Race Preview - Melbourne Marathon [Half]

Last year as I staggered across the finish line of the MM I vowed never to return. What an absolute shocker of a day and a race experience! The start of last years marathon was extremely cold with horizontal rain whipped across our path by a vicious gale force wind howling across Port Phillip bay. After some shielding by the shopfronts of Frankston we were left to the mercy of the wind. By the end of the race we had sunburn. That's Melbourne for you: nice place to have a coffee or a pizza but the weather is atrocious [4 seasons in one morning] and the only sport that counts is AFL.

I was also not in shape for a sub 3hr run although foolishly tried. St. Kilda was all a blur to me as I struggled to bring the whole thing home eventually in 3:10. Then it was a PB but an altogether traumatic experience which did not endear me to the race. To add insult to injury, the post-race rub down was open to fun runners as well which made the queue massive.
[I'm happy to say that at the Gold Coast Marathon this was well controlled].

Despite the vow written in my own blood, I am returning. Well sort of. This time its just the Half, so divide the misery and pain by 2 and I've got a taste of last year perhaps?
Recovering from Gold Coast, the August round of cold & flu, and City 2 Surf has been slower than expected, and my training run up has been short.

This means pain and misery on the day, cos I can never settle for less. The goal this time is to have a crack at 1:25, just under would be good. However, I expect that I may need to submit to reality at about the 10km mark and adjust my goals slightly. Can someone remind me what's so great about running?!!!
Stan.

Summer Update

Summer is here, the mornings are lighter and warmer, and so are the evenings. If you have been in hibernation over winter now is the time to venture out again and start getting fit.
Our Tues & Thurs morning runs have been going throughout the winter using roads but we are now able to venture back on to the track around Bullocky's Rest in the mornings. We start at 5:30am and are usually back by 6:15. The pace is easy and most of use it as a recovery run after a hard track session on Monday.

The evening group set off at 7:30pm and do a number of routes around Eatons Hill & Albany Creek. With the lighter nights we can venture along some the the river tracks around our area.

Any questions call Stan on 0402019050.