Yes it has been a while since I updated. In some ways not a lot has happened and in other respects a lot has happened.
So I ran the marathon on Saturday 2 July at Kingscliff near the NSW/Qld border for a charity. It fitted in well s I was running the Gold Coast marathon on the Sunday. I felt good on Saturday and ran steady in 5.25 and I felt as good as you can after it.
The next morning at the GC marathon I felt good and ran well until 18k then I just could not run and so walked yes walked the rest. The were some very focused attempts to run after that but a few hundred meters was the best i could manage. So almost last and just under the cut off with a 6.32 finish.
I have marathons planed for each weekend in July and August as I usually do. Dolls Point, M7 and hunter to name few. I did not run and could not run. Mentally and physically I could not run. So I did not run a step in July after GC. I was not well anyway and needed to deal with that and i was just in place mentally that I had not been in before and needed to deal with that. It is still being dealt with.
Anyway I thought maybe one way out of the deep hole was to get out was by returning to running. So early August I ran a few time mostly 1k walk and 1k run with the total maxing out at 10k. Off to Melbourne to spend a weekend with my daughter and throw in the Tan marathon on the Sunday.
It was a huge risk to start as the possibility of my first DNF for a marathon was
high but I couldn't resist the temptation of running 11 laps of the TAN
in an event put on by a great friend.
So with some hesitation I started with the plan to run 3k and walk about
1k of the almost 4K loop. In have run this event before and I wanted to
run the challenging Anderson street hill each time. A hill and the loop
made famous as the training loop for Herb Elliot and others who trained
with Percy Cerutty - any way that is another wonderful story.
I have to say the loops and plan went like clockwork. 9 laps at about 33
minutes each and at then end of the 9th lap a possibility of getting
under 6 hours with the time at 4.54 I could run the last two in under 64
minutes. I decided that to keep the same run/walk strategy might result
in me going just over 6 hours which time is really meaningless in
itself but as runner we all know little things like that can drive us
on.
Anyway the last two laps all run well jogged and finished in 5.54. After
just a few days running in the last week or so being the only running
in the last 6 weeks I was more than a little surprised.
No running in the week and then last Sunday the Mudgee Marathon. Brutally cold at the start. Just below zero. Then then expected quick
rise in temperature followed as is usually the case. The cut of was 5.30 and that was
always going to be a huge challenge to meet. Thankfully as I have run
this marathon 13 of the 15 times it has been run then I was allowed to
finish in 5.35. A much tougher course that last week with laps of the
Tan and this week 19 minutes quicker.
Dubbo next weekend.
