SMH Half Marathon 2011 – A sorry tale!

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

SMH Half Marathon

On 16th May, I lined up with 8500 other runners for the SMH Half Marathon.
Having done the Sydney marathon in Sept 09 and that being my last running event, you would (well, I did) think the preparation for this race should be smooth and easy. When I resumed training properly around March, that wasn’t going to be the case! It was obvious that I’d lost all my fitness and was struggling even to do a 5K run or 10-15 laps in the pool..
Clearly our wedding in Feb, the honeymoon and all the good food and parties in the months leading up to it was the culprit :) - But loved every minute of it :)
It took a good couple of weeks to get back to a reasonable fitness and to convince my mind to sign up for the SMH Half.


On race day, I was feeling quite fit and ready thanks to the 4-day tapering. At the start line, I met up with a couple of the hills tri club boys. Some of them were hoping for a sub 1:40 time and I knew I wasn’t going to pace them. One of the boys (Gerald) was planning to do a sub 2hrs too so we decided to pace each other. Sub 2hrs was my realistic goal, even though secretly I liked sub 1:50 a lot better :)
It took us a long time (06:06 minutes) to just get past the start line. Once we passed the start line, Gerald and I managed to stick together and run at a decent pace…

The race was quite an enjoyable one…
The most exciting part of the run was running under the harbour bridge. I’ve done many lunch time runs around the city and on the Sydney harbour bridge, but it is truly an amazing feeling to be amongst thousands of runners and run under the Sydney Harbour Bridge and enjoy the view of Opera house and circular quay!!

My official finishing time was 02:00:34.
Average pace is 5.40mins/km.
Avg HR: 170 bpm
Max HR: 190 bpm

Was hoping for a sub 2hr finish. Had a great run but was forced to slow down at times due to the crowd (8500) at times - Not sure if that is what slowed my overall time or if it in fact helped me pace myself and gave me the PB!