I had not smelled the ocean for a while, so on Sunday I came down to Green Point in Brighton for my weekly long run. Sticking to my amateurish training routine (a marathon+, then a half the following week, repeat), this week it was time to run a half. We are generally spoilt in Australia from autumn to spring; there are a few running events to choose from almost every weekend.
This was the third time Sole Motive organised the Sandy Point Half Marathon with the fun war cry #reclaimthecold. It was here last year that I ran a last race in 2016 on Australian soil before completing the Seven Continent series in Cape Town, Berlin, Antarctica and Viña del Mar.
It had been raining in the morning. The wind was biting when I shivered out of the car. I put on an additional layer to pre-empt the wet condition. It turned out to be a sensible move, as, at the pace I would be running at, the head wind in the front half and the light hail in the back half would have cooled the body down a bit much.
The legs feeling extra fresh, probably due to missing out on a proper long run the previous weekend, I pushed uphill in the first 5km, then maintained the same pace for the following 5km flat stretch. The lack of conditioning in the legs took its toll, and the inevitable slowing down came at about the half way mark. Struggling to maintain the 1:50 pace, I fell behind, eventually being overtaken by the 1:55 train. Under 7 kms away from the finish line, I glued on to the 2:00 train and managed to scrape in just over 1:59 – nearly a minute slower than the previous half at Devilbend.
This photo was taken early in the back half, when I realised that I was not going to make 1:50.
Given the training setback during the previous week, I was happy to see the legs being able to push on in fatigue. The run left plenty of scope for improvement.
From this week on, training looks rather straightforward: 50kms a week for the next 3 weeks. Then I’ll see myself at the Vietnam Mountain Marathon VMM100 starting line with head torch on.