I feel like I need to start this off with a warning. In you,
‘the reader’s’, opinion some my previous race reports may have been a little
boring to read (where as I am super-biased and have loved reading back on all
of them) but this so far will have to take the cake. I’ve had long runs which
have been more interesting. So, with that mind, this race report is mainly for
me, as a chance to look back on what is my first planned ‘b-race’ (or training
race).
So, I went into the race not knowing anything about it,
apart from the fact that it was a half marathon and run along the coast. I
usually try to research a race before I run in it so I can have some sort of
plan, but since for this one I didn’t care how I went, I didn’t do any. But I
tell you what, I probably should’ve. And my race day went a little something
like this…
Wake up 3.30am Sunday morning, have breakfast, grab my
stuff, jump in car, drive over 2 hours, get out at Kilcunda, watch epic
sunrise, look left, look right, right seems good I’ll go right to do my warmup,
warmup run is dead flat and on rail-trail, assume all of run is going to be
flat, decide that I’ll try to have an average pace of 4.30min/km and go to the
start-line ready to run. At the briefing we runners are told that it’s an out
and back course, first running in the direction of my warm-up, for 2km before
turning around and running back past the start line and then in the other
direction for another 9ish km, then turning around and heading for home.
 |
| Epic sunrise |
The race starts and I, as per usual, start out faster than intended
running a 4.07 first km, but surprisingly this didn’t put me up in the pointy
end. I was sitting in around 10th position and here I would stay
until around 9km, where I climbed one spot to end up finishing in 9th
overall. In the first 4km’s nothing interesting happened, if anyone has run on
a rail trail you know what I’m talking about. But hey, at least I had the ocean
on the right side of me heading out, and on the left coming back, that was
pretty cool. And there was a good group of 4 of us (leading female and 3 dudes)
that were running at the same pace as each other, and it’s always better running
as a pack then individually, but this only lasted until the 7km point where we
either sped up or slowed down. I suppose I should also mention that I had a bit
of pain on the left side of my left foot but it was minimal and went away at
around 5km (I was wearing my Speed Instincts). This run, for me, went from
boring to really, really good about 6km in where I discovered there were in
fact, hills, and single trail and epic cliffs to look at! This was the start of
the George Bass Trail and boy, was it good. The sea views though, were the
highlight. The trail twisted and turned, dropping down to sea level then
climbing to be on top of cliffs. It went from grass, to gravel, to dirt and a
lot of it was single track, but the killer that I wasn’t expecting was soft
sand 9.5km in that lasted for 500m on the way out, and the course changed
slightly so that on the way back it lasted about 800m, and this for the most
part is where my training race was derailed.
Up until this point I was still on an average pace of 4.30min/km
but after the sand I wasn’t able to get another km under 5min. The sand just
knocked everything out of me, and I wasn’t willing to push myself from 10km
onwards as I knew I still had to train the next day and the next week. So I
changed tactic, instead of focusing on overall pace, I would focus on my transition
from running uphill to downhill, downhill to uphill, etc. etc. because as you
can see, this course is super undulating. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever done
a run prior to this that is so up and down so frequently. Apart from the first
4km, there is barely a section that is flat. And I know from previous
experience in other races, a weak spot of mine is going from climbing or
running downhill back to running on relative flat. So this race was the perfect
opportunity to try a few different things, such as feeling like I’m lifting my
knees up higher on the flat after I’ve just finished climbing. Or trying to get
my legs turning over quicker. I’m still not sure what does work best, but at
least I’ve got some idea, which means this training race was useful!
 |
| Up and down, Garmin tells me I climbed 299m |
Thanks goes to Running Wild and all the volunteers who
helped make this day happen! And special mention goes to everyone at Marriot
Support Services who participated, well done 😁.
I
can’t imagine a better way to finish my racing season in Victoria (though hopefully
I’ll be back in 2018). Onto to QLD!
The TRN
