Melbourne and the folks at Sole Motive put up a good event yesterday at the Run Melbourne half marathon. Third year into running, it was also my third participation in this home town event.
Melbourne showed off its best possible winter weather for runners and supporters. After a hard conditioning run at the Winter Marathon last week, it felt good to run less conservatively over this “sprint” distance. During the run, I realised that I had not run a flat half marathon for a year.
I had hoped to say hello to a few running friends, some from the recent Big Red Run, but somehow I missed them all. Most of them probably started in Wave A, whilst I was somewhere between B and C. Keeping pace with a mate until the 8km mark, I decided to stretch out a bit more. Finishing the race at around the 2-hour mark, I found myself about 15mins off the PB. This run felt like a good base to build upon over the half distance for the next month or so.