a 1.49 Gold Coast Seasons Best Half Marathon 2012,2013,2014

On 6th July 2014 Anno Domini I ran 1 hour 49 minutes and 21 seconds in the Gold Coast half marathon. It is my best time this year for this distance so a genuine SB or Seasons Best (as of July 2014), and my first 5km in 22min 55 seconds is also my fastest 5km so far this year. Was fantastic to have a good race plus get another sub 1.50 result on the board, and enjoy the amazing location afterwards. Went after PB pace early on, targeting something around the 1.40 mark, but was not well trained enough to sustain the pace beyond 7km which I reached in 33min 08 secs (see garmin data...By 8km (38.20) I was a few seconds adrift of PB pace (1.41.07 in the 2005 Fremantle Half Marathon), and my second fastest 10km this year of 49.23 continued the trend of running about 20-50 seconds per kilometre slower than I needed for a PB. my 13th Km in 4.56 and 21st Km in 4.58 were the only other kilometres in the race where I managed to go under 5 minutes per Km after doing so for 6 of the first 7 K's.
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At the beginning of this year I would have been aiming for a new PB around the 1.29-1.39 mark for this race, and anything up to 1.49 would be a decent time maintaining the status quo. A 1.50-2.05 would be a good solid run, but disappointing. However as in 2013, as I anticipated I (and my wife and kids) have continued to experience significant financial and housing stress, except that it is significantly worse than in 2013 so far this year. However in December 2013 I got a courier job to the Boddington Gold Mine, which I think was about in my top 3-5 best jobs of 4 years of courier driving. Anticipating a difficult year, in January I bought several $100 flights for my 3 interstate goal races this year. As a result despite the usual "all-over-the-shop" training, in June I knew I had an appointment with the Gold Coast half marathon for the 3rd year in a row. After a 1.44 and a 1.47 in the last 2 years I was very keen to try and find enough minutes to attack that 1.41. My most recent 21.1km splits were a 1.54 in the Perth Marathon 3 weeks earlier and a 1.59 in th Elleker Half Marathon (near Albany in country Western Australia) 5 weeks earlier. The Elleker result was marred by a virus that made it hard to breathe, and I drove 5 hours to get to it. In addition I ran both these events in Brooks ST Racer which is heavier and slower than my Nike Lunaracer, although its probably only worth a minute or so in the overall time as they are both fast light racing flat type shoes...
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I saved the Lunaracers for this race, as I have done a few marathons and some training and shorter races in them, and after about 600km+ my favourite and fastest shoes are getting worn out. Similiar to my body and mind, after 40 years they are getting a bit worn out too, but still fast, sharp and responsive. One of my brothers, after much arguing finally agreed to give me $60 as a late 40th birthday gift, so I could avoid spending the entire trip staying in backpackers accomodation at about $30 a night. My parents and siblings would probably say I am impulsive and financially irresponsible for going to the Gold Coast on another racing jaunt.
I'm strongly tempted to be in agreeance with them after 8 years of scraping up the money for these fantastic interstate races, and the same in 1989-1993, 1998-2000 as a racewalker. I have spent at least an annual salary on racing in Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Katoomba, Brisbane and the Gold Coast over the decades, and my interstate racing costs about $500 a go... I think I would like to try and keep at it for another 4 years at least, although I know that I am in the situation where every trip I take may be my last one. Life is an adventure a gift from the Creator Triune, so I will persist in exploring and enjoying it. I don't live to pay as many of my bills and $430 per week rent as quickly as possible, although I do my best to do so. I work way too hard for way too little money most of the time, and I intend doing what I enjoy doing which is racing and pushing my limits, and enjoying paradise type locations. God made me to do that, and at the core of existence, I think it is right to do that. I don't exist just to be a rat-race bunny for the government. The paradox is of course that I am more likely to be a better functioning citizen and come back from my racing trips revitalised, rejuvenated, and invigorated from the recreation of racing in an exciting event at a magnificent location, with fresh and new ideas to battle on in the slog of the daily grind, than I am to just keep on grinding along bashing my head against financial walls, and getting rejected by lenders, punctuated by continual failure to progress to interview stage in my job applications, although I did get to one interview in June, and they have not yet said I have been unsuccessful yet. Anyhow the point is this; the chorus of doomsayers and killjoy wowsers suggesting I shouldn't do interstate races has got significantly louder this year, and $300 a week pay due to persistent car repairs mainly (down from the normal $700 per week) has been the main obstacle. That includes many of my running friends now, and they say "just stick to local races"... However I know that sticking to the slow inferior concrete footpath courses (with high injury potential) and poor competition of local races will not excite my racing adrenalin or bring out the best in me, and the fact that I have again run a seasons best at the Gold Coast for the 3rd year in a row, and my Marathon seasons best was also in Melbourne in 2012 (and a PB! when I was sick) and 2013 confirms and vindicates my thoughts that I need to race interstate annually to get the best out of myself as a runner. Also it is a well deserved holiday, but I wouldn't go interstate just for that. However the goal of trying to improve my racing times may need to go on hiatus or permanent retirement soon. I think I have a maximum of 4-5 years left in road running, which could drop to 0-3 years very easily... It is also lonely being away from Kathryn and our children, and the airfare costs quadruples the cost if I bring them along also, plus makes racing logistics trickier, although my Melbourne Marathon PB was achieved with them with me. The 3km walk onto the MCG was and is one of the highlights of my childrens lives too... So no regrets, despite the resistance I face from my extended family of mostly non-runners.
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To save costs I asked my wonderful wife to put our young children in the car and drive me to the airport just after midnight in the early hours of Saturday. I changed my mind on where to stay on the Gold Coast about 20 times in recent months, including cancelling one of my first choices at the Maldives due to being unable to afford to stay 3 nights there. The 2am Saturday flight on Tiger airways from Perth to Sydney was probably the best Tiger flight I have been on, an I managed to sleep for 3 hours (seated next to some nice friendly kiwis), so maybe their service is improving. The luxury of a Qantas flight from Sydney to the Gold Coast was my next move, and on this flight I met a Sydney running coach who has run the majors (Berlin, New York, Chicago, London, Boston etc). Very interesting talking to him and its not often I have got to talk to someone like that. After landing on the border of NSW/QLD at the amazing yet small and friendly Gold Coast Airport I quickly manged to find a bus and after paying my $10 bus ticket I calculated I had $24 to spare for the rest of the trip which was concerning, especially as I had little food, and I would need to get from the Gold Coast to Brisbane after the race to catch my flight home. I figured if the worst came to the worst, I could always walk to Brisbane or something... Got off the bus near the Expo in Broadbeach, and headed in to get my race numbers. After my first circuit of the wonderful items I could not afford to buy, I went back to check when we get our free t-shirt, and I met a few running bloggers, (which resulted in fantastic chats about running and a few photos at the fake finishing line) I remember from previous years in the golden age of Coolrunning...Speaking of CR (Coolrunning) I later found out that the legendary CR Plu also did race again this year at GC.
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I texted one of my old schoolmates who did his first Ironman triathlon recently who said he was going to be at the expo, but he did not reply to me. Then it was the first of many walks with my luggage... I eventually found the place I had booked for $76 which was essentially very much like my old student village (at university) type accomodation days, and most of the people there seemed to be about 18-23 year olds which made me feel like I am a toolie (which I am most certainly not, but when you are 20 years older than everyone you feel awkward) or something, but you get that, and it was a nice spot close to the race start, and a bit better than the average backpackers or a park bench. The 20-something reception staff were friendly and efficient, and if not for the scary security issues, the druggies sitting next door, and the severe headache I got in the one window room, it probably would have been a reasonably good base the night before the race. The 24 hour shopping centre next to it was amazing and obviously targeted at the $1200-$3000 per night A-listers in the nearby luxury resorts. It had a couple of good things like McDonalds (which I decided to splash out $9 on for an evening meal of chips, apple pie and orange juice), good quality clean public toilets, and lounge sofas (which I considered sleeping on for the night to avoid the splitting headache I was likely to wake up with if I slept in the room I had booked, although I could get robbed or assualted or moved on by security if I tried to sleep in the shopping centre)... However I decided to swallow my pride and phoned one of my running friends who I knew was staying at a nice place, and see if I could share his place, and scored a sofa there. Much better option, although of course it involved another walk with my luggage at night... Woke up about 4am on race morning after 6 hours sleep with a resting heart rate of 34 beats per minute (I think my equal best of all time) and with sensational views of the beach, and I just knew God had blessed me with a good raceday. So huge thanks to the friend who let me use his sofa that night, a huge positive for me, and I would not have got under 1.50 without that I don't think. Forgot to get some upbeat nitrate for this race, but I had a tin of beetroot, so ate a few slices of that before the race. In the lift of the hotel I met a woman who was doing the half marathon and we walked and chatted for the 2.5km or so walk to the starting precinct. Her boyfriend was doing his first marathon she said, and he planned to do Berlin as his second. Managed to get through the toilet queue with plenty of time to spare, although when I got to the A-grade area which my sub 1.45 times gives me access to it was crowded and I struggled to push up to a good start spot, where in another freaky (maybe Gods hand at work again) moment I saw one of the past WA Marathon club legends standing about 2 metres away from me and we had a short chat as the countdown began in the darkness just before 6am. The song this year on the loudspeakers at the start was U2 Beautiful day, which is very appropriate for me particularly the lyrics; "its a beautiful day... don't let it get away"... Its fitting for me because this race was like that, its the one I needed to do, I wanted to do, and I didn't want to let the negative discouragement from my extended family or the money issues stop me from making the most of probably one of my best opportunities of the year for a good half marathon. So I didn't let the beautiful day go, I didn't let the 1.24 pacers get away either, and I kept the first 1k split under 4 minutes with a 3.57 despite the walk across the start line, and the usual wait to get moving initially in the big crowd (even though I was only 10 metres behind the elites) of a major event like this.... Was careful not to trip in the big crowd, so held back my speed a bit...
Tried to keep the pressure on a bit in the second KM as the space opened up as we ran under street lights, (and the sunrise and civil twilight started to arrive) which was about a 4.26 K split, and the 2km split was my fastest this year I think (about 8.23).... 3k split also good, and I was feeling good, kept it strong until 5k in 22.55 and avoided the camber on some parts of the road by running near the centre...
About this time there is a turn near a traffic light that I remember well from the last 2 years, and the front 1.40 pacer caught me about here... Was carrying my room key, my phone (in a very saggy spibelt that was bouncing too much around my waist, need to buy a new one), and a powerbar energy gel. My 7k split was still under PB pace (4.45 per k is 1.40 pace and my PB is 1.41.07) in 33.08, but I knew I was going to have trouble sustaining that. By 8km I had lost a few seconds, and getting under 5min per K started to get hard for the legs. Breathing was good, just the undertrained legs were not responding. Lost about 30seconds taking my time drinking two cups of endura and a cup of water about 9km into it, which stopped me from beating the 48min 47 10k seasons best in the Brdiges 10k race in April this year, but I was still going ok with 49min 23 for the first 10k.... Was keen to get some fluids in early. This helped and despite the 800m section of concrete and speed humps near the halfway turnaround, I was able to avoid any 6min K's for a bit longer, and in fact my only K split over 6min in this race was a 6.02 for the 15th K... At 12km I tried to up the ante a bit after arriving in about 59minutes which was about 3-4 minutes short of the pre-race target of 56 minutes to be in the PB ballpark... This worked a bit and I splitted 4.56 from 12km to 13km, but then the legs got tired and I backed off again, went for my powerbar Gel at about 16km, which helped me get a 5.03 K...

By 18km I knew I was most likely shooting for about 1.47-1.50 most likely rather than the 1.39-1.44 sort of hopes I had in the first 7km... Motivation was waning from about 12km onwards, and with the legs refusing to fire up I just soaked up the atmosphere, tried to keep ticking along, and high fived the excited kids with their hands out along the course, kept throwing water over my head at the drink stations, and enjoyed the paradise views. Tried to feed off, work on running with some of the bunches of runners, but was mostly slipping back rather than passing people.... Still feeling good in many ways. Perfect weather. With about 1500m to go as we got close to the last bridge near the KFC store, I heard the 1.50 pacer behind me yelling "come on people 1km to go, time to start going hard to the finish"), made sure I stepped up the pace at 20km to stay ahead of the 1.50 pacer, but held off attacking too much until we left the Highway to enter the last 300m, and then put the foot down and the body into 5th gear to bring it home strong and pass a lot of people.

Didn't go into a sixth gear sprint, but got a good position in the centre during the last 20 metres for the finishing photo and enjoyed the moment...

After getting my race shirt and some water, my seasons best was done and dusted. I was ecstatic again, although with a twinge of regret that once again the PB was out of reach. Several hours of walking around after that, got to see the best of the Marathon runners, including Kawauchi, Limo, a Russian, Nera Jareb, and one of my hundreds of long run training friends from past years in Jarrad Brown from BT on his way to his first sub 3 hour marathon... stood in the Surfers paradise surf for 10minutes that evening, followed by a set of tennis that night with a running friend at a hotel... Was a bit sore and stiff on the 10km jog around Surfers Paradise (including some beach running), the next morning, and had some tough moments getting to Brisbane airport for the 6 hour flight home th next day, but it was all part of the most excellent awesome blessing of an adventure of hopefully not my last Gold Coast race...