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| The dam the course runs around |
This race report’s going to be short and sweet as I don’t
have much time, and it goes something like this…
So two weeks ago I was fairly sick with the man flu, aka a
cold, and didn’t do much training all week. In the week leading up to the race
I had a few college and uni requirements that meant I couldn’t do the full
week of training as specified by the plan, but the stuff I did do I was really
happy with. And if you’ve been following me along on Strava you would’ve seen
that I’ve been having a niggling quad problem. But after seeing the physio and
getting some dry needling done they felt fine on race day, and I went into the
race feeling confident. I had done the course before as a training run so I
knew what I was in for, 18(ish) hills in 18km with halfway being the highest point
of the run. However, as part of the marathon training I’ve been doing I haven’t
been doing much climbing. Maybe one hill repeats session a week and bit of easy
running around Mt Cootha, but certainly not to the extent that I was doing
early in the year. Hence going into the race I was looking for at least a
podium and hopefully even a first. Hahaha well....
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| Elevation profile of the run |
I started off quick, taking the lead with no-one coming
along with me. The idea I had since I was feeling good was take the lead from
the beginning and try and hold it, taking the climbs relatively easy and
smashing the downhills as fast as possible. What I didn’t take into
consideration is just how unfit I am in relation to climbing. I held onto the
lead until about 3km where 2nd and 3rd overtook me on one
of the climbs, and then about a km later I fell into 5th where again
I got overtaken on a climb, it made me feel like I was going backwards! I
didn’t lose any ground on them on the downhills, but every time there was a
climb I slipped further and further back. By 8km my calves were cooked and my
race was all but over. By 9km I lost sight of 4th and it felt like
every climb I did in the second half of the course lost me another place. And
to top it all off my peroneal tendonitis came back with vengeance at about 12km
in, and as I’m writing this (a few hours after the race) my foot is hurting like crazy. All this road running
I’ve been doing made me think it might be gone because it hasn’t flared up in
months, but unfortunately not. I ended up finishing in 8th in a time of 1.33.06 which
was about 10 minutes slower than I had wanted. Oh well, in the scheme of things not finishing
on the podium at a training race such as this isn’t the end of the world, but
still a bit disappointing. Especially since at no point in the race did I feel
aerobically tired, I could’ve done the ‘talk test’ no problems. It was pretty
much my legs that let me down. I’ve learned my lesson, don’t expect big things
from a race that you’re not specifically training for.
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| Happy to see the finish line! Photo courtesy of Laura from The Trail Co |
Next up on my calendar is the Brisbane Trail Marathon in 4
weeks time for a bit of fun and to try out a few different strategies in
preparation for the Gold Coast Marathon. Until then this novice is out.
The TRN
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