My GC Experience...

what a weekend!

it started with my very easy 40min run at 7:50am Saturday morning and ended with me in bed by 9pm sunday as a very happy camper…

saturday's run truly was easy (6:43 pace) as Huxley, Jodie and Suze (both on bikes) kept me company and stopped me from going too fast…next up was packing the car ready to go the airport after golf…with me returning straight to work this morning i had to make sure every last thing was there…

golf was another very average round but it was good fun and stopped me thinking too much about the race…

my flight left Canberra at 5pm and i had about 2 ½ hours at Sydney airport before my flight to Coolangatta…so what did i do with my spare time? i logged onto CR of course…good to see i wasn't the only one getting a bit nervous…

landed on time at Coolangatta (10pm) and made my bus transfer to the hotel (Islander Resort) with no problems by 10.30pm…my roomie, Anthony Scott, had well and truly arrived and had been kind enough to collect my race kit for me…we set about 4 alarms (for 4:50am) to make sure we got up in time to catch the shuttle bus from Appel Park to the race precinct…i then prepared everything for the morning before having a quick shower…

due to the football quarter-final between England and Portugal at 1am it was quite noisy on the street below but we both managed to get some sleep although i think Scottie got more than i did as i kept checking the time and listening to the yobbos down below!

Not long after leaving the hotel came across my first CR for the day at about 5.10am with SMC (incognito but introduced himself, asking me what my handle was) asking where was the best place to catch the shuttle…felt like the Pied Piper as we lead him and about 4 others to the Park…

after a short walk form the shuttle to the race precinct i had about 50mins before the race started…had a quick chat to Go Girl, wishing her luck for her first marathon before doing some stretching and wandering around trying to figure out how to find Puntermatt…

moved into the start area about 20mins prior to race start and then promptly saw Puntermatt (pace sign in hand) walking past, quickly found him and introduced myself…it didn't take long before the number of runners interested in breaking 1:45 started to grow around him…he re-iterated the plan to go conservative in the first 2ks (10:30) before averaging between 4:55-4:57 the rest of the way with range of splits to be between 4:48-5:03…

as it was my first time with a pacer i elected not to set a pace alert on my Garmin but i still had the lap times popping up though…

the wheelies were off at 6.25am then it was out turn, we shuffled forward and as we hit the timing mats (i think i started my watch a little early) we could actually move into a jog…despite being right next to Puntermatt at the start we quickly got separated and it took me until about 2k to latch on about 20m behind…not long after the sign was ditched to the cries of "pick it up, we were following you" (much laughter resulted)…got to see Marty Dent go flying past in the leg with a Japanese runner hot on his tail…

Puntermatt kept us entertained with his encouragement and advice, even when he ducked off for a "leak"!

i managed to maintain my position at the edge of the group before actually running along side Puntermatt for about 2ks between the 10-12k marks…from about there i started to lose touch through a combination of Puntermatt picking up the pace and me slowing down (although as it turns out i only went outside his predicted range for ks 18-20 with 5:04, 5:05 and 5:06)…i concentrated on maintaining what pace i could (!) and kept hunting for Puntermatt's distinctive frame in the distance!...

was very glad of jen_runs & Vegie-girl's support between 16-17ks and the CR cheersquad support 700m from the finish really did provide the lift to stride out to the finish (thanks guys)…at about the same time i saw Lee Troop heading past with a massive lead (wow)…anyway, by now i had well and truly lost sight of Puntermatt but as i passed under the red Enverit arch there he was cheering his stragglers on and exhorting us to go for it!

i really put in the big ones (well, that's what it felt like!), nudging a runner or two out the way (just kidding) as i crossed the line in 1:45:46 (gun time)/1:44:09 (net time), a PB by 2:01…i was stoked and stuffed at the same time!...Puntermatt, you are a champ, thanks for doing such a great job! I'm glad i got to give you a hug in the recovery area as i didn't sight you again as you were off to do your R4YL duties…

i then grabbed a couple of apples and bottles of water, rang mum & dad to let them know, then i removed the chip, collected my finisher's medal & shirt and headed back the CR cheersquad…there i met Cato, Cirque, Owen, undercover brother, Nando…as the day progressed we were joined by Miners, Plu, Vegie-Girl, jen_runs, Mouse (1st half marathon) & Ian (night_time_runner?), Clairie, Tesso, BennyR and other CR finishers to cheer on the remaining half marathoners and all the marathoners…we were positioned such that the runners could hear and see us at about the 26.5 k mark and then with 700m to the finish…

Lee Troop had extended his lead to win by a big margin…my roomie, Scottie, exceeded his expectations, finishing in 2:35:55 to finish 21st overall and 1st M40-44 (his first road marathon in 20 years!)…

as for CRs particular mention from my point of view must be made of Go Girl who powered home in her first marathon with 3:46:05 (you go girl!) and Big Mac who was paced to a 10k PB by Cato (Big Mac was aiming for 8min/ks, but after running the first in just under 7:00 he ran the whole way to finish in just under 70mins!)…Big Mac's story is really inspirational as he has lost 65kgs and next year plans to run a half marathon before stepping up to the full in 2008…he looked like the Cheshire Cat after his run!

i can't remember all the achievements of the CR clan, there was the good, the bad and the ugly but everyone got cheered in by the cheersquad right down to the last CR marathoner, Davo, who took 5:25 to make it past our point….

i met so many more CRs (other than the cheersquad) i'm sure i will miss naming some but it was great to put faces to names/handles…to add to the CRS above, there were the lostboys, Pasty Boy and Mrs Pasty, tim, Rags, Johnny Dark......

then it was back to the hotel to shower, put on the Skins (my legs feel great today) and other clothes (!) before heading to the Northcliffe SLC…it was a great afternoon/evening culminating in dinner at Charlie's in the Cavill Mall with Go Girl, Rags, Nando, Johnny Dark, Tesso, Cirque and jen_runs…

it was great to meet some many CRs and have so much support on the day, probably something i hadn't truly envisaged…i didn't feel like i was up there by myself even though technically i was!

in bed by 9pm and up by 3:35am (groan) for my return shuttle to the airport…made in to work by 10:20am to type this epic!

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turns out there were 4265 finishers in the half…i finished 1289th overall, 304th female & 68th in my category (F35-39)…and i couldn't finish this post without a statistical analysis of sorts, if you've made it this far (!?!) here's my run comparison to Puntermatt's plan based on my Garmin:

	Plan	Actual
0-2k	0:10:30	10:24
3-21k	1:33:25	1:33:11
21-21.0975	0:00:30	0:00:38
TOTAL	1:44:25	1:44:13
Average pace 3-21.0975	4:55-4:57	4:54
Range of splits 3-21.0975	4:48-5:03	4:43-5:06

and here's a comparison to my previous PB at Canberra:

	CAN	GC
1-3k	15:06	15:07
4-6k	14:39	14:24
7-9k	15:18	14:26
10-12k	15:22	14:41
13-15k	15:02	14:51
16-18k	14:48	15:05
19-21k	14:59	15:01

	CAN	GC
1-5k	25:03	24:43
6-10k	25:10	24:06
11-15k	25:14	24:40
16-20k	25:02	25:17

	CAN	GC
1-10k	50:13	48:49
11-20k	50:17	49:57

my run felt hard but not uncomfortable (if you know what i mean) although by the looks of it i could have gone a little slower from 6-10k and a bit quicker at the end...!