4hrs.30 and 7, the number of completeness

UPDATE****OFFICIAL RESULTS are HERE...
Dash Photography has photos HERE...

Update***Thanks to the good people at WAMC interim results for Perth Marathon 2010 are online @ HERE...

Firstly I should say I am overwhelmed with the incredible amount of support and encouragement I was blessed with today. Much appreciated so thanks!!! everyone. Felt like there was a cheer squad all the way. Should mention my Dad who has been there for all 7 of my Perth Marathons.
Havent seen the results yet but reckon Clown may have done the big one...
Update*** Massive Congratulations to Clown on the 2.59!!! thought he might do it today, and good to see the intercostal didnt stop him...
Biscuitman looked like greased lightning out there in the relay too so look out whatever races he does....

I have finished my 7th Perth Marathon and my 11th Marathon overall.
My time of 4.30.49 (unofficial on my wristwatch), lets face it was more on the disappointing side than the promising side. Its my 7th best time in 11 road marathons finished, and my 5th best (out of 7) Perth Marathon times, and its a 10 minute improvement on my 2009 Perth Marathon.
Half splits; 1.56.40/2.34.09.
14km splits 74.09/87.10/109.30*
* last split is for 14.2km...

Other times along the way as best as I remember them;
3k 14.05
4k 19.23 (5.18)
5k 24.35 (5.12)
6k 30.00 (5.25)
7k 35.00 (5.00)
8k 40.41 (5.41) dont remember this one too well guessing a bit
9k 45.22 (4.41) dont remember this one too well guessing a lot.
10k 51.16 (5.54)

11k 56.50
12k 1.02.32

14k 1.14.09

20k 1.50.10
21k 1.56.09
21.1k 1.56.40

23k 2.09.22

28k 2.41.19

30k 2.55.10
31k 3.02.22 (6.48)
32k 3.08.57 (6.35)
33k 3.15.53 (6.56)

40k 4.17.57
42.2k 4.30.49 (5.50 ish for last 2k)

If my only reason for running today was to run a P.B. I would have been tossing up whether or not to start today and I would have dropped out by 30km for sure.

Things went very smoothly to start with. I got 6hrs sleep which is better than usual before a marathon, and saw the Australian goal against Ghana on TV before I fell asleep, glad I did fall asleep cos sounds like the rest wasnt worth watching...Decided this time to try and avoid toilet mishap of Melbourne 2009, by not eating close to race, so yesterday I ate a big feed of pasta and silver beet for breakfast, went to Burswood to put drinks in and then straight to work, and had a sustagen at 1600hrs...Did not eatr anything except a little honey after that, and as aresult two small toilet stops was all I needed this morning, one at home and the other at WAMC. For one of the few times that I can remember I got away early and arrived at 0630 just in time to get one of the last 2 parking spots on Camfield drive. Yay for that...
Saw heaps of people beforehand, including Jeanie, Matt, Joxster, Clown, Big Mike, Big Kev, Bel and my Dad....

Had a bad night at work last night, which affected my run today in a big way...although I seem to have avoided getting a cold, and even early on I could feel the zip wasn't there, and hitting 4.40s and 4.50s didnt feel sustainable...although I still felt a sub 3.55 PB might be possible if I had a near perfect race...

A few very minor course changes. Didn't like the start line position too much but at least no hairpin bend in the first 10 metres...I liked the new bitumen path section after Raffles, hated the white concrete path near Coode st, but I guess its better from a traffic control point of view, although I'd still like to see the old course back in that section...
Nice to see a few portaloos in the carpark at the clubrooms before the race, way to go WAMC...

As usual the start seemed extremely slow, its a western australian tradition maybe to start marathons ultra slow...or maybe its just my affinity with fast running, either way had a good chat with Clown and BigKev early on, and CoolRunner Brewer (from my last 2 Melbourne Marathons)said hello and told me something I didnt know which is that he was right behind me in the 2008 Melbourne Marathon when I did my ankle in the first 1km...interesting...nice to see someone coming over from Melbourne for the Perth race too...also saw a Sydney Striders top too...did the obligatory surge up to the front of the pack for about 3 seconds, and then pulled off to the side a bit so as not to get in anyones way, and tried to settle into a conservative start... Was a little surprised to see Epi appear on the Windan bridge...and saw Clown powering away under the bridge on the northern banks of the Swan river, as Epi and myself ran above still on the bridge...good timing...Soon after Matt came past...then the sub 3.30 bus (well the main part of it led by Dave Henderson, I actually saw a sub 3.30 top in the top 10 runners, reckon he would have done sub 3) as we left that nice little cove in East Perth...

At this point I was sitting on around 5.10-5.20 per K and while it was slower than I'd hoped my hopes for a PB were intact, and I was trying hard to back off and conserve energy with the plan of attacking from the Narrows onwards...Problem is when I got to Narrows just couldnt step it up enough, legs felt heavy and sluggish...

The sub 6.30 bus;
Around this time when i was getting discouraged I met Chris who was in his 14th Perth Marathon and had sub 6.30 bus on the back of his shirt HAHAHAHA *LOL*...except he was running at about 4.00 pace...he told me you get a different colour spartan number when you get to 15 marathons...(Spartan number kicks in when you do 10 Perth Marathons ( I am only 3 away, but not sure if I will do this in 2011...)) He said he was expecting to retear his calf muscle so was getting as much time in the bank as he could early on...I pulled away from him for about 4km and he caught me again at 20km where he was the first of two people to trip on the concrete paths...some dangerous spots there...and then tore his calf muscle which forced him to walk/jog the rest of the way...I saw him finishing in about 5.40 at the end...his son was doing it too...

Cool running cheer squad gave me a big lift with their efforts at Raffles, which has become the traditional cheering spot for CR's now...Then there was the abusive marshal from hell, and I scored a free gel...didnt take any with me (forgot again...)...Then I got the nice surprise that some of the concrete had been ripped up so we got to run on yellow dirt (awesome...) and bike path (much better than concrete)...then it was onto a lot of concretre with some bitumen a section I always find hard to maintain rhythm...DaveK was out there with his kids (his wife was running her first road marathon), and was one of the best encouragers out there, as was Biscuitman...Saw Terry, and heaps of others, and of course my Dad was doing his usual awesome job of popping up every 5km or so... Couldnt find any zip and was slipping into 6min per K stuff, which meant my PB chances were slipping away... My half split of 1.56 was about 7 minutes too slow, but still a lot better than last years 2hrs+ one and also the 2.05 in the Perth 32k... Tried to hang in there and deal with the concrete....Was having trouble finding drink stops as they seemd to be 100m past the K markers all the time... Felt goo to get to the turnaround, and saw Pelagie, Jane, Bel and Jeannie only about 2km behind me just after that...Knew I had to get going as I knew they would reel me in...

My target time for 28km was to get there in 2.00-2.35, so set about trying to get as close as possible to that...On the boardwalk I got some momentum going again and started to throw in some sub 6min K's again...Averaged 6.23's from 23k to 28k which is not too bad, but not that good either...When I got to 28k in 2.41 I was pleased that I was only 6 minutes adrift of my target time, and figured that while the PB was unlikely maybe some drinks might fire me up for one last shot at it...My last drinks wree at 21k and I was sure looking forward to the 29k drinks stop...saw a drinks table about 28k but didnt look too hard at it as figured my drinks must be at 29k 30k since thay had been slightly longer than the distance so far...Was tired, and this was a fatal error of judgement...because I couldn't find my drinks anywhere...by the time I was getting to Raffles I was desperate for drinks, and had to settle for the sugarless sports drink provided which (a) wasnt enough (maybe I should have taken more cups) and (b) made me feel sick... Still it kept me going for a few km...took more water at Como beach jetty, but by that time it was too late, I was in big trouble hydration and carbs wise...
Got a nice boost from the CR cheer squad again at Raffles and tried hard to go strong in my favourite part of the course from Raffles to Narrows, but all I could find was 6.30-6.50's and it was getting harder and harder...

Took a pee for 1-2 minutes about this time, and I think CR Martin passed me here...By 35km I was in big trouble physically and started to feel lightheaded, so walked for about 1km and Kate gave me a gel, which I saved until Narrows as I had no water...Was torture getting to Narrows Bridge , but finally got there with some walk /run 8min-9min per K stuff..any faster and I think I would have fainted...Guzzled down gatorade and some water with the gel at the Narrows and probably did it too fast as it almost made me blackout...started seeing stars, and my vision got blurry. Couldnt read my watch properly for the next 10 minutes. A bit scary...and forced to walk for another 1-2km...At this stage I was thinking I may have to walk to the finish, and I may actually faint before I got there...I think maybe the sudden change in body physiology was too much, but also makes me wonder if there are other issues I need to address. A bit scary never really been there before in a marathon...although I remember feeling like that a bit in 6 inch some years very briefly...Anyhow by 38km I started to get my vision back properly, and the gatorade and gel started to kick in I think, so was able to get running again...Jane and Pelagie got past me...Was expecting they would get me sooner or later and wondered if Jeannie and Bel would catch me too...Turtlerunner (and much earlier Loubee) came past, and was nice to see more Cool runners out there...Started to get some 6.50-7.20 per K stuff going...got my pepsi drink at coode st 39km point, and then I was away. Felt really good then, and knew I could step it up for the last few km, and my goal was no longer beat the 4.41 from last year but try and beat the 4.33 from 2007...When I got to 40km in 4.17.57 I knew I was a good chance to knock off the 4.33 if I went hard at it...passed a lot of people here as i cranked out some 5.50-6min per K stuff not real fast but after the last 17k!!! all being slower and the walking at 8-9min per K feeling like I was going to be unconscious stuff it felt very good...saw the waterskiers on the river again...

and just before the 42km mark (some bloggers i know gave me a revup with "show us your trademark sprint TB")...so did what I usually do and caned the last 200m in about 49 seconds...
See photo here (with Burswood casino in background) thanks to one of the MONAGHETTI campers;


and was very pleeased to beat the 4.32 i did at Rottnest and go sub 4.31...after wondering if a stretcher was a more likely outcome at about 37km...

felt very spent at the end...Maybe the toughest marathon Ive done...Happy that I finished and bonus 1 that I beat last years time AND bonus 2 that I beat the 4.33 in 2007 making it my 5th best Perth Marathon...A memorable mostly enjoyable marathon...(except for 34k-38k...)...

will I do it next year...maybe not...will I try and get to Spartan status maybe one day...
Now Ive got just over 3 months to turn things around and peak for Melbourne on October 10th...and I sure hope I smash the PB there...sick of trying..its been 6 years now...
should have got it last year...so going to try a few major life changes to try and make it happen in the next few months IF we can still pay the bills...

Thanks everyone!!!


Training in the week;
7km long intervals in 32.58 total time @ 4.42 per K...
heart rates 174...

Monday night 4.5km in 23.19 @ 5.10 per KM...good run...
HR 165...