Great Ocean Road Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

We lined up at the start and waited for the gun to go off. Jo had said she would run with me, but I knew otherwise even with her knee injury she was going to blow me out of the water! I wanted to start slow and was glad that I did. The first 5km were up hill with the first 800 metres or so the steepest. I just took it slowly, knowing that come the 5km mark it would start undulating. In this time I was approached by a chic who liked my pace, so we ran together. The koala hanging in the tree was our first spectator. One guy stopped, pulled out his camera and took a photo (at 7kms to go he called his girlfriend to let her know he was on his way!).

At 8km I wasn't feeling so good. Just a couple of stomach pains, but I was determined to push on and thankfully it passed. At 9km I was excited by the fact that we'd got there in 55min. 5 mins faster than in training. At about the 10km mark I took a gu and at about 15km I left the girl I was running with to pursue a guy ahead of us.

We passed through Skene's Creek where Murray cheered me on. It all gets a bit hazy here. We had to run on a patch of road that was undergoing roadworks, this was hard going. The rain really started to belt down and the headwind kicked in.

The half marathon timing mat was a welcomed relief and after that it was hard to keep going for the last two kms. Think of it as a cool down, think of it as a cool down. The closer we got to Apollo Bay the more people there were promising us it wasn't much further. The cheer we got as we ran down the main street was fabulous. Felt like a rockstar, albeit a really slow one. People congratulating us, nodding knowly, clapping. It was just unreal.

The best part of the day was having the view in front of me of a rainbow starting from the left and going into the cliff tops on my right. In the middle some blue sky and Apollo Bay, my final destination. The coast line is seriously stunning and helped to take away some of the pain.


I said it last time and I'll say it again, hill training. I really should have done more of it to see if I could have kept my HR in check a little more. Still stoked with my run.

I'm keen to do more half marathons. I really suck at pacing. I hope one day that I can rock up to a race and run to my HR rather than it blowing out on the first hill!!

Should have, didn't. I was sore and still am sore. I did little to no streching. I crossed the line and Jo ran to me, giving me a big hug & kiss. I was so proud of her finishing her first half with an injury and on very little training. She had a great run, but painful.

Caught up with the others, everyone had a great time out on the course the best times recorded by Tom and Henry the young guns!

Even managed to down a post race celebratory beer. For me that's an achievement in itself. I can't believe I wasn't ill!


I was carrying more weight than I had hoped in this run. Still I was lighter than my first half. Talent as usual is a factor. As is the pacing issue. I probably ran out of my comfort level, but not too far out of it.


The race organisers did a fabulous job. There were 4 drink stations along the way, sadly some of them had run out of cups by the time we came through. Taking a bottle of water was a huge waste for 2 sips.

There was one confusing factor, the timing mat for the full marathon was about a kilometre before the timing mat for the half marathon. I didn't see any signs to indicate this, so when we ran through the first timing mat I thought that we were done for the half, only to realise we weren't. At that stage I had registered 2:07:00 and I'm pretty sure for the half it was 2:15 something - results for the half aren't up on the web yet.