What a day. An unexpected PB without doing much fast stuff this year at all. All long distance STaR's with the Striders and a few Marathon pace(4:12/k) runs in the last couple of months.
I was off at the start a bit fast but it felt ok actually. Flat and downhill for 2ks is always a good start for me. Argyle Cut I pushed hard so I wouldn't drop any places or speed. Along Hickson Rd I was doing 3:50/k pace apparently. Not sure if the Garmin had the pace right.
Got to the 4k just near the Sydney Dance Company and I was at 15:10. A 50 sec buffer on 4 min ks. Was never sure if I could hold that pace. Thought I was going too fast and wondered when I would lapse back into 4:10/ks for the rest of the race. It never came and I kept going through every k with the 50 sec buffer. How?
Reached 10k in 39:10. Still holding on.
Down Macquarie and Pitt and the downhill that I love. Held the pace almost as good as the first lap up Argyle Cut. Spoke to CR Mick along Hickson Rd who mentioned if Blue Dog's mum would be pissed off at the race I was having. Probably.
Kept the foot on the pedal up Pitt and Hunter Sts. Reached 17k just before turning out of Macquarie still with my 50 sec buffer. Felt here for the first time that I was really under pressure to keep my pace up. I hate to run well and then blow the last quarter. Ran the downhill to Mrs Macs chair faster than the 4 min pace so I had some buffer coming back up the hill again.
Reached the 20k in 79:10. Hung on for the last rush back to Hyde Park. Round the hairpin and all the runners speed up to get a good time. So we all have to go hard with 500m to go.
Through to the finish for an 83:34. A 1:06 PB. Banishing the dodgey Central Coast 2006 half time from the records. A 3:13 course PB from the 2007 race was gone as well.
If they keep the preferred as sub 85 mins I might get one next year. Woohoo!
I must say I am amazed at being able to hold the pace. I was convinced a slow blowup would happen eventually. It just never did.
Thanks for reading everyone. Looking forward to Christchurch Marathon in 3 weeks.
P.S Ewen, I can never guess my race times. I had that 83:25 in my head for the whole race. Almost got it.
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4 comments:
Congrats flake. Awesome run. I owe you a six pack! Bodes well for Christchurch.
huge congrats mate. That's an awesome, awesome time (and one of my very few race goals - i.e. to run sub-4min kms for the Half).
Well and truly have me dusted for C2S. So ride the wave and have a great mara in EnZed
Well done Paul! I thought you might have gone sub-84 going by those 3k repeats - also the good long STaR runs. Looking good for 2:5X at Christchurch.
Well done Paul. Looking forward to seeing how you go in ChCh.
D
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