Yesterday morning was the Internal Sydney Striders Half Marathon. Run over two laps of the Lane Cove 10km course with a bit more up Scribbly Gums, this was a course I knew very well, and indeed is the location where I posted my 10km PB a few years ago. Essentially, the course is up, up and more up for about 6km and then down for 4km and so it pays to go hard for the first half and then recover on the downhill’s. Multiplied by two if you are running two laps.
The Internal Half works on a handicap basis whereby every runner is given a specific time based on their 10km/half/marathon times over the past year or so, with the aim that everyone finishes at the same time! An excellent idea.
My handicap start time was based on an estimated 1.38 finishing time which I didn’t think was too far out based on this year’s results and gave me enough encouragement that I could go under my handicap, which is what I was basically aiming for.
My start time was 6.52 and so I arrived nice and early, registered, donned my Striders running vest for the very first time in Australia (having received Catherine’s endorsement the night before that it didn’t make me look like a goose) and off I trotted on time. I started with 3 others in the 6.52 group. Of these 3, one guy immediately took off like a hare with the other 2 behind me. I quickly settled into what I thought was a good pace keeping the other guy in view as long as I could. Up scribbly gums for the first time I felt strong and then on to the other, bigger hill up to the turn around. By about this point, I had been overtaken by about 8 people…which got me thinking that perhaps the handicaps weren’t all that accurate. Or I was running too slow. In fact the 6.53 group passed me after what seemed like about 3 minutes! All of them in a big group chatting away.
I soon settled into a good pace on the downhill section back to the start line and slotted in with 2 guys who started a minute behind me. I got to the 10km point in about 47 minutes which was a bit of a reality check as it was substantially slower than what I wanted. I still felt good (probably due to the relaxed pace) and so I decided that I would push the second half of the race and immediately put my foot down, dropping one guy with the other guy sticking with me up to the turnaround point. At this point I was still feeling strong and knew the last 5 km or so was all downhill so I stepped it up again and managed to quickly lose him and then started to regularly reel people in front of me, including some of the early group that passed me during the early stages of the race. I kept feeling strong on the run to the finish and kept passing people all the way to the end, finishing in a little over 1.37 which was about 1 minute quicker than my handicap.
On reflection, I think I need to give more consideration to my race tactics when I run rather than just turning up and setting off. I need to work out pacing, goal splits and targets within each race. Too often recently I get to the end of the race with petrol still in the tank and end up sprinting the last km in sub 4 minutes. ? I shouldn’t be doing this if I am running my races right. Clearly I am holding too much back. Perhaps it is because I am scared of pushing myself too hard in the early stages and then hitting the wall in the latter part of a race? I also think I need to push myself harder in the early stages of the race rather than running with the idea that I will bring it home in the last few km’s….as invariably I am too far behind what I want to be by the time I do step it up…which in turn leaves me with too much to do. I seem to recall that my PB’s were done when I was running with Rich a few years ago and when I have pushed myself hard in the early stages of a race to keep up with him, and then have hung on for dear life in the closing stages. Maybe I need to try this tactic again. The down side is that you feel like death after the race!
Time: 1.37.12
Placing: 33/103 based on the handicap or 38/103 based on time
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