2010 - Race 1 - Cadbury Half Marathon - 1:17:39ish - 8th Overall

1:17:39ish - Official results to Come - 8th Overall

Me with Freddo

For those in North America I speak to you form the future! This coming Sunday I have already raced a half marathon, attended the Sorrell Market and had a counter lunch in Richmond, Tasmania along with a couple beers!!

Today was my first race of 2010 and my first ever real running race in Australia. The venue was the Cadbury Chocolate Factory in Claremont. Race Time temp was around 15 degrees Celsius on a clear and sunny day. It was a good time for the Newton Neutral Trainers to come up and run fast on the streets of Hobart, Tasmania.

After a good, relaxed warm up it was time to go. The course had two laps of the Cadbury estate then at around the 2.8km mark it was down a 500m hill and towards the Derwent Entertainment Centre. This part of the course was reasonably flat with a decent section of it on the highway. At this point it was a turnaround and retracing steps over the section at the base of the hill and further up the road. This part came around the 15km and form this point on it was reasonably hilly with a few decent climbs and descents before turning back up the hill for a 500m climb just after the 20km mark and onto the finish.

In the first 7km I found myself running with a group of runners from 4th to 9th Place. I was feeling good until about 5km then was starting to have to push the pace the pace a little to much for comfort to hold on. At this point I started to drop of the back of this group and ended up in a little bit of a no mans land. Through the aid stations I was making sure to douse myself with water as even though it was a relatively mild day by Australian standards most of my runs for the past 3 months have been in temperatures around zero degrees.

At the 9km mark a two guys came up on my shoulder and I decided to work of his rhythm. I essentially worked with these two guys for the next 2km before we dropped one of them and I was working with just the stronger guy. I noticed he was breathing harder than me but still running at a good pace so just made sure I did not get dropped. Going into aid stations made sure I took the front and inside line so I could get as much water to douse myself with as possible.

We then caught the 7th place guy at about 13km and turned into a group of 3. The pattern continued and I had to work hard to keep in touch in some sections but with 5km or so I took to the front and pushed the pace. It took around 3km but eventually dropped the guy we had caught and just kept pushing. With about 1500m to go I had caught 8th place but couldn't blow past as I had hoped and to his credit he was able to surge. I went with him but couldn't hold however the pace had gaped the guy I had been running with since the 9km mark. Going up the hill I got the gap to within 20m of 7th but just couldn't bridge it and on the flats to the finish could only hold the distance. He actually went to turn the wrong way with about 200m to go but I was able to yell out to go straight just in time.

So it was a new PR by 1:53 on a "rolling hill" type of course. Pretty happy with the result and gave myself a shot to finish higher but on the day the guys who finished ahead was just too good (Places 4 to 6 finished in the 1:15:xx range). Slight positive split but I do not think the course lent itself to a negative split type of day.

Was also great to have my parents out to see myself race for the first time which made having a good result even more rewarding. The race was really good value at $50 AUD and included some decent swag, a free massage and a free BBQ. I spent a bit of money at the chocolate factory but most of that is for Leslie so no negative consequences for me!!!!

Thanks also to my supported in particular Forerunners (will be back at the clinics in Feb), Newton Running - think was the only pair out there today and they went fast, Speed Theory - Thanks to all the crew for helping me get my bike to Oz in one piece so the lead in training went without incident or stress.

Next Up Geelong 70.3 on February 7th

All the data and a couple photos are below, Course km markers are always a little dubious but these ones seemed pretty good.

5km - 17:19 (Avg HR 186, Max HR 193) (Downhill from approx 2.5 to 3km)
10km - 18:30 (avg HR 185, Max HR 191)
15km - 18:30 (avg HR 186, Max HR 190)
20km - 19:00 (avg HR 185, Max HR 188) (Hilliest course section)
21.1km - 4:20 (Ag HR 187, Max HR 191) (Included 500m climb in last km)


First Half - 38:20
Second Half - 39:19 (2.5% positive split)

1.25km in with group from 4th to 8th Place

The Finish, if lucky may have scammed a 1:17:37