The Canberra Marathon.
I can now tick 'road marathon' off the bucket list!
The 7am start was always going to be a challenge for me... lack of sleep the night before plus trying to eat and drink at 5 in the morning!! Toilet routines and trying to wake up... nightmare! But it went ok in the end and I got to the start line on time. Right up the front (second row) - an advantage of doing a 'small' marathon entry-wise.
I was aiming to run 22min 5kms... at least for the first half and then this would allow 4mins of "slippage" over the remaining half. 4mins wasn't a huge allowance to manage my ideal goal of sub 3:10... and in the end there was 6mins of slippage in the second half.
The course consisted of a 10km wiggly loop around the Parliamentary Triangle and then two 15km straightish (but not entirely flat!) loops which took us out to Glenloch Interchange and back.
The first 10km was the most scenic of the loops and went pretty much to plan, in that time passed by pretty quickly and I wasn't particularly tired when I set off on the first 15km loop. Running at 4.24 pace was actually a little difficult as it wasn't really pushing hard (as I would do for sub 4.10) yet it wasn't easy (as something like 4.40 would feel like). It was kind of like pushing but taking it easy at the same time :s
Anyway, I wanted the first 15km loop to go well, as I considered it the 'backbone' of the race. I needed to not struggle under the pace, but just do a solid effort so that I was well positioned (physically and mentally) to force out the final 15km loop. I managed to keep a reasonable pace for this and was pleased to keep the spirits up and not get demotivated approaching the turn-around, by thinking of how I would have to do this all again in 15kms time!
When I set off on the final 15km loop (actually about 16km to the finish line) I was still positive, but also realistic in that I was starting to get tired and it was harder to maintain a pace under 4.30. I had been breaking the race down into 5km chunks and the first 5km chunk (of this lap) was still reasonable but then I started to struggle a bit in the second 5km chunk which took us through the turn-around at Glenloch Interchange. The hill just after the turn-around was (felt) SO steep and I was really moving slowly up this. I had my third gel at the top, didn't really want it but didn't want to blame a poor finish on the decision not to have it! (oh, it's all such a mental game).
When there was 7km to go I really felt like I was on the home straight, but oh.. what a long home straight. Any slight incline really slowed me down, like in the final 4km heading up to the Treasury building and then even across to the Finance building (yes - it is uphill!). I was struggling and knew the pace had really slipped but with only a few kms to go I also knew that I would make it so that was kind of a nice feeling. The final stretch up Telopea Park was also very long but I knew this was coming and really dug deep but there wasn't much more to give.
When I crossed the line I really knew that I had expended everything out on the course. Yes, I slowed down in the second half, but that was really always going to happen to some degree. I didn't want to jog round at a comfortable pace and then wonder what I could have done if I'd tried harder. While a little disappointed not to manage sub 3.10 (a time I thought could/should be achievable on a good day), I know I tried my best and gave it a really good go.
These are the splits from my watch, although my watch seems to think I ran 42.69km (and it felt like it too! although I'm sure they measured the course correctly).
Dist. Time Ave Pace
5km 21.13 4.15
5km 22.09 4.26
5km 22.18 4.28
5km 22.04 4.25
5km 22.17 4.27
5km 22.41 4.32
5km 23.15 4.39
5km 23.39 4.44
2.69 12.39 4.42
42.69, 3:12:19, 4.30min/km
8th female
I had three gels plus water after each, and two additional water-only stops. I lost time at these as I am unco and just can't run, carry a cup, drink and breathe all at the same time. Oh well.
Thanks to the supporters out there on the course, particularly Lazydave out on one of the far drink stations, Matt of course, and Jas & Craig who did some loud cheering. They had even got up early on Saturday and headed down to Kings Bridge to cheer for me, only to realise they'd got the wrong day - so thanks guys for the double effort! :)
Garmin
Results