It’s been a while between drinks – my first race since Victor Harbor in early December last year!
Actually come to think of it that’s not quite true – I did participate in the SARRC Park Stampede Relays in March, a very cool team event with teams of 4 running 5km each – and promptly forgot to write about it! Oh well I’ll just have to do it again next year!
As I was driving to the McLaren Vale Marathon (I was doing the half) it seemed like yesterday that I was stuck in the traffic jam getting to the start of the corresponding event last year! In other ways, it feels like a lifetime ago…
I entered this race when the super early bird pricing came out, I didn’t actually have a definitive plan to run this event again this year (unlike Victor last year where I had unfinished business) but what can I say, I can’t resist a super early bird!
I skipped the Clare Half Marathon this year, an event I’ve run maybe 7 times? Maybe more? This year it was only 2 weeks before McLaren Vale (last year there was a 4 week gap between the two) so I decided 2 good halves in 2 weeks was not realistic.
I’ve been training for it, with my Sunday runs building up from 12k all the way up to 21.1k (starting in late January) and then tapering back to a fast 12k last week, testing out the trusty Nike Vaporflys with the plan to run in them for the half. (I had intended to wear them last year but I bailed because it had been raining leading up to the event and more rain was likely on race day) I checked with the Race Director re the course surface, I seemed to remember it was mostly bitumen and was advised there’s about a 600m gravel section which is out and back (so 1.2km) but the rest is all sealed so I figured it would be all good, although I did put my regular road shoes in the car just in case I changed my mind at the last minute!
So on to my race week preparation. I have previously, prior to races, had a massage on the Thursday before. I’m now on a regular massage schedule and I probably could have planned it better as I had it a week too early to be helpful for this race – but I did manage a good parkrun, only 6 seconds off my all-time PB which has stood for nearly 9 years now, so it wasn’t totally ‘wasted’!
I have been doing speed training on a Tuesday since early this year, but this week I opted to skip this and went for a solo road run instead (because the group I previously ran with on a Tuesday were doing a hilly run and that was a no from me!)
As is now part of my pre-race prep, I had no caffeine after Wednesday morning, with the idea being that when I had the energy drink prior to the race it would hit harder.
A new addition to the race week prep was an RPM (cycling) class on Friday morning to flush out the legs (for previous events I have done nothing on the Friday before the race).
As has been the case for most recent events, I skipped parkrun on Saturday. (By that I mean I didn’t do it, not that I skipped 5km – although that might be fun to try sometime!) I did a Body Balance class in the afternoon to stretch out the legs a bit.
And of course the standard pizza for dinner on Saturday night!
My goal was to beat last year’s time (which I would write in permanent marker on my forearm before leaving home to remind me what I was aiming for, although it had pretty much worn off by the time I washed my hands and applied sunscreen) and if possible sub-1:35, which I had done for my previous two half marathons.
With the half marathon starting at 0730, and remembering the gridlock on the main street last year, I set my alarm for 0515 and left home at 0555 with Google telling me the travel time was 45 minutes meaning I should get there around 0640. Thinking I’d bypass the portaloo madness, I stopped at the public toilet on the edge of McLaren Vale and I was on the main road at 0645. I eventually got to the car park (I think this was the secondary car park – even though I thought I was quite early, the numbers of runners were double last year so clearly the main car park was already full and a lot of people were also parking on the side of the road) around 0700 and made my way to the race village, drinking my energy drink on the way and arriving around 0710 (while making note of where my car was, so I could find it again at the end!)
So with 20 minutes before go time, I had to decide – second toilet stop or warm up? I walked to the end of the toilet queue which was exceptionally long but I did note that there were a LOT of portaloos so I hoped it would move quickly, which it did. I put sunscreen on while in the queue and hoped I’d have time to drop my drop bag off before the start as it would be a funny look, me running along with my Woolies bag! Then when I was almost at the front of the queue the MC announced that the start would be delayed by 10 minutes (as I seem to remember it was last year) which got a cheer from those waiting in the queue – maybe there would be time for a warmup after all!
I only did 1.6km warmup, partly it’s about warming up and partly it’s about making sure my shoes are laced up just right. Being quite a cool morning I think the warmup was definitely needed!
At the start I tried to position myself closeish to the front but not so close as to be dragged along by the fast guys as that would not end well.
As per usual I went out too fast anyway, but I was reminded of a piece of advice I got from Ken, the former leader of my running group, before running the Gold Coast Marathon with the hopes of qualifying for Boston: “Go out hard, and hang on”. On that occasion, it worked!
I saw Beck on the course early on, she was there cheering her daughter Alice who was doing the marathon (and did really well!) – she said I was in 3rd place, which I later found out wasn’t actually accurate but it was a great motivator for me not to drop the intensity at any time because a podium is a rare event and I definitely did not want to die wondering! (So even though I probably did not want to hear that at the time, it’s probably one of the factors that strongly influenced my run!)
A few times during the race I got caught behind a ‘Run As One’ group which served as a bit of a pacing bus for me (there were no official pacers in this race). They were going a bit quicker than I would have liked but it meant I could just sit behind them and let them do the work for me for a bit – thanks guys! (They dropped me when we started going uphill, but then I caught up with them a bit later on a flat section). There were a few times when running with them that they slowed down a bit and I felt like I wanted to go ahead but instinctively I decided to stay behind and I think that was a great decision. I think that really illustrates the benefit of having pacers in an event. I mostly don’t use them because I never quite know what pace I’m planning to run!
While running with the group one guy accidentally bumped into me and at the same time another guy tripped over and nearly fell, and very impressively managed to save himself!
After a few kilometres running, comfortably under the 4:36 pace that would get me a course PB, and I didn’t feel like I was exerting myself too much, I switched my Garmin to the HR/lap pace screen so I couldn’t see my overall pace. Hence I don’t know exactly what my different splits were.
I did notice that I got to 14km just under the hour – had I been able to hold on to that pace I could have been close to 1.30 which I never thought I’d do, let alone here!
From 18k, where I knew that barring absolute disaster I would get a course PB, I went back to the main screen on my Garmin. By the last km I worked out that I could run 5:00 and still beat my all time PB – which I had not imagined in my wildest dreams! Given that my slowest km split was 4:38 that should be a no-brainer, so I went back to the HR screen again and pushed hard to the end.
My official (net) time was 1:31:51 which was 5 and a half minutes better than last year – did I mention it seems like a lifetime ago? And my overall (gun) time was also (just) under 1:32. It was about 40 seconds quicker than my all time PB set at City-Bay last year.
Of course I had to get that time engraved on my medal so i went and joined the queue, running into a whole lot of people I knew along the way, then got to the front only to be told I had to pay at the merch stand which was ALL THE WAY OVER THERE (it wasn’t actually that far but I’d just run faster than I’d ever run and my legs were starting to cramp a bit so it seemed a lot further than it was! (My legs had never cramped before from running, but fortunately it was only after the race was over).
Eventually I got my medal engraved, then went to get a free finish line massage. The massage therapist asked if I was planning on doing any of the other GSR events, to which I replied that I hadn’t planned to as I felt like I’d run as fast as I could at Victor Harbor last year so I wouldn’t go back again and then I thought, I ran faster here at McLaren Vale and Victor is flatter and faster so… maybe!
My legs didn’t cramp again after that so I’m sure that helped a lot!
Then I went and queued again, this time for donuts, I bought 3, thinking that some of my friends may like one, none of them wanted one so that was my post-run recovery meal. 3 donuts (and an apple).
Finally, being at a winery it would be rude not to have some wine, right? As I walked to the cellar door I saw Cecile (who was there cheering on Alicia who had done her first half) on her way to get wine. So the rest of the morning I sat on the grass with them and had a sneaky glass of pinot gris.
Was such a lovely day it was a shame to have to leave but I had ANZAC biscuits to bake and the others were leaving too, so I somehow managed to remember where the car was and hit the road.
The weather was glorious, the atmosphere was fabulous and of course the fact I ran a PB made it a great day for me! As always I’d like to thank all the volunteers and organisers for making it yet another GREAT Southern Runs event!
(I did sleep with my medal on and wore it to work on Monday, under my vest. If the time wasn’t engraved on the back, I would have sworn it was a dream!)
So in the past year (McLaren Vale was slightly later last year) I have improved my half marathon PB by 7 minutes. (Would be nice if I can take another 7 minutes off in the next 12 months but I think that’s probably asking a bit much!)
What’s changed?
As previously mentioned, I started doing speed training once a week. I have done it regularly in the past, but not for quite a few years. This year I want to break my 5k PB so I decided weekly speed training was the way to go. I haven’t broken my 5k PB yet but it turns out it also helps with half marathon speed! I’ve done quite a few of the sessions on my own, which I never would have done in the past, but it’s actually not terrible, especially when you can programme the whole session into your watch and just press ‘start’ and it tells you what to do!
Also previously mentioned, instead of just getting a massage a few days before an event, I have started getting one once a month, and I have no doubt this has helped a lot too. I’ve always said I get my car serviced regularly, and see the dentist twice a year, so I should get my muscles serviced regularly too!
Finally, on top of running less (which I’ve been doing for the past 2 years, running 4 times a week instead of 5, so that’s not exactly new), I’ve been doing more cross training in the gym, and added some heavier lifting into my programme with the guidance of my physio.
Stay tuned for the next ‘exciting’ instalment!