyone who has been giving me feedback and encouragement - it has been much appreciated.

I will be blogging sporadically, so keep an eye (or a blogline) out if you're interested. You'll be the first to know when I crack 1:50 (after DJ).