Sri Chinmoy Half Marathon
***BEWARE LONG POST AHEAD. Get your coffee now***
First of all credit must go where credit is due. If it wasn't for my ever reliable wife Sal the whole day could have been a total disaster.
At 6am I woke, turned off the alarm clock, and promptly went back to sleep.
At 6:15am Sal woke, prodded me a few times and called out "Hun"
"What?"
"Aren't you meant to be awake?"
"Huh??"
"Shouldn't you be awake? You have to do the race"
"uummm...I have already done it"
"No your big race you have to get ready."
"Huh?"
It seems that in my dreams I had already run the Half. I can't even remember if I won.
Thankfully due to my extensive preparations the day before 15 minutes was all the time I needed to get ready and be back on time again.
The trip only took 30 minutes in the car and I revved up with Aerosmiths "Pump" album (Yes I am a old 80's Bogan). Arriving with plenty of time I parked the car then walked over to the assembly point.
Quite a crowd had already formed. I meet up with some other Coolrunners (Not even going to try to name everyone) then checked my warm weather gear into the luggage tent. A quick toilet stop then the organizers asked us to assemble up at the starting line.
I could see so many other Coolrunners there. Some I knew from other events but a lot I didn't recognizes. I overheard Chiliman say that he was going to do 5 minutes k's for the first 10 then speed it up from there. This sounded good to me and I planned to stick with him atleast half the way.
We got the old fashioned "Ready, Set, GO" to start and the crowd surged forward. Chiliman took off like a bullet, dodging in and around people and I soon gave up on that plan. I settled down to my regular pace and was pleased to see that I was 5 minutes at the first kilometre marker.
At the first drink station I unwisely chose sports drink over water and developed a sticky mess over my top, hands and face. The next drink station I grabbed a water for a small sip and to try to clean up the mess whilst on the run.
A few of the leading runners started heading back after the 6km turnaround. It was a good opportunity for CR spotting and making encouraging shouts of "Go CoolRunner!"
My thoughts turned to Simlins first Half and I was thankful that the weather was decent. Overcast with no wind felt a lot better than driving rain and hail.
Just before the half way mark I notice I had set a 10km PB of 50 minutes. Well on time for a 1:45:00 finish. I feel pretty good and am confident that I could keep it up. This is also the first point where you spot the Westgate Bridge. Under the bridge is the second turn around point and it doesn't look that far way.
13.5km we pass the race assembly area for the first time and that bloody bridge still doesn't look that far away. Here I start to pick out "targets". Runners in front of me that I plan to "reel" in. There is a gentleman in a blue singlet with a white cap who I set my sights on.
I finally reach the bridge at the 15km mark. I am still on time but have lost sight of my first target in the blue singlet. I pick someone a bit more attainable. I see ahead a guy wearing the same yellow, "Your the Run that I Want" t-shirt that I am wearing and I declare that he is the One that I want!
While all this "target" business is playing out in my head I'm sure people are thinking the same thing behind me. The footsteps and heavy breathing that has followed me for the last 3km finally passes. He is wearing long black Skins and looks pretty spent but he still runs on ahead. I decided to stay with him and not let him go.
We pass the assembly area for the second time and the front runners are already there. I see some CoolRunning gear but can't pick out any individuals. I pass a 17km mark and I know I can do it. The end is not that far. I push on a little harder leaving my friend in the Skins behind and overtake the yellow shirted target.
19km is the final turnaround and I am still on time. I am still pushing on catching a few runners and being passed by some Six Million Dollar Man wannabes.
Finally I enter the Williamstown sports field and follow the running track to the finish line.
According to my watch I have completed my first Half Marathon in 1:46:46 and I am thrilled! My Excel running log works that out to 5:04 a kilometre!
Catching up with the other CoolRunners we swap our stories and times. Lucky Steve wins a spot prize of a pair of Reebok runners and I have a feed of Apple Crumble and Pancakes.
I watched the winner of the Marathon come in and it is CoolRunnings own Uncle Dave!
Uncle Dave after his win chatting to RunningOnEmpty.
I headed over to shake his very sweaty hand and offer congratulations. Fancy a Sydney Strider winning the Williamstown Marathon. What cheek!
Now I am back home and feeling a bit exhausted. That brings to an end my largest weekly running total of 63.9km so far and I will be having a rest for the remainder of the day and tomorrow too (maybe).
First of all credit must go where credit is due. If it wasn't for my ever reliable wife Sal the whole day could have been a total disaster.
At 6am I woke, turned off the alarm clock, and promptly went back to sleep.
At 6:15am Sal woke, prodded me a few times and called out "Hun"
"What?"
"Aren't you meant to be awake?"
"Huh??"
"Shouldn't you be awake? You have to do the race"
"uummm...I have already done it"
"No your big race you have to get ready."
"Huh?"
It seems that in my dreams I had already run the Half. I can't even remember if I won.
Thankfully due to my extensive preparations the day before 15 minutes was all the time I needed to get ready and be back on time again.
The trip only took 30 minutes in the car and I revved up with Aerosmiths "Pump" album (Yes I am a old 80's Bogan). Arriving with plenty of time I parked the car then walked over to the assembly point.
Quite a crowd had already formed. I meet up with some other Coolrunners (Not even going to try to name everyone) then checked my warm weather gear into the luggage tent. A quick toilet stop then the organizers asked us to assemble up at the starting line.
I could see so many other Coolrunners there. Some I knew from other events but a lot I didn't recognizes. I overheard Chiliman say that he was going to do 5 minutes k's for the first 10 then speed it up from there. This sounded good to me and I planned to stick with him atleast half the way.
We got the old fashioned "Ready, Set, GO" to start and the crowd surged forward. Chiliman took off like a bullet, dodging in and around people and I soon gave up on that plan. I settled down to my regular pace and was pleased to see that I was 5 minutes at the first kilometre marker.
At the first drink station I unwisely chose sports drink over water and developed a sticky mess over my top, hands and face. The next drink station I grabbed a water for a small sip and to try to clean up the mess whilst on the run.
A few of the leading runners started heading back after the 6km turnaround. It was a good opportunity for CR spotting and making encouraging shouts of "Go CoolRunner!"
My thoughts turned to Simlins first Half and I was thankful that the weather was decent. Overcast with no wind felt a lot better than driving rain and hail.
Just before the half way mark I notice I had set a 10km PB of 50 minutes. Well on time for a 1:45:00 finish. I feel pretty good and am confident that I could keep it up. This is also the first point where you spot the Westgate Bridge. Under the bridge is the second turn around point and it doesn't look that far way.
13.5km we pass the race assembly area for the first time and that bloody bridge still doesn't look that far away. Here I start to pick out "targets". Runners in front of me that I plan to "reel" in. There is a gentleman in a blue singlet with a white cap who I set my sights on.
I finally reach the bridge at the 15km mark. I am still on time but have lost sight of my first target in the blue singlet. I pick someone a bit more attainable. I see ahead a guy wearing the same yellow, "Your the Run that I Want" t-shirt that I am wearing and I declare that he is the One that I want!
While all this "target" business is playing out in my head I'm sure people are thinking the same thing behind me. The footsteps and heavy breathing that has followed me for the last 3km finally passes. He is wearing long black Skins and looks pretty spent but he still runs on ahead. I decided to stay with him and not let him go.
We pass the assembly area for the second time and the front runners are already there. I see some CoolRunning gear but can't pick out any individuals. I pass a 17km mark and I know I can do it. The end is not that far. I push on a little harder leaving my friend in the Skins behind and overtake the yellow shirted target.
19km is the final turnaround and I am still on time. I am still pushing on catching a few runners and being passed by some Six Million Dollar Man wannabes.
Finally I enter the Williamstown sports field and follow the running track to the finish line.
According to my watch I have completed my first Half Marathon in 1:46:46 and I am thrilled! My Excel running log works that out to 5:04 a kilometre!
Catching up with the other CoolRunners we swap our stories and times. Lucky Steve wins a spot prize of a pair of Reebok runners and I have a feed of Apple Crumble and Pancakes.
I watched the winner of the Marathon come in and it is CoolRunnings own Uncle Dave!
Uncle Dave after his win chatting to RunningOnEmpty.I headed over to shake his very sweaty hand and offer congratulations. Fancy a Sydney Strider winning the Williamstown Marathon. What cheek!
Now I am back home and feeling a bit exhausted. That brings to an end my largest weekly running total of 63.9km so far and I will be having a rest for the remainder of the day and tomorrow too (maybe).
posted by Spark Driver at 12:36 PM
14 Comments:
Yey! I was waiting for your race report all day! Just awesome..and nice weekly total...so what's next??
Good point there Mandy. I don't know what is next. I will look at the running calender and get back to you.
Great stuff! Loved reading the race report - sorry I dnd't come over to say hi when Tony popped over - my lift home was dragging me away!
Congratualtions on a great effort :)
How good were the conditions? Near as perfect, none of this nasty wind I had heard everyone talk about :)
Nice to meet you today in Williamstown.
I am in the picture talking to Dave Crinti.
Keep up the great progress!
Yay!!
well done!!
alisonjc :)
Fantastic HM debut Sparks - well done mate, that is a brilliant result ;-)
Great report too.
Woohoo!!! That's a fantastic result. Congrats. And a great report too - it was fun to be taken along on the journey with you, especially the bits where we passed people :-)
Enjoy your recovery, you sure deserve it.
PS LOL about the alarm/wife/dream.
What a fantastic result - well done on your first of what I am sure will be many!
That is a great time you accomplished there, to be your first!!
Sleeping longer could help, but how weird you were able to, weren't you excited?
Nice work SD! sounds like a solid run, congratulations on the 10k PB too!
I already had a cuppa tea going SD.
That's a fantastic debut half. Great to record it in detail.
Great run and I remember that fella wearing "you're the run that I want". It's a pitty we didn't catch up with each other.
I'm not the Lucky Steve that won the Reeboks.
Catch up with you at the next event.
Great post Sparky!! Congratulations on a great race.
Yes it was me you were standing next to at the start line!
And yes, I was wearing too many clothes!!
Your are Excellent. And so is your site! Keep up the good work. Bookmarked.
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