Melbourne Marathon 2010

2:53:17

A pb of 6 minutes, so very happy with run, perfect conditions for running.

First Half 1:25:20, second half 1:27:57. Although I had the half only at 20.9k

By Garmin it was 1:26:10, 1:27:07 splits.

Finished 115th out of 5026.

At the 10.55k Mark Position 158
21.1k mark Position 144
42.2k mark Position 115


7k splits- not that I used these whilst running.

28:15
28:46
28:47
28:53
28:55
28:52








Race report

Hardly slept the night before and sat on the loo for much of the morning as the stomach had been playing up with some bad diarrhoea, I said to Trace as I left, don't be too shocked if I'm back in awhile. So I left the room and got to Fitzroy Gardens which was few hundred metres from the hotel and had to go to the loo again and then made it to the start.

Unfortunately I was late to the preferred start and didn't get to hear Ron Barassi or anything else and then panicked when they said there was 30 secs to go and I was at the back of the field. I jumped the fence and then ran along the footpath and got as close to the front as I could and then with 5 seconds to go I jumped the fence again and got settled and then it was time to go.

Settled into a pretty good rhythm early and the km's just went by, I took a full bottle of powerade with me and drunk at regular intervals, I also had some snake lollies with me. The stomach was more of a discomfort than anything and I just focused on being as relaxed as possible and it did the trick. I passed geoffa at around the 7k mark which was around the time we entered into Albert Park and then sat in a group of runners for the next 7k and saw Big Kev in the distance. It was around this time that I lost the group as they'd stopped for drinks and the focus was to now on the fact that we were running along the beach and a very flat portion of the course, St Kilda, Port Melbourne etc.

The km's continued to fly by and I passed Big Kev at 16k and he said he was going quite well and then started chatting to a guy and he was from Perth, Ronald Pang and was aiming for around 2:50. We ran together until the 25k mark, when unfortunately he struggled a bit with the calves and had to drop off a bit. It was not long after this that there was a turnaround point and we were now running toward the runners behind us. I finished my powerade at this point and took a couple of snakes, although these gave me a bit of a stitch, but other than a little bit of leg soreness I was in pretty good shape.

I had a bit of a chat to a guy not long after this and started to do some mental arithmetic to get a guage on what was required for sub 2:55, sub 3 etc. Continued running at th 4:07-4:08 mark and saw Tommy Hafey walking across the road with a paper in his hand and yelled out to him and he smiled and yelled out keep going mate, that pumped me up and the next couple of km, I had a big smile on my face. Had a cup of powerade at the next drink station and then just continued churning out the km's and before I knew it, we were now seeing the half marathoners coming out of Albert Park. We had our own lane for a while along St Kilda road and that was good, before we then merged and it became chaos.

The next couple of km's involved me dodging and weaving and yelling out Marathoners coming through and most people obliged to try and get out of the way. We then separated and I had another drink and a couple of snakes but once again, they caused a little stitch, so I decided I didn't need anything else for the rest of the race. We were now at 37k and the hilliest part of the course came up, although it wasn't that bad at all, I was feeling in good shape bar a little soreness which you'd expect and pretty confident that a sub 2:55 was on its way.

Continued to pass a few people and had one or two pass me, there was a guy at 39k that was in pretty bad shape and myself and the guys I was just passing yelled out to a spectator to get someone to help him. We then merged with the half marathoners again around Fed Square and went through the same issue with me yelling out for people to give way to the Marathoners. We then parted ways with a few hundred metres and then ran along the road underneath the tunnel into the G and then the last few hundred metres to the finish line. Raised my fist as I crossed the finish line and was very happy with a very even paced run. The last 2.2k even though was chaos was run in just under 4:00 pace so was nice to finish like that.

At the finish it was a shambles, got herded like cattle to the underneath area, collected my medal, grabbed a water as there was no powerade and grabbed a banana and an apple. I couldn't find Trace or the rest of the crew and so walked back to the hotel and then phoned Trace, she'd seen me finish but only just.

TB ran but unfort his attemps at pb were thwarted by his calf, next time mate. Sling's injury unfort forced him out, I'm looking forward to seeing him up and firing for 2011 marathons.

Caught up with Tace, Widi and my support team at the hotel lobby and then we headed down for a drink at Transport where we saw TB and then we had a nice dinner at Rockpool that night.

Thanks to everyone for their support and well wishes, much appreciated.