Well Liz and I decided we had drunk and eaten a bit much previous to our previous few half marathons so we put some thought into this week. We wanted to eat earlier, also we stuck to brocolli / cucumber and humous followed by some cheese and biscuits. She had a GNT and I had a Guiness. ( better than the previous week when celebrating her bday we had bottle of champers and a few glasses of white)
We left home at 3:45 which is way to early for me, we got to the start around 5:05 so we were not rushed at all, had time to get our numbers, and drink some Energade, then wander off to the start. Liz's running partner Gerhard joined us for the race.
My goal was to go easy for the first 10 the do a fastish 20 and see how I felt near the end a sub 5 would be nice but was not essential. I suppose I should pay more attention to the route profile in my planning . To complete a marathon in sub 5:00 one needs to average better than 7:06 per km.
At 10km I was averaging 7:01 and feeling good. It was not a very hilly route, but from 17 to 30, there was only 1 km where we went down , the rest were all slightly uphill. at 20km I was still averaging 7:04 and by 30 I was at 7:08 at which point I decided to just walk at a comfortable pace in interest of not picking up an injury etc.
I ended feeling fine, at 5:05:20 for an average of 7:19. I still got a medal and a really good purple T shirt, but a DNFIT ( did not finish in time) so not official result.
Liz had a good run, ending in 4:13 so qualified for Two oceans a batch ahead of me. I qualified at the Big Walk, she was however a bit upset because Gerhard beat her by 3 minutes.
The positives I take from this race are
1 I felt great after the race, did a dogwalk on Sunday and a 9k recovery on Monday.
2 My average HR was much lower when I do a 21- it crept over the last few hills to end at 154.
3 I must plan my pace around the elevation changes, not just how I feel will work for me.
4 If you are not going to make a goal time, slow down and make it a training walk.
