Gold Coast Airport Marathon
Race day came, I knew I was prepared, I had my nutrition strategy sorted, I knew my pacing and I was fit enough.
Paul and I headed down to Southport nice and early, found a park and headed over to the club tents where we found bother the Pat 42.2 and SBTC tents with people we knew. I talked to people but really the race was all that was on my mind. I'm not sure that I can say whether I was nervous or excited, but I was full of energy. It was time to head over to the start line, I waited on the centre median so I could try and spot anyone else that I knew to chat with at the start. So many people had their phones out taking photos and videos or video calling people showing the amazing atmosphere.
And we were off. Sophie a girl from SBTC had spotted me and was chatting to me at the start. It was a very slow walk to get to the start line so it was great to have someone to chat to while I walked. When we started running this was a different scenario, I was used to running by myself so talking while running was not something I was used to and this really was putting my race pace in jeopardy. So I told her to go ahead and I dropped my pace for a minute before getting back to my rhythm. A few km down and the course was still very congested, but whenever I saw kids on the side of the road I would veer over to that side to give them a high five. They had put in the effort to support us, so I wanted to show how appreciative I was.
Seven K's down and I really needed to go to the toilet, luckily there were some on the side of the road so I quickly took care of business, there was no point being uncomfortable and trying to finish this race.
Eleven K's down and the elites were on their way back past us, WOW! they were quick, watching them go past made me appreciate how fast they really were, they had travelled twice the distance in the same amount of time and looked like they were doing it easy.
Fourteen K's down and I'm starting to see people I know coming back towards me, more high fives and cheering from people who knew my name and I knew theres. I'm sure I cut off at least a few people every time I'd go to the centre of the track to congratulate people I knew. Then to the other side to high five the kids and read out their signs, two of my personal favourites were "touch here for a power up" with a picture of the mushroom from Mario, and "Pain is temporary, Greatness is forever!"
The first turnaround point was just under 16K's in. There was great support from the Gold Coast community, the atmosphere was amazing and I was still feeling great. this was all that mattered, I was well on target, in fact I had just passed the 4 hour pacer and felt nothing could stop me.
Twenty one K's down. Ok, I'm virtually half way through this, at 21.1km I was 2:02:10, this was actually the second fastest half marathon time I'd ever done. I was still feeling great, still only grabbing 1 cup of water at each drink stop to top off my bottles I was carrying.
Thirty K's down and I was getting back to the race precinct, when I hear my name shouted out, it was the Hamilton's, this small cheer helped remind me there was a team of people who were supporting me. Across the bridge and back past the tents where I heard a few more cheers directed specifically toward me. Feeling great, 10K's to go, thats only 2 Parkrun's, I'm nailing it.
Thirty four K's down, this is where I started to hurt, I'm still cheering on the crowd, but now I'm grabbing two cups of water at every station and whenever I saw someone in the crowd with a bowl of snakes, I'd veer over to grab one. My pace was dropping now, I was down to 6:30/Km, but this was ok, because I knew this was going to happen and I had my buffer for it.
Thirty six K's down and I was struggling, as were most people around me, I'd seen a few people with paramedics on the side of the road as well as at least one ambulance, I assumed they were suffering from either exhaustion or heat stroke. The four hour pacer had passed me now and I wasn't able to catch him. I found someone to chat with along the way, she seemed to be struggling more than me so we were trying to motivate each other, we kept together for about 2K's before she couldn't keep up anymore. Less than 1 Parkrun to go.
Forty K's down and I was so close to walking, but no. This was one of my goals. Not only did I have a target time, but I didn't want to walk. I could slow down but I wasn't going to walk. I was cheering on the walkers which in turn helped motivate me further. The 41st km was my slowest at 7:37/km. This was a struggle but I was getting back to the race precinct. The crowd was growing in size again and there wasn't much to go.
Final few hundred metres and it was time for my sprint finish, yes even after 42km I still somehow had a sprint finish left in me. I was able to speed up to 4:30/km. Crossing over the finish line everyone else seemed to just cross the line, whereas there I was shouting and punching the air so excited for accomplishing this amazing goal. This adulation changed once I got past the line and received my medal. Now was the time to hobble.
I hobbled back to the tents. While taking at least 5 minutes to walk only a few hundred metres, I notice that you could easily tell who had done the marathon and who was the support crew. Anyone who had just run 42.2km could barely move and looked like they were in pain, whereas the support crew were all able to move freely.
The one thing that I reckon allowed me to move at all the next week was the physio I received from the team at Body Leadership. It was absolute agony. You know that your in trouble, when the physio starts pressing on your calves and says "this hurts doesn't it". Ten minutes later and I could walk, not easily but it was a start.
I ended up completing the marathon in a fantastic time of 4:16:58 with an average pace of 6:03/km, smashing all of my expectations. It wasn't easy, but I am so happy with my result and can't wait to do it again.
