Victory in 6 Foot Track!

3 Hours 15mins 25 seconds

Well the time above tells the result, and I must say it did shock me a bit as well.

Woke at 5am for breakfast, then back into bed until 6:15am then left for race at 6:30am with my support crew, Dr N. Johnson and Professor Peter- great company and great humor was enjoyed on way to race. Slowly walked to the race start up the raod to Explorers tree where I got a stitch and was passed by many.

As I stood in the starting area, I went over the race plan, and the long runs logged in preparation - surely no one else had been through what I had in the last 3 months. The starters gun cracked and we took off down Nellie's Glen, one runner took off (M.R) and was out of sight by the time the road leveled out, oh well, just run your own race I thought. Was joined by another member of the Blue Mountains Marathon Clinic and Warrimoo resident, Andrew Lee - who graciously gave way on the singles track down to river.

Hit the river in 62 mins, 53 mins for KOM to Pluviometre (1hr 55mins accumulated), 1hr 19mins to finish (3h15m25s accumulated). Passed the haire (M.R) at bottom of Mini Mini saddle and then ran my own race from there. 13.8kms/ hr overall pace.

One of the best things was carrying a 600ml Mt Franklin water bottle the entire way and filling it up at every 2nd water station (courtesy of the RFS) and sticking to one gel every 30mins (set on watchs timer). 3 cups of water, 1 cup of High 5 at every station.

When I got to pluvi i estimated I would be at least 3-5 mins up, and then concentrated on drinking and running within my self. 99% of it was strength-endurance, aerobic running, with the water bottle in the hand making me concentrate on a sustainable 'training style' pace. Thanks to the Dr Johnson (and his Beijing University counterparts) for the scientifically based advice to drink 600-700ml per hour, and for following the instructions on the back of the Endura Gels sachets. Advice based on simple guidelines, but usually not followed.

The finish was, emotional, I love winning and didn't start counting my chickens until I was running down to Caves House. At 13ks to go I thought I can runn 13ks hard no matter what happens. With 7.1ks to go (road crossing) I worked out that if I ran at least 4min/ ks I'd be finished in 3hrs 15mins? - what the? surely my tired mind had miscalculated something.... any way hammered to the finish on adrenalin and finished with a big jump over the line. I stood there in the finish area just soaking it up and comprehending what i just did - 8 mins off the record, C'mon!!! Hung out with Margaret and Mr Trotter at finish (local friends) and then was met by my support crew.

Anyway, need to look at new challenges now.......