Melb HM 83.16 PB

Saturday 6th October , William Barrack Bridge - the calm before the storm

Hit the Fitzroy streets first thing Sunday morning - walking - to the MCG start. 4 hot air balloons descended in quick succession, seemingly from my angle straight into the G. Dropped my gear off & headed out into the chill. Fine but fortunately no breeze. Did some easy warm-up run thru's before lining up close to the start.

Start was delayed due to St Kilda road traffic issues, five to ten minutes that blew out to around 20. Finally the race was about to start when we had to observe the national anthem, haven't done that at a race before. Impatience was rewarded with a quick start downhill, not too many issues, no-one really slow getting in the way.



Crowd thinned out by the 2k mark. Got into a groove going down St Kilda Road, enough to have a conversation. Once the other fella realised my 'marathon' pace was half-marathon he accepted that he had to back off.

Around 7 k got into a bunch of guys running a similar pace. This was what I needed, I seem to run better when I push myself to keep up. Monitoring my kilometre splits I was doing 3.55s. When I ran a 4.00 realised I had to put on a bit of a spurt to keep my goal within sight.



So there was a bit of to-ing & fro-ing as we headed down Beaconsfield Parade alongside Port Philip Bay. I think the 11k split was 43.10. No issues with splitting off from the marathoners around the 13 k mark. No officials shouting at me to go the other way, so pleased I didn't have to explain myself.

With about 5ks to go my left shoe was getting loose, couldn't see any shoelaces flailing around but it got worse & I was determined not to stop & lose my momentum.

2ks to go & I could see the 10k runners joining us from their run around the gardens. Because of our delay there were more 10k runners out there than I was hoping for. William Barrack Bridge proved a real hurdle. Suddenly the change from level ground really seemed to slow me & I started to run into traffic.



There'd been no HM 1k markers since the 15k mark & I'd given up trying to estimate distance & time. Just gritting my teeth, but did finally look at my watch & was relieved to see 1hr 17 - leaving me with 6 mins to get to the finish. Spent my circuit of the MCG outer calling out to people to move to the left.

Finally the tunnel - can't remember it - & onto the hallowed turf (no track laid down) to complete a 3 quarter lap, fortunately separated from the 10k runners. Sped up here, as you do, rather than soaking up the atmosphere & finished thru' the chute on my own stopping my watch at 83.20. (Official time 83.16).



Rob DeCastella was on hand to present me with a HM medal which was a nice touch. Finished 76th overall & 6th in my age category. So a 1 minute PB from Gold Coast & achieved my goal...but, knew I could do better. The bridge & the congestion at the end slowed me a bit but it is my lack of long running to build endurance that is letting me down (just a bit). Always good to recognise potential improvement huh?