Selection for NSW team: After Sydney 10 in May, Jack Maxwell (he gets mentioned a lot in these reports) had the bright idea of submitting our names for the NSW team for the Australian Half Marathon champs to be held on the Sunshine Coast in August.  I thought there was no harm in putting my name in for consideration but expected that I would be lucky to make the team of 6. I then forgot about it until I received a email naming me in the team. I know I’m not one of NSW’s top athletes by any stretch, and it’s not quite making the All Blacks or Olympics, but for a blue-collar battler like me, I was pretty chuffed.

 

Build up: After a disappointing race in the Gold Coast which I didn’t think reflected my fitness, I was happy to have another race lined up.  In my mind, the Sunshine Coast had become the Redemption Coast.

The month between races gave me a week to recover, two weeks to train hard, and then a taper week before the race.  I knuckled down with renewed focus and hit some good sessions, including a good 45min tempo/fartlek with Hurts (love that session), 8x1k chasing Matt Ho and Pete Costello and a showdown at the Curl Curl parkrun (Curl Curlympics) with Jacko where I broke 16 on the road for the first time with a pleasing 15.47.

 

Off to Queensland: It was a smash and grab trip to Queensland, heading up Saturday morning and back Sunday afternoon, while my wife took care of our toddler at home – thanks!  I travelled up with Jack and we geeked out over the proper elite runners also staying at the race hotel in Mooloolaba. After a dodgy forecast during the week, the Sunday dawned clear, cool and still.  Perfect conditions for racing. We had a beautiful walk over the hill to the race start at Alex Surf Club with the stars still out in the dark morning.

 

The start: I felt a bit out of place standing on the front row of the start and when the gun went I took off quickly to clear out of the way.  After the initial 400m, I had a look around and realised I was ahead of the group of lead women. This was an issue because Sinead Diver, Ellie Pashley and Lisa Weightman were in the race and they all had low 69min PBs compared to my 73.30.  The race had put on a very generous $25k bonus for any woman who could beat Lisa’s 69.00 Australian all-comers record so I knew they would be motivated and on pace for 68mins. Collis Birmingham was pacemaking and then quite a few of the male State athletes formed a decent group around the women.

 

Settling into a group: I slowed slightly, and tacked onto the back of the women’s group and hung there up the hill over Alexandra Headland.  I wasn’t convinced this was a great idea, but I felt relatively controlled, and couldn’t see any other packs behind.

Before the race, my goal had been to run free and without fear.  I had my watch on but it wasn’t giving me splits so I would have to rely on feel.

We came down the hill into Mooloolaba and then out on a flat section to the first turnaround at 3.5k.  The pace felt hot, but i was moving smoothly. At the turn I could see Jack in a group not too far back.

 

Dropped on the hill: We came back into Mooloolaba and back over the only hill in the race.  I couldn’t hold the pace set by Collis and the women as they pushed over the hill. At this point i was feeling like a bit of an idiot – a classic case of not knowing my limitations and getting way over my head would see me dropped and isolated 6k into the race.  But i kept at it and climbed as quickly as i could without going lactic.

As we came over the top of the hill I was about 50m back. I thought ‘oh well what the hell’ and gave it everything to catch the group on the downhill. I leaned forward and let my legs go. At first it didn’t seem like they would come back to me and i was worried i was wasting too much energy early in the race, but halfway down the hill i could see that i was closing the gap.  The road was quite wide and Collis stuck to the center on a long left hand turn, so i used that to my advantage to shorten the distance and cut the tangent as close as i could to the gutter. A few hundred metres after the bottom of the hill i was back in contact.

 

Back with the group: From 7k to 10k the pace felt very fast but just on the edge of being manageable.  I was telling myself to hold on for dear life for as long as i could. At first my goal was to stick with the pack until 10k. Once i achieved that, i reset the goal to stay with them until the 14k turnaround.  From 14k the finish line would be getting closer rather than further away which is always helpful mentally.

 

The real race: It was interesting being so close to the real race amongst the women.  In the first part of the race it seemed to me that Sinead Diver was the real alpha in the group.  She was right at the front of the pack sitting on Collis’ shoulder while Lisa and Ellie sat further back amongst some of the other men who were tagging along.  Then from 10k, it felt as though Collis squeezed the pace up a notch and Lisa moved up to the front of the group and sat right behind him while Sinead wasn’t as prominent.  Collis had been a pacer for Eliud Kipchoge’s breaking 2 project at Monza so it was pretty cool to be in a pack he was leading and to have front row seats for the women’s battle.

 

Pack dynamics: While this was going on I was hanging out at the back of the pack.  I tried to focus on being aware of where the corners were and where the (minimal) wind was coming from to make sure that my positioning in the pack was ideal.  A few guys from the pack slipped away during this time and i felt good that every km i survived got me closer to the finish.

There was one Victorian guy who was quite pushy and pointy about where he wanted to be.  As we overtook a wheelchair racer he wouldn’t let Kyle Pinkerton (another of the NSW team) merge in. Kyle gave him a verbal spray.  I considered joining in out of State solidarity and telling this guy to chill out given we were all just second rate men bludging off the world class women in the pack. Ultimately I saved my breath, but it feels good to get off my chest now.

 

Dropped again: At the 14k turnaround it felt as though the speed increased again and i slipped off the back of the pack.  I felt like Leo DiCaprio in Titanic when he slips off the piece of wood (which Kate Winslet doesn’t share with him).  Ahead i could see Kyle and a guy from Brisbane’s BERT squad also slip out of the pack. I tried not to panic and to continue to run as hard as possible.  Only 7k to go, but i needed to be careful with my effort to make sure i didn’t completely pop.

 

Pushing for home: It got harder and harder and the kms seemed to go very slowly. By this time i figured i was on for a pretty decent PB – however in the moment that created the temptation to not push with everything i had. I could afford to slow and still get a good time. Who would know that i had more in me?  I tried to fight that weakness and every time i felt my pace drop i tried to lean forward and surge back to pace. I was telling myself that it actually didn’t feel any more difficult to run hard than it did at a slow pace.

At around 19k I was catching the BERT guy which was helpful. I made sure to pass with authority and moved to the other side of the road.  I did not want him to be able to tack on to my back so pushed hard. I pictured the hurts 2k reps on Hickson Rd and the feeling of pushing the pace – and tried to surge for the finish.

 

69 minutes?!: As I got back to Alex Beach i could see the surf club where the finish line was in the distance.  Then I could hear the announcer saying that Lisa Weightman had broken her own record. That surprised me – I assumed that the women must have dropped off pace somewhere and weren’t going to break 69 mins. It had to be the case given i was still close to them.  However, i realised that they had been on pace, which meant i was in with a shot at breaking 70 if i could finish in the next minute. I didn’t really have a kick left and i was swerving across the road as i closed my eyes with the effort, but it gave me motivation to keep going.

It was surreal to look up and see the clock still saying 1.09:xx as I came into the finish chute.  I ran right through the line to make sure of it. I think i was too surprised to really fist pump or celebrate properly but i started to grin like a loon.

Jack soon crossed the line in a new PB of 72 low and we gave each other a pretty comprehensive recap of our races while dipping legs in the warm Queensland ocean.  Then a very slow cool down and watching out for good mate Rob who ran an awesome 2.48 PB in the marathon.

Unfortunately, NSW just got pipped by WA for a spot on the podium in the men’s team competition, but Kyle, Jack and I all ran PBs so i feel like we did our best.

Beers at the Mooloolaba Surf Club before the flight back to Sydney went down a treat.  Now all roads lead to the Melbourne marathon in October.