SMH Half Marathon Race Report

SMH Half Marathon dawned nice and early for me today when my alarm went off at 5a.m. So my usual pre-race routine was put into action with the old stumbling around in the dark trying to be as quiet as possible but in actual fact making enough noise to wake the whole household.

I was quickly dressed and breakfasted and by 5:30 I was out the door and heading for the car. My plan was to catch the train into the city for the race today. The new race start at Hyde Park made it convenient to any number of stations – Martin Place, St James or Museum, take your pick. I had arranged to meet friends at the Archibald Fountain at 6:50 so that meant getting the 5:40 train which turned out to be on time (good one City Rail). It seemed that the only other people crazy enough to be out catching trains at this time of a Sunday morning were fellow runners.

I got to Martin Place at around 6:25 which meant I had a nice relaxed stroll to Hyde Park. It sure beats the mad scramble to get to the start of the past few years when it was way down to buggery on Hickson Rd. Everyone else I was meeting showed up within a few minutes of each other and we had a nice strong contingent chatting, joking and kidding each other trying to keep warm and dispel some nervous energy. At around 7:10 we decided it would be a good idea to put our bags into the holding area, have a quick stretch and get to the starting line with the 7 and a half thousand other runners.

The weather, by the way, after all the predictions of doom, gloom and rain, was absolutely perfect for running. There was barely a cloud in the sky, the temperature was cool without being cold and the breeze was only very slight.

The gun went off right on 7:30 and we were away down College St and on to Macquarie St, getting into stride fairly quickly. With the timing chip system, it’s not quite as imperative to line up early to ensure a quick start. The streets are all wide enough to cope with the traffic and I checked my watch at the 1km mark and found that we had covered the distance in 4:15. But in the first kilometre is the steep hill down Hunter St, we’d be climbing back up the hill in around 5km time.

There were a couple of bottlenecks in the early stages, the first came when we turned onto George St down at The Rocks, for some reason there was a wall of people stacking up on each other. The next came soon after as we turned from George St on to Argyle St where some road works blocked off half the road and I had to walk a few steps as things sorted themselves out. This proved to be the last point in which crowds were a problem.

For the first 7km I ran with my usual running partner from work, but he has been running injured for the last few months and wasn’t confident that he would be able to maintain the pace. Sure enough at around the 7km mark I suddenly noticed that he was no longer on my left shoulder. From this point on I ran alone.

The first time I checked my watch was at the 11km mark and found that I went through in 47:00, possibly a little slower than what I was hoping but still on track to break 90 minutes. A concerted effort over the next 2 or 3 kilometres had me doing close to 4 minute kilometres which left me pretty confident that I would be able to hold it together for the last 6 or 7 kilometres.

In fact, I felt the best I ever have during a half marathon, obviously benefiting from a very solid base thanks to the marathon training I had been doing. The pace dropped off a little over the last few kilometres but I still had enough left in the tank to push home hard over the last kilometre to finish the race in 89:20.

I was extremely pleased with the time. It’s always a good feeling to set yourself a target time to beat and then achieving the goal. The post mortems came thick and fast as my friends all came in, some doing better than they hoped, others a little disappointed. Everyone had a story or two to tell from their run. The consensus was that the new course gets the thumbs up from everyone. Hyde Park is the perfect place to start and finish the race, the finishing chute with everyone hanging over the railings to cheer us home was inspiring.

Usually after a half marathon I find that my calves begin to tighten up and hurt for the rest of the day but this didn’t happen at all today. All in all a great experience which continues to inspire me to keep on training.