30 June, 2006

Not long to go

Sunday morning is fast approaching and the anxiety is building. The carbo loading is underway and the little doubts are beginning to niggle and eat there way into the sub-conscious. Some positive thinking will sort them out though.

I thinking of all my friends who are doing various runs on Sunday and hoping that all is going well for them. One friend flies in from Germany tomorrow and is doing the 10K on Sunday. He'l have World Cup fever I reckon.

26 June, 2006

M762

M762, that's my GCM bib number. Now all I have to do is play it cool for the rest of the week and get to the starting line.

I ran the BRRC 10K championships yesterday. 41:35, av 4:10 pace. It helped clear the cobwebs, not as Clairie said to me about her race, "I didn't want to clear the whole spider farm!". Also, unlike Clairie, I didn't get Gold. I came second in my category. I well and truly trounced again by Ron Peters. I don't mind though, Ron is always so gracious. He is one of the running's true gentlemen.

24 June, 2006

One week to go

I am heading into West End tomorrow to compete in the Brisbane Road Runners 10K Championships. It should be a very good run. I won't be trying for a PB as I want to keep myself in good shape for the Gold Coast Marathon. At this point in time I am feeling really good.

After the race tomorrow I will have coffee at Park Road then head to South Bank to collect my GCM race kit. Pretty exciting.

18 June, 2006

2 weeks to go

Yes, only two weeks to the Gold Coast marathon. I am enjoying the reduction in pressure the Taper brings and went ou t for a pleasant run with friends this morning. We did do 28.7K but it was nice and easy.

I am looking forward to the Marathon. There is nothing more I can do training wise so it's just a matter of waiting. I will do some lunch time runs just to keep in tune, elite athlete that I am ;).

11 June, 2006

Marathon Pace....but

20 Mile race at Brisbane Road Runners Club this morning. That's 32.2 K's. I had plans of getting there early and doing 5 K before the race but arrived a bit late and only mangaed 2.5K. Just plain slack, I know.


This is the last big hit out before the Gold Coast Marathon which is only three weeks away. I had plans of running about 4:50 pace today but once I was out on the road I found I was settling into a quicker pace so decided to see how I would go. I am hoping that I might manage a PB in the GCM this year and that means running at about 4:40 pace. I did manage this for the 32.2K's today, but I didn't feel as if I had another 10K in me at that pace. As a matter of fact I didn't feel I had ioK's at any pace. I have felt pretty drained all day after this morning's effort. How I handle my taper, diet etc. over the next three weeks will be very crucial to my being able to keep up the 4:40 pace for the whole 42.2K's.

It was good to share a race with Robert Song again and a big bonus today was a big hug from Clairie.

09 June, 2006

A Long 20 Miles

I have finally made up my mind to run the 20 Mile race at West End on Sunday. That will be 32K's. I am planning on doing a 5K warmup so that will take me to 37K.

I have only had one run since the Queensland Half last Sunday. I did 11K in my lunch break yesterday (49 Minutes).

06 June, 2006

Maybe next time

I am still nursing a desire to run the Half in sub 90. My PB which I ran twice in a row, Doomben and Noosa, is 90:07. That was in 2004. Last Sunday at Doomben I ran 90:33 (official time, 90:30 by my Garmin). I would hate my watch to have recorded 89:58 only to have the official time recorded as 90:31. That would devastate me. It makes me realise though, that in oder to get an officially recorded sub 90 I realy need to aim for at least 88 to be on the safe side.

I loved the run on Sunday. As Tesso said, the conditions were perfect. I didn't think I had it in me to run the pace I did and was truly astonished (but pleasantly surprised) to be running ahead of Robert Song and Toasty - poor Toasty thought the curry would help him hurry but instead it caused him some worry and to the loo he had to scurry.

It was great having Tesso out there again at long last.

What an effort Davo and Cirque put in. Did I love that!!!

It was also fantastic to be able to cheer and be cheered by so manr CR's, running buddies and specially my friend Gidget, Darryl, Megs, Sherilee and her Dad Mark, and Dave.