"The Little Engine That Could"

This was exactly how I feel about the Perth Half Marathon this morning. Forgive my gloating... but I feel like a Lean, Mean, Runnin' Machine right now...

Woke up at 6.15am to have my Nutrigrain cereal breakfast and to do my streches. I had a pretty decent night's sleep. Woke up once to go to the toilet... must have drank too much water. And woke up a few times when it was nearing the alarm... means enough sleep already lah.

Arrived at WA Marathon Club at Burswood Water Sports Centre at 7.30am. Ate my Powebar Performance bar (Cookies N' Cream... yum!) and drank Powerade. Did about 10 minutes of warm up. As I just washed my shoes, I was a bit worried about them being too tight. But they didn't give me too much problems during the warm up. So did the knee pains... went away after I jogged for a while.

8.00am we started... it's Father's Day over here. The national anthem (or rather half of it) was played before we were flagged off.

I lined myself up somewhere towards the front as I didn't want to slither through runner traffic. BUT the front runners must have brought me too fast... 4:18 was my 1st km. I actually wondered if it was really the accurate distance.

2nd km was done in 4:32. Now that's more like it. The pace seemed comfortable. The weather was fine and sunny, with a light breeze. I kept slightly above 4 1/2 minute pace for the next few kms. Didn't pace with anyone... just running my own race.

The route was along the Swan River... flat course, out and back. The second half of the 1st lap is actually my usual running route... which is quite ironic, considering the turnaround point is so close to my house. I think it's a bit funny that I drove to the race start, run to the turnaround point, back to the race finish and drive back home.

There were only four drink stations on each lap. I timed eating my Powergels somewhere after the 10km mark, near one of the stations. The first one was the Tangerine one... 2x caffeine! I had a bit of difficulty tearing it open. It spilled a bit... and I had to lick the remainings off my hand (gross I know...)

At the halfway mark, they were giving away Carbo Shotz gels. I wasn't going to be kiasu... didn't want to eat something foreign while racing... didn't want to hold onto it throughout the race either.

There was a bit of headwind coming back. I averaged between 4:35 - 4:40 pace per km. I met Vanessa, who was heading to the turnaround point. I used to attend her BodyPump classes but she teaches during weekday evenings now.

I was a bit confused at the 14km mark... as the running route were the running/cycling paths along the river, there were some casual joggers and pedestrians using it too. I was following this jogger and I overshot one of the turns... but only for a few seconds. A pedestrian told me, "I think you should be heading THAT way..." How EMBARRASSING...

Again, I had a bit of difficulty having my 2nd Powergel, Chocolate. I tried tearing it near the drinks station... but it just didn't open in time. So holding onto it with my mouth... another hand grabbing the drink cup... I wanted to finish the gel before I passed the rubbish bin... didn't want to litter mah... I think I still had about a quarter of it left before I disposed of it.

1:36.07 was the unofficial time on my watch (average 4:33 per km)... my initial target after completing the marathon was below 1:37 when I was still in form... and lately, with all these knee pains... I targeted just below 1:38... so I REALLY can't complain with 1:36!

ALTHOUGH... if I didn't overshoot that turn, I could have done sub 1:36... OH WELL...

Here are my laps and splits.

5km 0:22.26 22.26
10km 0:45.04 22.38
15km 1:07.57 22.53
20km 1:31.05 23.08
21.1km 1:36.07

I walked around a bit and did my stretches. Somehow this half marathon didn't leave me feeling too sore... and I found it a short, fast race too... that's what you get aftter completing the full... every other race is short hehheh. I did however, feel a bit of chaffing around my... erm... chest area...

I chatted with Vanessa a bit after she came in... waited for the prize giving, while chewing onto Performance Chocolate Peanut Butter bar and drinking Powerbar Recovery. There were no fruits or massage after the race. There were also no age group prizes this time... only top 5 finishers. Maybe cut costs... half marathon only mah... The men's winner came in about 1:15... he actually looks familiar... like someone who runs along the same running route as I do.

Wasn't so lucky to win any draw prizes... but I can't complain. It was a good outing...

I just found out that I had TWO finisher medals with me. Either I was given two or I must have packed someone else's by mistake!

Front and back... DIFFERENT medals

That's the end of my running races for the year. I won't be doing my Saturday afternoon 17km runs either. It's taking too much of my time... the duathlon/triathlon season is starting again as winter just ended.