Stunning autumn morning made for great conditions as the
HuRTS masses lined up for this year’s SMH Half Marathon. A good warm up with Tommy and Taffy Lad before
doubling back and running with the ‘Jordan’s’ and in the process got a snub
from man in form Jeet who simply blanked all three of us (and Erika even had
her name on her bib). The obligatory photo at the Stone Pillars before the gun
is fired and we are off.
Had the honour of The Chairman Tommy H helping me out for
the morning and after giving him instructions on the pacing I was set for some
good company for hopefully a sub 83
Settled early for the easy first 2ks (even if it was a little
bit fast) and got over the first little climb of the morning down near the
Quay, Moving along fine and all of a sudden we have our own little ‘unofficial’
pacing group as about 10 people asked and decided to join us. Was ticking the ks
off pretty much as I wanted as we made our way around the mazelike Pyrmont area
and then got a shock when Laura James appeared from nowhere (at the 7k marker)
as she started her relay leg. Felt my first drop in pace coming around the 10
marker where I was starting to feel any little climb but was happy enough then
to be able to make it up on the downhill and latch back with the group.
Back on the expressway and I was happy to leave Pyrmont and
Darling Harbour behind and even happier when we caught up with North Shore boy
Justin and Cookie (BRATS) who had blown up and were in the hurt box at 14 ks. A
bit of relief as the crowds appear on the corner of Sussex St and then hit the
trek back down Hickson Road before the fun really starts at the squashed car.
Pete Walker and Paulie Hannell give a big shout out and I’m struggling to get
to the top of the hill, needed all the kind words of encouragement from Tommy H
to get me up that one, but that was easy compared to the one that gets us up to
the Bridge.... Bloody Hell, that nearly broke me and my only saving grace was
on the hairpin back down I couldn’t see Erika Ekland or any of the 85 minute
pacer boys. Once again make it up on the downhill through the Cahill but pretty
much onwards from the 17k mark I was in survival mode. The pack started to get
away from me coming up Macquarie Street and great to see Champ having the run
of the day staying with them in the process. At the top of Macquarie you see
the finish line and the top 3 are all just coming in but I’ve still got the
best part of 4ks to go even if it is on familiar ground. I give a huge shout
out to Hoey who is another having a blinder as I try to focus on lifting the
cadence on the easier section down to Mrs Macs.
Once more anything less than pancake flat and I’m whinging
about more hills and I swear the gradient in that last hill before the flyover trebled
since last Tuesdays session.
One final blast from ‘H’ to lift to finish strong was called
for but as much as I wanted there wasn’t much left in the tank, Got loads of
support over the last 200m that seemed to help and dare I say it even managed
some sort of kick for the final 50m to the line. Stopped the clock in 83.20
that all things considered I’m relatively happy with. Averaging 3.55 pace for
the day’s work. The 5k splits that I had were;
18.55, 19.15, 20.12, 20.26
Tommy H had a list of all the individual ks that I will post up
in tomorrow’s blog.
Once again there were some fantastic times from the gang, with
another host of PBs across the board despite it being one hell of a tough
course. Great runs from Jeet, and Brucie , and the Prince continues to impress
with another superb run to get a top 10 placing. Jac run well for a 92 (course
PB) – even if she did get DQed for not starting in the right group.
The Timmy Run of the Day though goes to Champ who said from
the start he was going to run with me and executed it well with a massive 5
minute PB to stop the watch in 83.01
Many thanks to the Chairman Tommy for all his help this
morning it was great to have him running with us and to see him back out
running, I didn’t finish as I was hoping, as secretly I was looking for 82 something,
but on a tough course with the hills I honestly would have struggled to break
85 I reckon without his help.
With the running out the way the serious stuff was to get
started in the afternoon on the social side, did a little crawl around Slurry
Hills before heading over to Double Bay to meet the gang. As usual top night
had as the banter flew and great to see Jerome out with us as he took his Irish
beating in good grace as part of the Churchill /Sands Cup.
Funniest sight of the evening was seeing a very merry birthday
girl Laura carried OUT the boozer by b/friend Wol, as Taffy then had his Beer Goggles
on and Jeet was in cocktail mode as his eyes were going in all sorts of
directions, not to mention Corky O’Connor wanting to join team England next
year.
As usual great night had by all and we’ll be doing t all
again this week for Mikey’s farewell on Thursday.
Some photos from the race day and evening .
A few during the race and its not often you would get to beat 2 out the 3 top HuRTS runners in a race but that what I did - claiming both Barts and Tom by a mere second.
HuRTS Top 4 - apart from Prince Ho at #1 , I'm not sure of the batting order after that on todays results.
Cheers
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