Monday, October 16, 2006

SMC Half Marathon: A Long Time Between Drinks

Most runners have a period of time when they take the sport where the
PBs come thick and fast and improvement is constant. My honeymoon period
lasted from July 2003, when I took running up until July 2005. That was
when I ran 1:55:30 at the Gold Coast Half. Since then I had not run a PB
at any of my regular racing distances.

Until last weekend.

As I stated in my last post, my training has been great over the last
month and I've dropped a few kilos, so I knew I was in the PB ballpark,
and I also felt that I needed to break the old PB on the weekend if
there was to be any chance of running 1:50 at the Central Coast in six
weeks.

So I trained normally during the week, running a speed session (10 x
400s) on Thursday and a short hilly run on Friday and took a rest day on
Saturday, and lined up feeling pretty fresh on Sunday morning in good
conditions (10 degrees, 70% humidity, slight breeze) with most of the
usual suspects.

I decided to run my own race, and set the virtual partner feature on the
Garmin to a 1:55 half marathon.

I paid a lot of attention to the Garmin in the first couple of
kilometers so that I could settle into a rhythm at the right speed.

The first 10K passed without incident - I stuck with the virtual partner
and felt great.

This was my first attempt at the SMC half. It is basically two laps of
the 10K course (I've done that a few times) with a small loop in the
middle. I wasn't expecting that the loop in the middle would contain the
nastiest hill on the entire course. This upset my rhythm a bit and put
me behind the virtual partner by about 100m. I tried to lift the pace a
little, but this felt a bit dangerous, so I decided to try to stick to
the same pace and kick in the last K and try to pick up the 100m there.

So although I was tiring, I felt OK going into the last K. This was
where Bernie G passed me going a fair bit quicker than I. This was the
perfect opportunity to stick with her, which I did for the next 200m,
but I couldn't keep it up, and for the rest of the race I just tried to
stay as close as I could to her. Bernie went through right on my target
of 1:55, and I finished in 1:55:10 - a 20 second PB.

I'm stoked. My eyes are still firmly focused on the main game - 1:50 at
the Central Coast, but the relief of actually setting a PB after such a
long time is great. I'm also pretty confident now that if I can shift
another 3Kg and lift my speed a bit 1:50 is a realistic target, and I
wasn't so confident last week.

Oh, and thanks to all of you for your kind words regarding our family
news. Much appreciated.

8 Comments:

Blogger Ellie80 said...

Hey Benny - firstly congrats on the (nearly) new addition to the fam! Fantastic news!

And great work on a hard earned half pb. What a ripper! You are going to be all over that 1.50 goal at Central Coast :)

6:20 pm  
Blogger Jen said...

Woohoo!!! Sensational result Benny! Congratulations on your PB. Looking forward to seeing you fly at Central Coast!

7:45 pm  
Blogger Gronk said...

Well done Benny. Great to see a PB with your name on it. Many more to come I am sure.

8:43 pm  
Blogger TA and the Gnome said...

Isn't that hill in the middle a shock to the system if you aren't expecting it. Believe me, you'll do it even better next time because you know that it's there.

Congrats on the run. I wish I'd been there to see your face at the end :-)

Gnome

11:59 pm  
Blogger 2P said...

Yeeeha congrats on the PB Benny - looking forward to seeing you bring home the sub 1.50 at CC ;-)

3:46 pm  
Blogger Horrie said...

Great to see you get the PB Ben. It was very well deserved and a tribute to the dedication you have shown towards your training lately. Keep chipping away and the PBs will continue.

7:28 am  
Blogger Ewen said...

Fantastic result Benny! Congrats to you and the Virtual Partner. I predict more PBs in the future :)

4:56 pm  
Blogger Lulu said...

Hi Benny, I haven't visited your blog for ages and what great things have been happening for you.

Congrats on the big news, and sounds like you should have a good race at CC half. Look forward to seeing you there.

4:15 pm  

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