Lake Macquarie running festival, well why not?? This was my first half marathon in 2009 and with the M7 marathon still fresh in the bank only 4 weeks prior and 3 weeks to go to Blackmores Sydney marathon, it just seemed to fit that I should race. The fact that I was fueled by Cain’s 2nd birthday cake from the day before didn’t seem to upset me too much either.
Over the past 2 weekends I’ve managed to break the 20′ park run barrier by a few seconds so I knew I had a little extra speed. The goal was to go sub 90′ for the first time and thankfully some familiar Newcastle flyers from the Sunday morning sessions were supplying the 90′ pacers…
I knew that I had to get an extra 15 seconds/km out of my Diesel engine, so the plan was to keep a consistent pace the whole way. At the end of the day my 5km splits were:
21’21 @ 4:16km/hr
21’08 @ 4:14km/hr
21’19 @ 4:16km/hr
21’02 @ 4:12km/hr
4’55 @ 4:11km/hr
I reckon Arnold’s 90′ pacing ballon hit me in the head about 100 times throughout the day, however in the end it was completely worth it! Last year I tried to stick to the 90′ pacer and ended up with a 1:34, which even then was a 5′ PB. A new PB of 1:29:47 makes me over the moon! The Newcastle Flyers long run and interval sessions once a week have once again been critical. I’ve also kept up my chiropractic, massage and strength training. With the extra baggage of relocating our business over the past 3 weeks, training has not been number one priority. However, putting it all together I was able to have one hell of a race day- one that I know would not have been possible without the support of my amazing family, friends and training partners that continue to find more speed in this big old diesel….
