Sunday Half Marathon

The relaxation continues, with a little bit of running thrown in!

I've had absoluely no sttructured training program and am just trying to keep a couple of runs in per week to get me through for the SMH Half MArathon in a few weeks. Meanwhile just sleeping in when I feel like it, going for a ride or a swim or some yoga whenever and it feels great!

On Sunday I thought I needed a race because there's no way I would have the motivation to go for a long run on my own. So Chris and I decided to do the Sydney Marathon Clinic run out at Smithfield, a half marathon.

Perfect weather, cool but clear and what seemed like a pretty small but very friendly field. I just wanted to cruise and had absolutely no plan. Saw Professor at the start who said he was going for 60mins for the first 14km then just cruise. I thought that sounded good, but when we took off I couldn't get near him. He stayed a good 50 - 200m ahead of me and every time I thought I was closing the gap he took off again. I didn't want to push it too hard (and to be honest I don't think I could have gone faster even if I'd wanted to) so I just cruised along at a comfy pace and hit 14km in about 62 minutes.

Chris was right behind me at all the turnarounds and ended up only finishing 40s after me, he was in total cruise control as well but obviously all the Pain in the Domain paid off because even after a barnstorming 3:26 run in his first ever marathon in London two weeks beforehands, he managed a PB at the half!

I had footsteps behind me for a long time but I never turned to see who it was, then at about 17km Blue Dog came past me. He was cruising as well (with a horrible hacking cough and no sleep since he ran a 10km race the night before then worked all night and came straight to Smithfield!) and we ran together for the last few kms at what felt like a good pace to me. By 20km I was spent and just wanted to take it easy over the finish line, just when Blue Dog decided to fire up and suddenly took off! I tried to surge with him for a few metres, but had no chance, he left me for dead then went and passed the next guy 100m ahead! Nice work.

I finished in 1:33:40 and was very happy with that. Tight calves and a niggly right hammy, but otherwise I felt good.