Adelaide Greenbelt Half Marathon – 1h49m57s NEW PB

Actual time to complete the course is 1h49m57s. I set myself some goals months ago, under 1h58m for the Greenbelt Half Marathon and under 1h55m for the Barossa Half Marathon. Today I blew my Greenbelt goal out of the water so lets see what I can do with the Barossa Half Marathon!

Assembling for my first Half Marathon at the Athelstone Primary School for a 8am start was normal. Plenty of people mulling around with lots to say about nothing and not at all interested in the announcements just waiting for the start. It was around 16C and dry although showers were expected.

I did run my own race which seemed strange to let people disappear in the distance while I maintained my own stride. Initially the route had a lot of flat and down-hill sections which allowed me to run a little quicker than my flat pace. I tend to let my heart rate dictate my speed in that I will push myself to run as fast as I can while maintaining a certain comfort (maybe that should be discomfort) level. I will add my heart rate trace later to show how I seem to run within a certain range changing speed to maintain that.

Compared to others my speed varies much more between incline, flat and decline. This is supportive of my claim that I regulate my speed to my heart rate.

I must say, I detest the “distance to go” markers! If they had been distance completed then one could use them to monitor progress but all they do to me is remind me how stuffed I already feel and how i have so much further to go! Its all a matter of perspective I guess. For the first time ever I took a water drink, during an event, at around the half way mark. I managed to drink 3/4 of it and only spilt 1/4 over myself and managed to dispose of the cup in the bin.

I have not noticed any indication of it in the data however I did get a stitch at just over 13km in and slowed down to recover as unfortunately I was approaching an incline so had no choice really. The rain had set in by now and surprisingly was a little refreshing.

I did play yo-yo with several people during the run with some of them beating me to the line by the end although I did beat a few of them.

With 2km to go a marshal said we were on our last leg! Its very nice that the marshals are so supportive and I find them encouraging however I did think at this time that I needed 2 legs to finish and managed to hold back an expletive that wanted to escape! Seriously, it is great to have so much support from the marshals and I, like so many others, do find their support encouraging. I think all those people that chose to help by marshaling, often runners themselves, should be thanked and given a big cheer! Thanks guys, your support does not go unnoticed and is greatly appreciated by many.

There were many points through the run when I questioned my sanity in doing this and in fact I still question it now! It seems so much like one is punishing oneself!

All in all I am very happy with my result, I made it in at least 3mins quicker than I have previously managed the distance which was one month ago. I now have to train and see what I can manage at the Barossa Half Marathon in 28 days time.

Thank you SARRC and all the helpers for putting this event together and running it!

Heart rate trace: