Mudgee marathon: 3.34.10

A great weekend away with my closest running mates.

Before driving up I dropped my middle son off at the International Airport for his 3/4 week trip to London/Paris and England generally. The airfare was his 21st birthday present. He would like longer but cannot get more time off work. We have heard from him and he is fine.

It was a pleasant drive up to Mudgee in the late afternoon. Just a nice time of about 3 1/2 hours from Sydney.

The morning was clear and cool but not as cool as in the past. This was my 9th marathon at Mudgee from 11 being held. I felt good and a few posts ago thought on a good day might get close or under 3.35. That time was not on my mind when I started. I just wanted to run how I felt but that was quicker than my recent past marathons and I felt comfortable. That made me think a good time could be possible if I coud hold things together.

At 10k the course climbs with one short downhill until 19k and so it isa real energy sapping part of the run. I know you must get through that feeling okay before the rolling hills that are mostly downhill to the finish but there are enough uphills to keep you very interested.

I ran through halfway in 1.46.10 which was good considering the hardest part of the course was over. I was the able to lock into a 5.05 pace and was knocking off the 5k splits in the 25.00/25.30 range and was hoping I could hold that to the end.

It got harder to maintain the pace as I got closer to the finish and the effort to maintain it became much more of an effort. I managed that with a second a 1.48 second half. Very pleased to run my quickest marathon since May 2010 or about 20 marathons.