This was my second year at the SMH half. Having not done too many races in the last few months, I was really looking forward to this race. My last years' time for this race was 2:00:34 and my current half marathon PB is 1:56:x. Training has been going really well and I had definitely got faster since last year. My last half marathon race was the Sri Chinmoy half marathon in late march. Despite being a cross country half and lack of long runs in the build up, I managed to run it under 2 hours (01:59:04). Since then, I'd done many longer runs and averaged at least 6min/k over 22-25km runs. Taking all that into consideration, I was convinced that this was going to be a day of a new PB. Physically, I was ready as I could have been. Mentally, I've had a couple of major decisions to make (mostly exciting ones J ) and have been quite distracted with it all – but was confident this wasn't going to get in the way of this race. On a day when all goes to plan, I thought I should be able to run under 1:53. On a really good day, 1:50 didn't look too far away to at least dream. On a bad day, well….
The race start was at 6.45 am and I was happy to get moving like most others there as it was quite chilly! As I crossed the line, Pat Carroll announced "13,500 runners!!!! - You are all going to be part of Australia's biggest half marathon". That was very exciting. After all, that cannot be a bad thing.. Right?
The first few KM's had the standard traits of most long distance races. Most runners settling in slowly to their comfortable paces, some runners dodging and weaving the slow ones, (some) training groups and partners forming mobile human road blocks as they decide to stick with their own groups, some personal trainers beginning their commando style training regiment in the midst of a packed half marathon etc. etc.. The first few K's didn't bother me and I wasn't really concerned about my pace. Just when I thought the runners had spread out enough and I may be able to catch up on some lost time and start running at my planned pace, we entered the tunnel off Cahill expressway. This was the first bottleneck of many to come. All runners had to slow down to an almost walking pace for a few hundred meters and continued running. This was my first hint of how the rest of the course was going to be.
In addition to the congestion, (very unexpectedly) my HR was extremely high and my mind started wandering about many things. From my experience, the mind beginning to wander when running isn't necessarily a bad thing (even in a race) but on this particular race, it decided to negatively impact me. I tried my best to not get distracted and focus on the race but this wasn't really working. The congestion didn't help with it either. The course did have some good long stretches with very minimal interruptions, specially around the 15-17km marks and I made good use of it with a 5:00/km and 4:56/km (i.e. they are fast for me especially after 15ks of running!) but that wasn't good enough to catch up on my planned pace – not even close J The time on my watch ticked over 2:00:00 and then 2:00:34 (my slowest half marathon to date) as I sprinted towards the finish line...I crossed the finish line in 2:00:49.. I'm happy that this isn't far off from my previous time a year ago and I've kept up with my fitness regime to be able to run a very similar time to last year, but this was the first time that I crossed the line and felt like I 'lost' this race!!
Am I disappointed? Yes. Extremely! I am aware I am not a fast runner but I'd trained for this and hoped to beat my own planned time. It is disappointing that I couldn't beat that due to both congestion and my mind not really willing to give it 100% on race day.
What I did learn?
1. Mind plays a much bigger role in training and races (and in general) than I thought it does - A clear mind would've certainly helped with a lower heart rate and a little quicker time.
2. (Well done to everyone who got a PB on Sunday but personally..) SMH half is not a 'fast'/pb course for me - Last year, my final thought on my race report (and congestion) was "Not sure if that is what slowed my overall time or if it in fact helped me pace myself and gave me the PB!". This year, I found out that it did in fact slow me at least a few minutes.
Onwards and upwards from here J
No comments:
Post a Comment