Coast 2 Kosci

Entries have now opened for Coast 2 Kosci, which I'm very pleased about.

On my running front, I paced Anna White to a 38.44 on Saturday morning, and did 34k in 2:20:10 in the afternoon. That's my fastest time for that bush / road course, so I was quite pleased with that.

Maybe confidence is rising for Fukuoka?

Off for another (slow) run now.

been a while

Been a while. Fukuoka is approaching.

Been busy lately, but thought I'd post a couple of training run pbs over the past few days for the sake of keeping a record.

My 34k bush and road course - 1.28.xx on Sat, 31 Oct. Followed this up with 17.5k to Mel's place. Felt pretty cactus by the time I got there.

5 laps of Parra Park (15.75k) in 52.59 yesterday, 2nd Oct.

Faster than I was running both these courses in training prior to Gold Coast, but not exactly confident of a pb in Fuk. Time will tell.

D

Big weekend

Well, it's been a big week actually, which has been great.

Mon - 20k.
Tues - 35k.
Wed - 20k.
Thurs - 25k.
Fri - 43k.
Sat - 40k.
Sun - 40k.

Total - 223k - Biggest week in a loooooong time. 43k on Friday was a run up Vic Rd, over the bridge, up Military Rd, over the spit bridge, and up the Wakehurst Parkway to Warringah Rd and then through to one of the checkpoints to meet up with the guys crewing for the Green Goddesses who were the first girls team home in the Sydney Trailwalker! Go girls!

Also had a good week at school. Been learning the basics of php and mysql lately and the computer tech at school has finally got php, apache and mysql configured on our internal server, so some of the programs I've created to automatically mark multiple choice quizzes etc can be implemented. Still in test phase, but an exciting step forward!

Anyway, back to it.

D

...and another

Mon - 10k.
Tues - 25k with Tim Cochrane.
Wed - 20k.
Thurs - 25k.
Fri - off.
Sat - 37?k with Tim Cochrane.
Sun - 20k.

A bit busy to write too much at the moment, so just keeping a record of distances. Sorry for the boring nature of the post.

another week meanders by...

I was pleased to finish this week with my second ever sub 70 half marathon at the "Hidden Half" at Bankstown, which doubles as the NSW half mara champs. Got a 2nd to Jeremy Horne as we both helped the Sydney Striders to take home Gold in the teams event along with Glen Guzzo and Andrew Heyden.

As for the rest of the week, I'm trying to remember:
Mond - 20ish k.
Tues - 20ish k.
Wed - 5k
Thurs - Rest. Feeling buggered.
Fri - 10k
Sat - 34.5k.
Sun - 21.1k race.

D

City to surf

Well, this week was a race to recover from the Townsville Mara in time for the city to surf. Managed 45:3x today, about a minute behind my pb, but given the week I'm very happy with that.

Mon - rest day.
Tues - I think about 7-9k? Ran with Mel Selby. Relaxed pace, but didn't feel overly relaxed two days after the mara.
Wed - 20ish k.
Thurs - 20ish k.
Fri - 17k.
Sat - 57ish k. Decided to do trailwalker training with Mel and Sharon. Started from Bobbin Head and ran through to the finish at Balmoral. 9hrs.

Legs were very tired for the start today, but warmed up over the first few k's and ended up picking up people most of the way.

Keith Bateman had a standout performance to run 46.49 - not too shabby for a 54 year old!

D

Managed

Well I got through the week as required.

Tuesday saw a 34k run.

On Wed I did 20.

Thursday about 8.

Friday about 7 or 8. All of these gentle.

Saturday off.

Sunday (today) I managed to sneak under 2:30 to go 2:29:46 (ish) to win the Townsville Marathon.

Was a very good weekend actually.

Got picked up from the airport and driven around the course on Saturday by a race official, after which I met up with Bridget Hart ( Coolrunning's one and only Queen B ) and her partner Justin and daughter Jordan.

I spent the night in luxury at the Bee Hive, but also had the chance on Saturday afternoon to meet Scott Brown and talk tactics over an OJ or two.

Race day dawned and QB and I headed down for the early 5:30 start while Justin stayed back - he was due down a bit later to ride the leading bike for the 10k race.

Basically it was two 10.55k loops to make up the half mara, and a larger loop to make up the second half. The smaller loops incorporated a run past the Casino, skirting the edge of the city, and up north along the beautiful beachfront known as The Strand, before ducking into the suburbs at the northern part of the loop and returning to the shorefront start at Tobruk Pool.

(I'm actually a bit tired and not explaining this well - there's a map here for anyone interested in doing the race in future).

The last couple k's of each of these smaller loops was along a bike path through the tropical park on the beachfront - a great place to run, especially as the sun was coming up.

I finished the second loop pretty close to 1:15, so I knew the sub 2:30 was on the cards if I maintained a decent pace. The larger loop incorporated the first 7k of the smaller loop, so I again went down to the Casino before heading up along the strand and out into the suburbs. Instead of turning where we did on the first two loops, we kept going north along a straight, flat stretch of road towards the turnaround at Pallarenda.

This was one of the quieter parts of the course, and I struggled a bit to maintain pace on the last 8k home, but kept an eye on my watch and thankfully came in a few seconds under the 2:30 mark.

T'was a good day for all my compadres it seems:
- Scott Brown came in 3rd, running 2:56 for his highly anticipated first foray into sub 3 terratory.
- Bridget held tough to lop over 6 minutes off her pb to join the sub 3:30 club, with a 3:29.
- Fellow Sydney Strider Jess Baker ran 89 in the half to be second female home - a very good effort to be within about a minute of her pb, considering it's her 3rd half mara in as many weeks, after doing the Hunter Valley Half and the M7 relay on the previous 2.
- Mel Hodgkins (another Strider) came back from a few weeks layoff to smash her pb to go 1:54 in the half.

Anyway, t'was a great race, and highly recommended.

Sleep calls.

Dave