Race Report – Adelaide Marathon Festival 21.1km – Bitumen.

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As I watched the marathon runners start at Santos Stadium I wished I was out there with them…that is until I remembered how much it hurt over the last 12k last year coming off three times as much training as I have done this year.  With that in mind I boarded the bus bound for Henley Beach with the other half marathoners. The numbers at the marathon start were definitely up on last year and when I got to the Sailing Club at Henley Beach it looked like numbers were up for the half too.  There was a bit of confusion amongst the volunteers as the “lounge” area was locked but I eventually got my number, had a brief pit stop and milled around outside in the cool breeze.

At 8:15am on the dot we were all massed on the road surrounded by police a s the starters gun went off.  The pack was the largest Half Marathon field I have run in, in Adelaide, and it was a joy being amongst them, with-out any inclination to flog my guts out for a PB, but to run with some cool people.  My aim for today was just to get Sunny1 across the line for her first half in a time that I hope she was pleased with and we also had the pleasure of Sook54 who was joining us for a “training run”. The first 5km was partly shielded from the wind by a row of houses between us and the beach and the large field slowly spread out taking up a full lane almost to the turn around at Terminus street.  There was no need for this but some turkeys obviously weren’t thinking about the poor motorists and stretched themselves into the middle of the road.  At random stages packs of marathon runners would shoot past winding their way through the half marathon field and we joyfully gave encouragement to all those we knew…and all those we didn’t know. The plan was for 6min/k pace but we rolled along at about 5:45 pace as the running was fun and Sook was dragging us along (ok I accept some responsibility for the early pace).  The only time we ran straight into the wind was coming over the hill on terminus street to the beach and then we cut left to begin the return journey to the Torrens.  After a brief comfort stop for the ladies along the foreshore we set about re-passing the dozen people who we had just passed and now had gone passed us…this would be a recurring theme for the day. Onto the Torrens and almost at halfway the pace gradually started to slow and memories of the painful last 12km of last years marathon flashed before my eyes.  As we ran those last 12km of the race I wondered why I never realised how undulating it was in places…oh that’s right I was walking most of it last year and was concentrating all my effort on not DNF’ing.  Soon I needed my own comfort stop and bid the ladies to keep running and I would catch up…again I passed the same people for the 4th time now (we also had to re-pass them after walking through drink stations) while I motored to catch up with the ladies. As the end neared the pace slowly drifting out passed 6min/k but we were still overtaking fading half marathoners and 8.5km walkers.  The course seemed very poorly marshaled in this area (which I found out later was a common theme over the full course as a lot of the volunteers didn’t turn up).  With a kilometer and a half to go Colsy and Cakeboy came into view with their shiny CR caps on their heads and we high fived them as we crossed over Railway Tce for the home stretch. With 1km to go my ex-workmate Craig finally caught us (he was aiming for around a 3:30 marathon and I had been looking over my shoulder for him since the brewery).  I ran with him for a couple of hundred metres to see how he was going before dropping back to finish with Sunny1 and Sook54.  The entrance into the stadium was far better than last year as we avoided the car-park and we crossed the line together for a total time of just under 2hr08mins (sub 2hr06mins by sooks autostop/pitstop time). I was quite impressed with the size of the crowd at Santos Stadium and we managed to grab some of the last remaining half marathon medals.  The crowd out on the course seemed a little down on last year (most likely due to the weather) but we did manage to hand out quite a few high fives to excited kids.  Next year I hope to be back to the full distance and I can only hope for the same weather, but maybe with a little less wind.  Definitely a highlight on the calendar and hopefully the event and participation keeps growing.

*Credit for the photos to Mrs Itsfunatthebackofthepack

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