Gold Coast Half Marathon

Woke up at 3:30 am and drove down to the Coast for the 6:00am race start which started in beautiful still cool conditions just as the sun was rising. My strategy was to set out at 4:45 pace for the first 10k and then do the last half at whatever I felt comfortable. I would have been happy with any time under 1:40.

With the dim light and the crowded field and not wearing my glasses made reading my watch difficult in the early Ks , so wasn't exactly sure what pace I was doing but it felt comfortable. Went through 5k in 23:05 which was faster than I planned but it was feeling so easy, I decided to just keep going at that pace. Made 10k in 45:47 and shortly after that the turn around and the run home.  I still felt comfortable and was confident I could step up the pace a little. The next 5k was 22:27. I was starting to breathe a bit harder now but I still knew I had something in reserve. So I kept gradually winding it up with a 21:37 for the 5k to 20k and then continued on at that pace to the finish.

So in the end a net time of 1:34:33 (4:29 pace). Good enough to get 15th in my category and way surpass any time I considered achievable today. Strangely, it was not as tough as either of the two other halfs I have done this year. To think it was only just over 4 months ago I did 2:08:32 at the BRRC Half Championships and today I am only 8 minutes away from my time from last year's GC Half.

Time: 1:34:33 
( Splits 48:05 ; 46:28)
5k   23:05
10k  22:42
15k  22:27
20k  21:37

My only regret from the day was having to get back to Brisbane and not catching up with everyone at the Southport SLSC in the afternoon.  There is always next year and I am hopeful that by then I can be back to near my best.