It was a wet morning, and we were up early to make our way down to Gold Coast for its first half marathon since 2019.
This would be my second half marathon, the first being in the Sunshine Coast in 2017. Over the last 8 weeks, I’ve gone from running 5km parkruns to building towards this race.
Work ended up being pretty hectic in most of that 8 week period, and with a case of the flu somewhere in between training was limited and less in volume than I’d hoped. Had still made some pretty good gains over the past few months, so was looking forward to putting it to the test today.
After manoeuvring through the dense crowd over the first km, I was able to get into my steady target pace and felt good over the first 10km. The rain kept me feeling pretty refreshed, despite the course being a little slippery under foot.
At the 12km mark I could feel my left quad starting to tighten up, something I hadn’t felt in any of my training. At that point I knew it was going to be more of a mission than I had hoped 🤣
Managed to push through the next 4km only just outside my target pace, but the fatigue was kicking in big time.
The last 3km were an absolute battle.
Quitting wasn’t an option though, and managed to finish just over 3 minutes slower than my 1hr 40min goal.
Wasn’t the result I’d hoped for, but pretty chuffed to add another T-shirt and medal to the collection. If anything it’s just given me more fire to come back again, and see how much better we can go.
Had an enjoyable morning and still proud of getting the job done. Looking forward to the legs recovering and a 4 week holiday in the Philippines to follow.
Gold Coast 2023 we’ll be back!!