Just a quick race report coming to you from the Tauranga backpacker's internet cafe cos our modem at home blew up!
The positive from the race is that I finished but I am hugely disapointed in my time/effort!
The course kicked my butt. I just fell to bits in the hills. Although Jo was right that I hadn't done enough hill training (damn it) I don't think any amount of training would have got me round that course in Sub4. I think that I have to accept that I won't beat 4 hours on that course.
The first 16k was great. I stayed in the 4 four pace group and felt like I could run that pace all day. It was faster than 5:41/k but the pace guy was saying that he wanted to make a bit of time for the hills. Felt good though ... until we hit the hills and I started to go backwards through the group. I ended up walking the last part of the first big hill and watched them run off into the distance. I started running on the downhill and managed to catch them. I got myself back into the middle of the group and I felt good again ... until we hit the next hill and I was gone! I had to let them go.
I then spent the rest of the race pretty much how I had spent the whole of the half marathon at the Rotorua Half Ironman. A bit of running here and there but a lot of walking. The 4:15 pace group past quite quickly but I was concentrating on keeping in front of the 4:30 group. They came past at about 26k. I kept with them for quite a bit. I was chatting to the pace group leader and I thought i could keep with him to the finish but again it all felt to bits at any sort of uphill and i let him go. I really didn't want to see the 4:45 group!
They must have been close behind cos I finished just under 4:45. Chip time is 4:43. So a 5 minute PB but a big dissapointment. I definitely didn't have enough volume or hill training in my legs!
The main thing I'm going to take from this is work harder for Rotorua in December. I don't want to be writing a blog entry about walking the half. Definitely more brick workouts and definitely more long runs up hills. Carrying 10lbs less would have helped yesterday as well so that's something to work on.
