Wednesday 3 June 2009

Warwick Half Marathon 23rd May







With 10 inches or so of rain in the week between Glasshouse and Warwick, i had done minimal training, in theory a good idea for this my shortest event for the year, however the little training i had done had worried me as my calf rather than improving was getting worse. I have a fair idea of the exercises from when i'd been to the physio with issues in late 2005, but basically once running and trying to go faster than usual i was feeling pretty lame, although pre entered i was tempted to give this one a miss.
Ultimately Friday lunchtime i decided i'd book accommodation down at the local boarding school and drive down, i'd run a little (and been side tracked by the huge surf brought in by the storms) and felt the calf was less sensitive than it had been.
Arrived down in the dark, was a little worried to find the Condamine River (pictured) was over the road, possibly our course would be modified this year ???.
Was great to catch up with some friends for dinner, although the less said about the service the better, one positive feature of this meal, it was icy cold so when i ordered i mentioned i'd have a nip of Bundy, to my surprise that was supplied gratis, maybe i should have quit while i was ahead.
Absolute saga finding my accommodation as i'd been giving a key which said "Roberts House", a number of buildings there and none lit up !!, so it was door to door and fit the key, unfortunately they were all keyed alike so it was a case of finding a dormitory with mattresses and blankets etc in it !!.
Eevntually Michael Schultz (another Brisbane runner, he'd given me the key at dinner) turned up and we made our way to the correct building (which actually wasn't Roberts House !), heaps of room and good, cheap place to spend the night.
Throughout the night i'd heard rain, so got up with trepidation, definitely looked pretty bleak, still we wouldn't be out there too long.
Off to the start and caught up with lots of familar faces, decided to wear my gloves, but thought that anything more than a singlet in a half was really whimping it, though i did decide the Buff Bandanna was the way to go again.
Drizzle at the start and our course avoided flooding but more or less the usual, ran with Ultra Runner Martin Schott for a while but he was moving too well for me, the calf simply wasn't warming up and because of this just couldn't get a good pace going.
Rain would come and go, but was actually good conditions, finally 13K's in i seemed to find a rhythm and enjoying the undulations started passing runners although by now Martin was a dozen or so in front in the distance.
Put together a good last 8K's, although i was shocked to see previous winner Peter Hall catch up with me (he should have been far ahead), we had a quick chat (him saying that he was finding it as hard to run 5 minute K's as to run 3.5 minute K's, neither i which i could relate to if honest !!) and then he took off, i wasn't chasing him down !!.
Ultimately Martin was crossing the finish line as i turned the corner a couple of places in front with Peter in between us.
Later i was to find i'd done one of my slowest ever times 1:33:08 for 51st place (54th place was a spot prize, i was definitely there sometime in the last couple of K's), not happy but really not to unhappy the calf was in one piece and i'd had a good solid hitout, two week break and then for my local favourite the Gold Coast 100 KM.

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