1.45 Perth Half as I cut through the rain

Sunday 15th June 2008 A.D.;
Ran Perth Half Marathon (21.1km) in 1 hour 45 minutes 17 seconds. (4min59 per km)
HR 183 at end. 10.5k Splits; 51.00/54.17. Placed 262nd of 647 finishers.

7k splits; (doesnt include last 100m.) 34min 03/ 34min55/ 35min 49.

Official results @ HERE
some photos (couldnt find me in them) @ here...

Resting heart rate was 53 this morning which is not good!, but not terrible, so I figured I'd have a shot at the PB of 1.41 from 2005 (in what is I think my 10th Half marathon), but more likely a sub 1.50 was likely given my complete lack of training in the last 2 weeks, although I have been over the flu for 3-4 days, I have been too busy with evening shifts finishing at 0100 and 0200 on Thursday and Friday this week in my new night callcentre job, and some difficult meter reading rounds in Scarborough and Mt Pleasant on Wednesday and Thursday, plus Morley on Friday. Changed Jacobs nappy this morning before I left, so Kathryn and him could rest a bit longer as he is teething with his two top front teeth. Driving there I saw a massive rainbow and was reminded that God keeps his promises see Genesis chapter 9: verses 12-17 (especially verse 16) in the Bible...decided to wear my Fremantle Dockers hat today to celebrate their 53 point win over North Melbourne yesterday...It nearly blew off a few times in the squally winds...Its still statistically possible for the Dockers to make the finals this year but like the Eagles, they must win all of the remaining 10 games, or at least 9 of them to sneak into the top eight...

Got to Burswood with 20 minutes to spare, but parking was a shambles, maybe due to big field for the Half, and/or jetboat people racing on the Swan River from the same clubrooms as the West Australian marathon club behind Burswood casino. Wasted 15 minutes trying to find somewhere to park, overflow option onto grassy area by the river was not available, so I had to run about 2km hard to get to start line with about 10 seconds to spare, and then went hard at the gun,so probably ran the equivalent of 23km today all at sub 5min per km I'd say...

I missed a few 1k markers and some of the splits I couldn't remember afterwards, but managed to remember most of them...;
1Km splits; 4.07/4.26/4.41/5.30?/4.54= 23min 50 First 5km.
1K-4.07 2k-8.33 3k-13.14 4k-18.44? 5k-23.50
(had some minor back pain between 3km to 5km, so walked,stretched arms/back,ran on grass for awhile, until it went away, probably only lost about 40-50 seconds)
Started very well, but decided to back off a little after splitting 2k in 8.33!,
soon after saw Epi and Clown come past at about the usual spot where they pass me...
About 3k-4k in I think I jarred my back or something, cos I had to walk/stretch that out, then ran on grass a bit, to get over that. Then tried to settle into some sub 5min per km running... Dont remember my 4km split, might have missed the marker...
So fairly happy with the first 5k...Rain and puddles not too bad at this stage.

4.38?/5.35?/4.35/4.26/4.56= 24min 10 Second 5km. First 10km=48min.00
6k-28.28? 7k-34.03 8k-38.38 9k-43.04 10k-48.00
Can't remember or missed my 6k split, but I wasn't going that well through the Narrows Bridge, and the diversion in between the Freeway roads...

Got going again between Narrows Bridge and the Old Swan Brewery buildings, and on to UWA and Hackett Drive. Decided to attack/work past some of the bunches of runners around me, and ran a bit with some woman in a purple top who was also moving through the field a lot at that time. About 8k-9k, I backed off a little again. A good surge, which kept me on that 4min 48 per km pace, despite me losing the plot a bit amongst the freeway roads diversion. Saw (and heard) the swiss bloke who shouts "Ole Ole" (forgotten his name now) going across the Narrows bridge as I went under the bridge, and this brought back the good memories of Melbourne marathon last year, and probably gave me the mental trigger to attack at this point.

Nice section with Swan river on one side, and Mounts Bay Rd/Kings park on other side, very flat, puddles not too bad, and no climbs, or turns really, so found some good rhythm for about 3km hitting 4.35/4.26/4.56...
Saw Epi and Clown heading back the other way just as I hit 10km. Nice to get some encouragement.

At this point I knew that chances of a PB (sub 1.41) were probably going to be too hard, but a sub 1.50 was very likely. Since I have not run in the 1.40's for a Half race, since my 1.44 in the 2006 Freo Half, I got a psychological boost at that point cos, I could see this was shaping up to be one of my best races this year for sure, and probably one of my best for a few years...

Figured I should drink some of the gatorade I had carried in one hand this far, pretty soon, and then at the halfway point I splitted 51minutes which was a bit faster than I expected, I envisaged about 52-54minutes before the race, {although if I had trained a bit in the last 2 weeks, and not had to work two late evening shifts on Thursday/Friday (0100 and 0200 finishes, 4 hours sleep or less for the second Thursday night in a row) this week, I might have gone after about 48minutes for the halfway point} Good old WAMC (WA Marathon club) was giving out free Carboshotz gels, so I decided to have one of those and some water, and only drink half my Gatorade, lost a bit of time mucking around with that, but it gave me the boosts I needed physiologically, and I set about getting some attacking running going again.

Missed the 11k marker if there was one, but at 12k my wristwatch said 58min 28, which I knew was a pretty good time (anything under 60 minutes is sub 5min per km, so I was sitting on sub 1.45 pace with 9.1km to go! So I knew a sub 1.50 would only require me to stick around 5 minutes per km for another 9km, and the more sub.5.30 stuff I could bank the better. Set about trying to surge again a bit on that nice straight flat stretch towards the old Swan Brewery on this out and back course.

12k-58.28
13k-63.44
14k-68.58.

After a 5.16 and a 5.14, and a 14k split of 68min 58 (Almost 2 minutes faster than my 14k split in the 40miler (official results finally online HERE in March this year,there are a few photos on page 68 of current issue of R4YL magazine...) I knew that sub 1.50 was looking very likely, and my 7k splits had stayed consistently in the 34min zone. Feeling pretty good at that point.

The puddles were starting to get bigger and the rain maybe a little heavier. Took it easy again through that annoying Freeway roads section, got through the Narrows bridge, where two women with light blue tops came past a lot of other runners. Again tried to run off their pace, and some bloke in a white top. I ran on the grass again in South Perth to avoid the concrete, and set myself the goal of attacking/staying ahead of a bunch of runners nearby until after the ferry terminal, and then a bit further.

Struggled a bit after the Ferry terminal, and the puddles were becoming very large and hard to avoid through this section. The WAMC helpers were doing a great job in rain that was becoming moderately heavy stopping cars coming through the park access roads as we ran across them.

17k 1.24.11
18k-1.29.44
19k-1.35.04
20k-1.40.00
21k-1.44.47

When I arrived at 17km (with 4.1km to go) in 1hour 24min 11, I knew I was still a good chance to go well under 1.50 and I figured a 1.44-1.47 was probably the time to shoot for. However I knew I was starting to struggle a bit with slipping back into some 6min per K rubbish, and I needed to give myself a kick up the backside again now if I wanted a 1.47 or better.

So I surged again and started winding things up pushing the pain barriers aside and focusing hard, working the arms, breathing,stride, while dodging puddles, and working my way around bunches of runners. When I splitted 5.20 for 18k-19k, I knew I was starting to get back into a good groove, and that a 1.46 was looking good, then calculated I would need a couple of sub 5min K's to have a chance of going sub 5minutes per Km, and get down to low 1.45's...So dug deep, and tried to crank up the cadence a lot, and knew i was getting there when I started passing a lot of runners very quickly around about the causeway.

My 20k split just after the Causeway was 1hour40minutes zero seconds, which I figured was faster than what I ran in the 40 miler this year so my fastest 20k this year for sure, and I knew I just needed one more sub 5min k + a solid last 100m, and the sub 5min per k average for the run would be mine. My breathing wasn't allowing me to go much harder, so I just tried to hold the pace, and maybe find a little bit extra to get past a couple more runners at the end. With 100m to go my watch said about 1.44, and I figured I'd couldn't quite go sub 1.45, but the sub 5min per K was very likely. Finally got the better of some bloke with a white top in the last 70m who I had battled with for about 300m, but some bloke in a black top, cruised past both of us. When I saw the clock hit about 1.45.12 (my watch said 1.45.16, but I think I stopped it a bit late) as I went under, I knew this had been a successful race!...

Good to catch up with Clown and Epi afterwards who both did about 1.32, so about 12 minutes ahead of me they were...
Decided not to tack on an extra 10km afterwards, mainly because of the risk of blisters in the rain that was getting increasingly heavier, and puddles that were getting gigantic!...Looks like I might have to rely on my meter reading work in the last 21months, and my experience of running 6 marathons, plus the 27k and 33k with the Hills Group in recent weeks to get me through the 42km of the Perth Marathon in 3 weeks time. So I think I am finally starting to hit some good form and fitness, so hopefully I am still a good chance to give that 3hr 55 PB a serious battering on July 6th.