SMH Half Marathon

85.11. (watch time) p.b. by 4 mins !

I finally got that monkey off my back - big time.

Great day for a race around our beautiful city. Cool, clear skies, great crowd running & spectating.

Got up at 6.00 am - it's great having a race near home - no super early starts. Had a good nights sleep both Friday & Saturday, the foot felt fine and I was quietly confident of doing well. Training has been going well but I wasn't sure if I had the legs to finish off today - from memory I have only done 2 or 3 runs over 90 minutes in the last 3 months. My long run usually consisted of about 18-20 k done at around 4.30 pace.

Gun went off and the crowd seemed to fly off at a mad rate of knots - there were people flying past me who died on the first hill up Hunter Street - I'd hate to see what they looked like at the end of 21.1 k ! Soon caught up with a few guys from my running club Sydney Striders (Vat, Silverfox, Lefty and Aimhigh) and for about 14-15k we formed a tight little bunch sitting right on 4 min k. Coming into the domain for the last time I drifted off a bit and ran 2 slow k's thru this part of the course. Infact it wasn't till my mate Tim called out "only 4k to go - time trial it !!" did I switch on again. Within a 100 m I passed a bunch of runners that had gone past me thru the domain and was back on track. This gave me confidence and I just basically bashed out the last 3k as hard as I could ( last 1100m in 4.04) for a huge P.B.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE DAY

Running with the guys from my club - Silverfox's commentary of the race was hilarious and as he posted on Coolrunning it was probably one of the most enjoyable days running. Period !

Getting a big rap from Dan Green (Aust Marathon Champ) as we sailed by.

All the supporters from Coolrunning, Striders & Freespirit's run club.

Lastly, thanks to my running mates who didn't run today but were very vocal out on the course - Darren Wilson, Andrew Adams & Timmy Connell - cheers guys, a much needed lift every time I went past.