Victoria Half Marathon 2007

On a day when so many people were running for PB’s I found myself toeing the line wishing only for survival. Having recently received a clear but unwelcome assessment of my fitness I was only wanting to improve on Maui’s performance and had set a goal of 1h19-1h21 (3:37-3:50 pace/km). Perhaps a tad bold given Victoria is a more difficult course and my training has been distracted of late but a goal nonetheless.

As 7:30 a.m. came and went and we raced away from the starting crowds we were treated to a pleasant surprise as the 10mm-20mm of rain held off, replaced with mild temperatures (10C) and high clouds… perfect racing conditions. The first 5k (3:37, 3:47, 3:48, 3:45 & 3:51) went relatively smooth; the only difficult portion was watching people I usually race against slowly fade off into the distance.

The middle 10k (4:00, 3:53, 3:47, 3:54, 3:48, 3:55, 3:53, 3:53, 3:53 & 3:52) was again uneventful as I was running on my own but fortunately allowed to concentrate on not running outside of my comfort level.

The last 6k (3:50, 3:55, 3:51, 3:40 & 7:48) is where the fun started. I was beginning to fade and if it were not for catching one person and then being caught be three others I think my race wouldn’t have gone as well as it did. With more than enough company, I slipped into the back of our little pack focusing on a) relaxing my shoulders, b) quick feet and c) not letting the invisible elastic break… it didn’t.

Congratulations goes out to Brad, Mike and Thomas who all ran separate marathons today and although none of them achieved their goals, Thomas did set a whopping 16’ PB and you can be sure they’ll all have great stories to tell in the next few days.

Training: 1h40 with the Victoria Half Marathon 1h20’40”, 28th OA and 6th in AG