Sun 03 Sep 06, Vic Half Marathon Champs @ Burnley

25km today and for the week so far.

Arriving at Burnley just after 7am with a car load of Western A's, chat, got the Club envelope with all of our race tags, register with the Vic Masters and then off for a 13 min warm up. It started raining whilst I was stretching but I wasn't fussed as it wasn't cold and there was very little wind and to be honest I didn't think the rain would be around for long. Today Western A's made Club history with 10 runners starting today's race and a lot of supporters which made our task even easier. With two of the ladies agreeing to help the men out we filled both our Div 4 & 6 teams and had enough for one emergency, just in case.

With all of us in one big group on the start line, starting very wet but all with big grins and probably a few a little nervous with four competing in their first Half Marathon.

(I tried to post a pic but blogger is playing up, so here is a link.

I started off for the first third of the race with Dave T & my uncle Gary (2nd year in a row we have experienced the HM together). Dave, who hasn't raced since the 10km at Sandown he kind of started to struggle a little so Gary & I continued on together until 16k when he asked if I was ready for some 4 min k's..., "not really Gary".... A few hundred metres further along Gary started to slowly move away, but not too far. With about 3.5k to go I noticed that both Gary (10-15m ahead) & I were catching Cam quite quickly and with 3k to go I decided I was going to try and catch Cam, who I haven't beaten for probably 5 years over any distance.

(Not the greatest photo but...about the 11km mark

Knowing Cam was very much in unknown territory and also lacking in many k's I had a go at catching him & Gary on the small rise with about 2.5k to go, but he responded and they both moved 10m ahead, but 500m it was obvious Gary was leaving us both and Cam seemed to slow. At the u-turn, 1.5km to go I drew alongside Cam and stayed there for 1-200m and then started to push and move away. At this stage I had no idea of my time but I knew I wanted to really push it on. I crossed the line and saw 88:22 and a BIG smile was planted on my face.

Splits (last years):
13:00 (12:50)
11:51 (11:55)
13:20 (13:10)
11:52 (12:19)
13:36 (13:08)
11:32 (12:03)
13:07 (14:19)
Total: 1h 28m 22s (1h 29m 47s)

Obviously the two halves are different in length and the main difference this year was the final 6km of the race, I was actually able to increase my pace and move on! :-)

Lots of good times for everyone and including the four newbies there were seven PBs and lots of smiles on everyone's faces, except maybe Cam's, but then it was Father's Day, he needed to let me beat him...

A few weeks of easy running & massages, the Tan Relays in rwo weeks and then track season in October!

And I forgot to mention, two other things happened this weekend which brought a smile to my face, the Sydney Swans finished in the top 4 and get the 'double' chance and the Melbourne Victory also had a win.

Some pics from the HM probably tomorrow if Blogger would just play the game.