My first running race
City to Bay Half Marathon 2024
The night before was a Saturday evening and I turned to my partner and made a comment about how we’re living the dream as we climb into bed on a chilly night at 7:40pm to watch an ep and wind down to sleep early. The weeks prior had been meticulously planned and staged around ensuring my garmin watch was telling the right things on race day. I live around hils and for the last several months I’ve been doing a half marathon length run once a month to ensure I had the endurance base to do this race. The focus was trying to get my training readiness score on garmin to the “prime” area on race day. The best I could do was get it to a training readiness score of high, my sleep score this week wasn’t as good as it should have been but by race day my sleep history was good enough. By the time the sunday rolled around I hadn’t run since the Tuesday before and spent time doing some zone 2 walks.
I had a goal to do the race in under 2 hours and I set that goal knowing I would achieve it easily. There is no point setting the bar so high for my first race that the potential disappointment from not achieving a goal would be a barrier to entering future races. In my training runs I had done the 21km runs in well under 2hours usually around 1:45 - 1:50 with my best being 1:42. In my head I was hoping to get as close to 1:30 as possible and under 1:45 would be a great result. This gave me plenty of leeway and reduce the pressure to push too hard and do an injury. A DNF is not what I wanted at all.
I woke at 5am on the dot and bounced out to a very cold morning, fed the dogs and made a coffee. Banana for something to eat before getting dressed in the gear I had layed out the night before. Into the car for a short drive of about 15 minutes to the destination. The morning was still dark and in the distance of Glenelg I could see the flashing yellow lights of the work crews blocking traffic for us. I deliberately parked about a 10-minute walk from the start line to give myself a warm-up, but that word was lost on the shorefront as the slight wind that was blowing from the west was cold. There were a few others heading the same way to the start line and as I got closer to the main square of glenelg the crowd grew larger. Plenty of people jumping, stretching, bouncing and meeting friends. I was running solo for the safe pets safe families crew as the only one doing the half marathon so I kept going around my warm up routine walking laps of the oval before they called us to line up.
The start line at dawn. Glenelg 2024
The dawn was just breaking as we’re on the start line waiting for the signal to go and I remember having a moment of mindfulness looking over to the east as the sky was turning purple thinking of how good this is. Despite the cold, here I was about to start something that I have been wanting to do for so long in amoungst others with their own goals. I could hear the low tone noise of the crowd and the sea of people in front and behind me. I was pretty close to the front and remembering something Mark Lewis had said on one of his many podcasts about staying towards the front. I knew I could maintain a pace of a 5min a KM or about 12kmph and being new to this type of event I figured that would be in the faster group of people. What I wanted to avoid was getting caught up in the pack and getting stuck behind the slower group.
The starters horn went and we’re off. I’m glad to be moving now as it’s a chilly 6 degrees. The group surged forward only to have a bottleneck in the first 10 meters past the start line which caught everyone off guard. After that it was onto Jetty road and heading out towards that beautiful sunrise on this cloudless morning. The weather was really good and I got lucky with that as I’m sure this time of year can see weather much more terrible than this. Along Jetty road and the next turn onto Anzac highway saw the pack start to thin out a bit as everyone starts to settle into their pace. I’m still pushing hard and feeling good as I break away and overtake those slowing down. I knew this would come back to bit me and tried to remind myself to save the stamina for the last push to the finish line. Despite this I was feeling good and strong so I kept pushing along and keeping pace of about 4:30/km looking at the guys around me thinking that they looked half may age. No judging their abilities as everyone is running their own race but feeling good for keeping up with the younger ones.
As we crossed the 10km mark I was still pushing a good pace and taking up the drink offer at every opportunity provided. There were volunteers regularly along the route handing out water and encouraging. The entertainment was still being setup so it was up to my headphones to provide the running motivational music. I was wearing the Aftershokz thinking this was an official event and in-ear or over-ear headphone would be not allowed, apparently not so will remember that for next year. By the 10km mark we’re into the CBD now and about to do the loop that turns us around to head back. Wishing I had gone to the toilet before the race and getting uncomfortable with that feeling now and exacerbated as we turn onto south terrace to a headwind that I had not observed on the way up. Some port-a-loos ahead was a refreshing sign but alas they were all locked up, oh no, this isn’t good. Thankfully there were some public ones along south terrace that provided some relief. Well, this is going to cost me a few minutes but at least I got to catch my breath and lower the heart rate for a bit before rejoining the race.
Plenty more water stops along the way and the groups are starting to not look the same as before, the ones that had been conserving their energy were now beginning to push ahead and being overtaken was becoming more often than before. My right leg glute was starting to ache and make itself known as we went past the 16km mark. The internal dialogue was saying, it’s ok to walk past this water stop and it’s only another 5 more, thats 30 minutes left. the body is getting tired and having that internal dialogue reminding myself that I’m doing great and being here and doing this is already winning. I’m only racing against myself so be kind. This was further helped by encouragement from the water guys cheering us on as we go.
As I crossed Morphett Road and the 18km mark just ahead it was now just counting down the km’s to go. I had reduced my pace to 5:10/km thinking I still need to do things today. Looking at the watch trying to guage what my finish time might look like and doing the math while battling the internal dialogue. I knew I would do it in the under 2 hour goal easily, even if i walked or jogged from here, I’ll achieve that. “I’ve got this and I still have more in me”. The traffic marshals ushered us to stay on Anzac highway before we did the left turn for the final stretch along Jetty road. Some others were already pushing that last 1km and overtaking me as we tuuned onto the last leg. I was surprised to see a crowd had formed along Jetty road and were cheering us on. I can’t underestimate how nice that was and the motivation from these people help when you’re on the last legs. “come on guys, the finish is just around that last bed” cried someone from the crowd and I gave what little I had left for that last few hundred meters until that finish banner was over me and my tag was being scanned.
A little way along I was handed a medal and some electrolyte fluids, but I was so cold from that headwind that I could barely hold the cup. Thankfully a nice marshal helped me take the photo and the I moved along to take in what I had just completed. This time last year I said I’ll have to do the half marathon race and it gave me something to work towards and now I’ve finally completed that goal. My first half marathon race is done and boy it feels good to tick that off the fitness goals.