Gold Coast Half Marathon 83:57

First time running at the Gold Coast, plus have not been up there since I watched my club win the Surf Boat National Titles in 2000.
Expo was bigger than anything Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra has offered.

Was worried about the bus making it to the start line as I heard plenty of stories of full buses going past the later stops. I was staying off Cavill Ave so one of the later stops. Race start was 6AM which is the earliest I have done a race at.
Bus was ok and arrived at the start about 5:20AM. Found the Striders tent to put some gear and went with David Tonge to find the start line. I had an A start and he had preferred. He was hoping to keep with Tom but wasn't hopeful as is on the comeback from an injury. Ran 77:40. Tom was 71:16.

Race is straight north and straight back with only one side diversion near a roundabout where you have a sharp hairpin plus the 10.5k turnaround of course. Tried to run away from the wind near people but there wasn't that much wind. I managed to run racing line for the most of the race, but some people seem to just follow the heard even when the course turns left or right. I don't get that?
I even managed near the end of the race to pass Liz Miller by going up the inside when the course turned.

I'm surprised the race has no split mats at all for the Half. I know the 5k and 15k would be on the marathon course which might confuse things. But the 10k marker would have no problems at all. This is my biggest grip about the race. The marathon has 5k split mats so why not add a 10k in for the half?

Splits off my watch which I started when I crossed the mat so are based on net time above.
5k 19:30
10k 39:28(19:58)
15k 59:25(19:57)
20k 79:28(19:57)
Finish 83:57(4:29). Average pace of 3:58 per klm. Makes a 2:56 Marathon apparently based on the 2.1 formula.

Age group PB for me after doing 88:16 at SMH Half late May. Second fastest half for me as well.