2007 Macleay River Half Marathon

Well there’s my third Half Marathon completed, and my second shot at the Macleay River event. For another year, just when it seemed that the weather could have been terrible it turned out that conditions were pretty favourable other than a bit of a headwind on the way out. A sunny cool day is always nice, and afterwards I found it quite warm sitting in the sun in the relatively sheltered finish area.
We were down at the start/finish area to watch the Marathon start (30 minutes before the Half). There was a one minute silence at the start of the Marathon for Ian Green (Green Machine). After the Marathon was underway I got ready, did a warm up and lined up with roughly 120-130 (I think they said?) other starters.

Last year I ran 1:45:12 and with my recent Marathon training I was hoping to make a considerable improvement on that. I was feeling good at the start, and once we were underway I was cruising comfortably along for the first few km. Part of the display section of my watch had started playing up a couple of days before, so I couldn’t record any splits otherwise I wouldn’t be able to read the total time (all I could read was the split time, so as soon as I hit a split I would only be able to read the lastest split and wouldn’t know my total time). I did have the 5km splits for a 1:35 and a 1:39 finish written down, but didn’t pay much attention to them.

So after a few km I just went on feel and didn’t really know how I was going apart from at the half way mark, which I think I went through in about 49 minutes. I was aiming for 4:30 minutes per km so I knew I was a bit slower, but hoping the tailwind on the way back would help, although it never seems to!

I wasn’t really running along with anyone although there were always a few people nearby. Everyone seemed fairly consistent with their pace without much surging. I felt good on the hills particularly on the way back into town, and pushed strongly up them all.

I paid a bit of attention to the time in the final 3km, and realised I had some work to do if I were to go under 1:40 (100 minutes). On the final climb to up Trial Bay Gaol I looked at my watch with 1km to go and realised I needed about a 4:15 final km to beat 100 minutes. I didn’t check the time again until after the finish. I was surprised that a few people were really struggling up the last hill, but I was on a mission and pushing as hard as I could. It’s great when you get to the top though because for the final few hundred metres it’s a flying downhill run to the finish.

On checking my watch I saw it was 1:39:55. The official results were up the same day and they have me recorded as 1:39:59 for 30th position out of 111 finishers and 9th in my age group.

I was really happy to have beaten the 100 minute mark (just), and last year’s time by 5-6 minutes.

As with all three halves that I’ve done I was running reasonably hard, but never really beyond myself at any time apart from the final sprint. Looking back I know I should have challenged myself more rather than cruising along, especially during the middle 10km. I probably don’t run enough of them to really get a good feel for it, but I’m sure with some more experience that will improve. Both times I’ve run here I think I’ve been a bit too laid back going into it, whereas you know with a 10km you just
have to run as hard as you can, and with a Marathon there’s such a long lead up to it and you’re prepared for it to hurt near the end no matter what.

Still I can’t complain about a 5-6 minute pb, a sub 100 and a couple more lessons learnt!!

Jodie was great support at the start, finish and out on the course. Her family had the kids for the morning, and they were all at the finish as well for a while, but just Jodie and myself hung around for the presentations.

Nice to chat with Kazz, Eagle, Silverfox, Miners and Pam (Green Machine’s wife).

I’ve pulled up great today, but I’ll give myself a few more days running break. I’ll just take the kids for a few walks to loosen up and keep things moving, as well as a massage during the week before I get back into it.

It looks like I’ll be able to make it to the Sydney Striders 10km race at Homebush in July. I’m looking forward to that now and hopefully knock some time off the 10km PB that I ran on the same course last year, which was also a few weeks after last years Macleay River Half.

Now...where was I

It’s been so long since I posted that I don’t know where to start. Whilst I’ve been on an extended blog absence, the training continues. I recovered to be in good shape after Canberra and feel I’ve prepared well for the Macleay River Half next weekend.

My Aerobic long runs used to be around the 6 minute/km mark, but I’ve noticed over the last couple of months that I can comfortably trot along closer to 5 minutes/km for what feels like a similar effort. It'll be interesting to see how I go on Sunday.

After weeks of no real improvement I finally saw a physio about my hamstring in May. A day or two of the exercises he prescribed and I no longer felt any pain. I’ve got some ongoing exercises to help the area recovery fully but was just amazed how after going through the pain in the hamstring for a fair while it took so little to actually fix it. Ewen was right with his comment ages ago about light strengthening being the key.

April saw me cover 147km. It included my taper and recovery as well as the Marathon itself. Helped freshen the legs up and provided a nice recovery period.

In May I ran a total of 208km. It saw me hit 1000km for the year during my long run on the 27th.


For the record, below are some further details if you’re game…after a couple of weeks I stopped make any notes other than the basic details of my training that I throw into a spreadsheet.


Tuesday 24/4: 7km Run
Another recovery type run around Lighthouse Beach and Emerald Downs. Threw in a couple of 30 second efforts and a strong run to finish up Pacific Drive from Jonas Absalom.


Thursday 26/4: 10km Tempo Run
After sitting down a couple of days ago and constructing a training plan to get me to the half marathon I decided I was motivated and felt fresh enough to start with a decent run today.
So I ran down Kennedy Drive to Gordon Street and back via Granite Street with a couple of diversions. I had planned 2 x 12 minute efforts with a 5 minute jog recovery but if I felt flat I was willing to cut back to 6/8/10 minutes each. As it turned out I felt great during the first effort so I stuck to the plan.
I later measured the sections, and it turns out my pace was around 4:30 minute kms which is about right for 10km race pace. I actually thought I was going a bit quicker than that at the time, but there were some hills involved and the first effort was a net uphill, so not a bad result for my first quicker run back.


Saturday 28/4: 12km Run
I’d planned a 16km run today, but woke up and to a cold and rainy morning. So I lay in bed for an hour before deciding I’d better get up and at it. It was still raining as I stepped out, but wasn’t as cold as I expected. I spent the first couple of km thinking about how nice it would be to have a hot shower and relax after I finished.

I ran along Pacific Drive into town and back via Kennedy Drive. The rain eased off during the second half of the run but I still opted to cut it short as it wasn’t much fun and I felt there was little to be gained by being out there any longer. The first couple of weeks back were just recovery runs anyway.


Monday 30/4: 10km VO2 Intervals
After a 20 minute warm up I ran 5 x 800m intervals with 2 minute jog recovery at Wayne Richards Park.
I eased into the first one before a couple of more solidly paced intervals. I decided to give the 4th one a bit more effort and was quite pleased with the 3:02. But ideally (according to McMillan) I’m looking to do them in around 3:20, so that was a one off to see how my speed was. The intervals (in time not pace!) were: 3:39, 3:20, 3:25, 3:02 and 3:21.
I felt really good afterwards and keener than ever for some half marathon training!


Wednesday 2/5: 13km Aerobic Run
It was a spectacular morning to be out…the sunrise threw up all sorts of shades of orange and crimson. I started off through the back of Port and finished up travelling along the river and beaches.



Friday 4/5: 8km Tempo and Hill Reps
Ran through Lighthouse Beach and Emerald Downs before knocking out some solid 4 x 90 second hill reps up Pacific Drive near Jonas Absalom.


Sunday 6/5: 26km Long Run
Seeing as I left my fuel belt bottles in Sydney I split this run into a couple of loops so that I could pick up some refreshments at the half way mark. First it was into town along the river and beaches, and then around Lighthouse, Marbuk, Emerald Downs and along Ocean Drive to Koala Street and the Waniora area.
I’ve decided to put a bit more effort into my long runs, but not so far as to take it beyond an aerobic effort. Not too easy, not too hard…but not a plod. I was extremely pleased with how it went too. There were plenty of hills throughout the run, yet I ran it all fairly strongly and had a comfortable breathing pattern throughout.
So sub 5:30 minutes/km is my new 6 minutes/km…it was actually around 5:20 pace. I felt much better during the rest of the day than I used to after a 2 hour plus run.


Tuesday 8/5: 9km VO2 Intervals
Just down to the park for 4 x 1km intervals with 2 minute jog recoveries this morning. The goal pace was around 4:10 although I ended doing them all a bit quicker than that, but not by too much.
In the middle of the last one I felt something odd that could have either been my shoe kicking something up and hitting the back of my leg, or could have been a mini seizure in the hamstring. I still can’t decide which one it was, as there are no after effects and it was in a higher position than my previous hamstring issues. I really can’t work out whether I felt it on the skin or muscle In any case the hamstring still gives me some minor aches so I’ve booked in to get a bit of physio to fix it up rather than let it drag on. Carrying the kids around definitely strains it more than running and it’s difficult to cut that right out as Tyler is still only crawling. Although I can coax him to follow me places around the house, I still need to carry him on a regular basis!


Thursday 10/5: 8km Tempo and Hill Reps
I was no worse for wear from Tuesday so I trotted out in the light rain this morning. After a warm up I put in a 12 minute tempo effort before heading straight into 3 x 90 second hill reps.


Sunday 13/5: 17km Long Run

Tuesday 15/5: 9km with 6x600m VO2 Intervals

Wednesday 16/5: 13km Aerobic Run

Friday 18/5: 9.5km with 9 minute Tempo effort then 4 x 90 second hill reps

Sunday 20/5: 27km Long Run – Lake Cathie return

Tuesday 22/5: 8km with 4 x 800m VO2 Intervals

Wednesday 23/5: 10.5km Aerobic Run

Friday 25/5: 10km with 12 minute Tempo effort then 5 x 90 second hill reps

Sunday 27/5: 18km Aerobic Run

Tuesday 29/5: 10km with 5 x 1000m VO2 Intervals

Wednesday 30/5: 12km Aerobic Run

Friday 1/6: 9km with 2 x 12 minute Tempo efforts

Sunday 3/6: 15km Aerobic Run

Tuesday 5/6: 7km with 4 x 600m VO2 Intervals

Wednesday 6/6: 5km Recovery Run

And that just about gets me up to date. I’ve just got a relatively easy tempo run to do today (2 x 5min efforts with 5 minute recovery) and that’s it (apart from 500 or so blog posts to read) until the race on Sunday.