Perth Half Marathon 2011

run along the river (but pic from Perth marathon 2011)

I ran my first half marathon since the Fremantle Half in 2006 in 1.43 hr .I am happy with that as I was aiming for a 1.45 . My legs were fairly tired from the ride/run yesterday and it was always going to be a bit of a struggle for me on Sunday morning.Yesterdays ride was not hard and I did have coffee before riding home .It was windy and even hanging on behind the main riders was tough at times. Especially when I was on the back wheel of Alistair at Shelley .Alistair took off and I just stayed with Johnny and then rode behind the Plan B cycle group all the way back to Perth . I did about 87.5km all up and then ran off the bike for 30 minutes when I got home.

I slept pretty well  on Saturday night. I went to the TWA AGM which was the shortest ever. Not a lot going on accept that there is an effort to slowly lift the profile of the sport in WA in the media. There is a possibility of membership fees coming down next season and there will be a conference for all clubs and TWA will be helping clubs send a member over . Triathlon remains a periphery sport and it will be a while before it makes it into the top 20 sports in  Australia.But like anything , a journey starts with the first step.

Like all amateur sports , the organisation is run by volunteers with a few full time employees. It is hard and there is a lot of criticism but like all organisations it is always easy to comment , lot more difficult to change and improve.Considering where TWA was 6 years ago it has come a long way. Hopefully TWA grows as the sports grows here in the West . This past year , every event has been a sell out. I hope the entry fees and membership fees do come down as participation increases or more race Directors put on more events .

Sunday , I got up early and the legs were stiff but I slept like a dog . The best medicine for insomnia is to run your tail off training. The week has gone pretty much as planned.

The weather was great and the race started promptly at 8am.I ran with Craig for the first 6km and it was a fast pace for me at sub 4.50 .
I slowly began to move forward ahead of Craig and saw Sue L about 50 metres ahead and tried to keep my pace at about her pace but that did not work and I soon lost her at the 10km mark. It was then just keeping an eye on the Garmin and making sure I could keep it at a sub 5 min pace. I had my gels and took one at the 48 min mark and the next one at about 1.15. Coming into the finish line I felt good with another 7km loop to do. I did slow down a bit at the back loop where we crossed the Swan river at East Perth before picking up the pace and taking my last gel. The Garmin lost the satellite when I was crossing the bridge so I think the moving pace and average pace were  different for that reason.

The last 3km were pretty hard but I just kept behind another runner and then sprinted to the finish in the last 100 metres. Felt a little sick after that. I was suppose to run 9km but as I was walking back to the car , the legs were really stiff and I decided to just rest.

It was a good course to do a PB and the weather was good and not too cold either.The last half I did was in 2006 , the Fremantle half and I finished in 1.46.19 .I did weigh a lot more but I was only running and hadn't quite got into Triathlons yet. I noticed a few names I didn't know back them who are all doing triathlons . Anna Wodehouse who did IM France recently was 47 seconds ahead of me in that race. Perth is a small place when you want it to be.

Week One is done and despite the wet weather I have largely finished without too much soreness or and no injury.