Freedom Air Half Marathon

2nd place in the starting sprint.

New PB! Conditions were perfect for a fast time. The morning was cold and clear, with just a light breeze. I was hoping for a time of 2:20:xx, which would equal my personal best, although I was not too hopeful. The previous Sunday I had done a 46km training run, and I had run 12km a little too quickly on Thursday night. I suspected that I might only manage a 2:25:xx.

After a thorough warmup, I lined up in the front row to ensure that I got a good start. The starter counted down from 10 seconds, and we were off at a sprint. I was second after about 50m, but that didn't last for long. Within a couple of hundred metres I was passed by another walker (the eventual 2nd place getter), and I tried to stick as closely to him as possible. He had started to edge ahead of me by the 1km mark, which came up in an amazingly fast 5:01. Admittedly there is a downhill start, but this was incredible. The 2nd km passed in 5:50, and I was passed by another two walkers. Coming off the Fitzherbert Ave bridge, I could see the other three walkers stretched out ahead of me, each at an appreciable distance ahead of the next person.

I managed to catch the person ahead of me by about the 3km mark, but dropped back again by the 4km mark. Went through 5km in 29:40 - a personal best (PB) by a big (gravity assisted) margin. By now my pace had slowed to about 6:22/km - a pace that I would hold for most of the rest of the race. Within another 2km I could hear voices behind me as a couple of walkers slowly drew closer, but it would take until about the 13km mark for them to finally pass me. 10km passed in 1:01:35 - another PB. However, these PBs were starting to take their toll, and I could already feel some soreness in my hip flexors and down the front of my quads.

Not long after the half way point, the course markings ran out... the officials marking out the course had simply not expected any walkers to be that fast. As we entered the racecourse, there were no markings to guide us at all. After some hesitation, four of us followed the old route behind the racecourse... and straight past the unmarked turn-around point. By the time that we realized that we had gone too far, we had gone too far to turn back without incurring significant extra time. Instead, we followed the old course (400m too long) and eventually reached a locked gate that we had to climb over. All up, I estimate that the 400m of extra distance cost about 2:33, and climbing over the gate and other hesitations in trying to figure out where the course went must have cost in the order of another 30s.

A few metres from the finish.

After a short while we were back on the official course. I was still averaging about 6:23/km, but I was starting to tire. 15km (15.4 with the extra distance) came up in 1:36:01, and it was not long before there was just 5km to go. There was no one in sight behind me, but two walkers were not far in front.

Over the last few km I started to tire significantly, and it required a big effort to keep my walking rhythm. My pace was starting to slow noticeably, and was now down to 6:42/km. However, by the 19km mark it was clear that I had been able to hold my pace for long enough to record a new PB - the question was by how much? There was a possibility that I might just be able to record a 2:15:xx. The 1km to go mark arrived in 2:09:53. However, most of the last 1km is uphill, and I could only manage 6:51. My final time was 2:16:45 - a new PB by 3:37! If the course had been properly marked, then I may have improved it by 6 minutes!

Top 10 Finishers:

Place	Name	Time
1	Graeme Jones	1:46:31
2	Leon McPhillips	1:55:38
3	Peter Baillie	2:07:19
4	Ian Bailey	2:14:20
5	Shelley Vettise (W)	2:15:00
6	Andrew Shelley	2:16:45
7	Stephen Wright	2:20:54
8	Olive de Ridder (W)	2:21:11
9	Bob Fairley	2:23:36
10	Robyn Wolfsbauer (W)	2:23:53