My First Half Marathon - 1:48:05

Oh boy, what a day! Started at 04:01 when my alarm went off, for some reason I am weird about setting my alarm for rounded or even times, ie: 04:00 wound't do, but 04:01 is OK, just a quirk. I set both my phone alarm and my watch to be sure :-) Had me weet-bix and sustegen then read in bed until about 04:45 when I got dressed (gear layed out from the night before) and headed into Broadbeach with my lovely sister. Poor thing has gone cold turkey on the smokes this week and had a terrible sore throat. It was a beautiful clear morning, but she was cold so I bought her a coffee to keep her warm. We sat in the expo tent and chatted and watched the passing crowd until it was time for me to head to the start line. Waiting for the race to start I felt quite emotional and almost had a bit of a sook just thinking how far I had come in almost 6 months to the day since I started this serious running caper. I positioned myself between the 1:50 and 2:00 pace groups, I didn't want to run with a group but thought they would be a handy guide. My thought being I'll keep ahead of the 2:00:00 group but behind the 1:50:00 group and I'll get in under 1:55:00. Not a bad start and not as congested as I thought it would be, the 1:50:00 group shot off and I thought, well, "see ya guys", but the 2:00:00 group never got past me. We saw the wheelchair group leading in the opposite direction at about 30 minutes followed by the lead half running group at abot 40 minutes, all go a bit cheer and a clap from us mere mortals. There was also stacks of cheers and support from the locals along the road which was great. I planned to run nice even Kms and maybe pick up the speed towards the end. The first 5 Kms went by in about 26 minutes and the 10.5km turn around in about 55 minutes so I ended up running a slight negatvie split which pleased me. I was surprised by how damn comfortable I felt and keep waiting for the pain to start. By about the 13km mark I had caught the 1:50:00 pace group and I thought well, I'll just stick with these guys until the end. But no, I kept to my pace and ended up leaving them behind. 15, 16, 17 Km, certainly putting in the effort but no real pain, so glad I had run part of the course during the week as the familiar landmarks really helped my morale. Having lot's of chats with myself but no negative talk at all, at 16 km I told myself, "no prob, just an easy 5Ks", the time was 1:22:XX, so I knew I was crusing, sub 30 minute 5Kms, walk in the park. 19Kms, F&%K, this is starting to hurt just a little, the hips feeling a bit tight and the by now familar sick feeling that I get at the end of every race starting to hit me. Lot's more positive chat, pretty much me trying to talk myself out of chucking all over the place :-) Managed to hold it in, picked up the pace over the closing 2Kms. Hit the finish chute, this went for about 400 metres, ran over the carpet, BEEP, YESSSSS, it's over!!!!!!! Weird though, the Finish arch thingy was about 50 metres past the 21 Km mark???? and there was no carpet to run over to pick up the time, so the proper finish line was 50 mts back from the "ceremonial" finish line. This did not stop me from a sprint finish though, even though the clock was showing gun time (it took me about 90 seconds to cross the start line after the gun), I still wanted to run though that arch with sub 1:50:00 on the clock, so I bolted the last 50 metres and crossed with 1:49:XX showing on the clock, Brilliant. Raised my hands, hopefully I get a decent photo, moved quickly away from the offical cameras and then spent the next couple of minutes leaning over a baricade trying not to chuck (sister got a photo of this!), then some guy next to me did lose his wheeties, so I moved on. My sister had managed to get herself a seat in the grandstand and I have the vaguest recollections of her yelling out my name as I finished, she said she made a hell of a fuss and everyone started at her :-) Got my bling, got my T-Shirt and then went to meet Sis at out meeting spot. Found her madly calling mum to tell her I finished in one piece and gave her a big sweaty hug. Then I looked up and who should I see heading into the Expo? Rogo, so he had this mad woman rushing at him out of nowhere!!! He had arived on the coast the night before and was entered into the 10Km, was great to see another friendly face. Phew, long post hey? Well I'll summarise - 1:48:05 by my watch, official results not up yet, but damn happy with that for a first effort Works out to be an average pace of 5:08 (spot on Stu, well done) Will I do it again? Hell yes, can't wait for the next one, I mean 108 minutes, surely I now have to set about pursing a sub 100, I mean, why wouldn't I? What did I do for the rest of the day? Drank too much champers, ate too much cheese, baby brother served up the most divine Sticky Date pud I have ever had. Final word BIG, MASSIVE, ENORMOUS thankyou to everyone who has given me so much support, advice, motivation and pep talks over the last couple of months, you are all amazing and I am so happy to know such a great bunch of people, no off with me before I get all emotional again.