Half Marathon: 21.1k – Athlone / Sept.
2012
I arrived Athlone at 9:45 and park beside registrations. I
got out of the car and it felt really cold. It was 14.5 degrees but somehow it
felt very chilly… I registered and started shivering as I was really cold. Don’t
understand why. I got in the car and waited for my good friend Paul to arrive.
Once we arrived, we shared few jokes and relaxed a bit laughing and watching other athletes
running around… all the sudden, we realized it was time to run and we hadn’t
warm up… oh well, we never do anyway, so today it was no different. J
There were 676 athletes on the day which coming from a
triathlon background it felt really packed but most runners were happy with the
“low” turnaround.
I had a target of 1h30m race (4m16s/km) but I wasn’t sure it
was very realistic as I haven’t run more than 11km since the Long Distance
Triathlon World Champs 2 months ago.
- First km (3:47), I ran faster than intended to make sure I’d
lose the “crowds”.
- The next 6kms (3:59 – 4:02) were fine as I followed a very
small group of 6 runners who were running at a comfortable but serious pace.
- Kms 7 to 9 (all at 4:00) – I started to question whether I
could sustain that pace for the rest of the race but then I set myself a target
to beat my 10k Personal Best time which it was (41m30s).
- 10th km (3:52) - This is it! Beating the PB
wasn’t a challenge anymore so I thought I would try to beat a sub40m for a 10k…
I love playing these games while racing… I needed to do a sub 4m/km… I thought
even if it’s tough, I’ll do it and then worry afterwards about the rest of the
11km left in the race J. I crossed the 10k line in 39m43s and I
shouted “yeaaaah!!!! A new PB”… the rest of the runners in the pack looked at
me probably thinking “weirdo”!
- 11thkm (4:12) – this was a tough km and I
started to struggle following the 4:00 guys
- 12th – 14th km (4:06 – 4:07) – Stubborn as I am, I rushed
and sat just behind of the 4:00 group and stayed there until I would literally not
be able to keep the pace.
- 15th km (4:05) – this was probably the toughest
km that I ran in the race as that’s when I lost the 4:00 guys by 5-10secs… I
must have been around 20meters behind the group but this time I just couldn’t
make the effort to stay with them, so I decided to go at my pace and secure my
1h30m target.
16th – 18th (3:58 – 4:08) – All the
sudden (when I thought I was losing the group), I realised they were still 20meters
ahead of me. I checked my pace and I was
still running around the 4min mark so I was quite happy with it.
19th – 20th km (4:12 – 4:13) – All the
sudden I felt a very tiny sharp pain on my chest (heart area) and I freaked
out!! I thought “shit! There it goes the race” … I prayed to God to make it go
away and it did! “great stuff, back on the race”.. I slowed down to secure my
sub 1h30m race – I had no idea what time that pace was gonna get me through the
line – I though it’d be around the 1h29m mark but I promised myself I wouldn’t check
the overall time until I would hit the last km.
21st km (3:58) – Finally! I was almost there! I
could almost smell the finish line. Before I checked my time I started doing my
calculations: If I see a “1:25” in my watch and I add another 4m for the last
km, it will get me under the target!.. I checked my time and I saw a 1:20:50! I
just couldn’t believe it! If I ran at my current pace I would clock a 1h25m
race! … unreal! Very happy… I don’t
remember anything about that last km… I just simply smiled and ran enjoying and
soaking up the finishing atmosphere… one
runner overtook me and said, come on, we can go under 1h25m! but I didn’t
listen, I just had enough… I wasn’t tired I just wanted to enjoy my last few meters .
Finish time: 1h25m12s
Finish position: 54th out
of 676 runners. Quite happy!
I finished as fresh as a flower… I even felt bad that my
legs didn’t hurt afterwards J
