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Gold Coast Airport Marathon - RunMarathon


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Gold Coast, Queensland
Australia
Queensland Events Corporation
9-16C / 0F
Sunny
Total Time = 3h 09m 54s
Overall Rank = 211/2291
Age Group = M40-44
Age Group Rank = 32/251
Pre-race routine:

Up at 4:30 a.m.,drank half of a Masashi p 30 drink. Also had one muffin with Marmite, and two glasses of water. Walked the two half kilometres to the race precinct. Dawn was breaking over the Nerang river.
Event warmup:

Even though there were 14,000 competitors I managed to find some room on the riverfront to warmup. The start of the half marathon helped to clear the crowds then I ran for five minutes, did some strides as well as a lot of stretching. Queued up the MP3 player to the right song, stripped off my tracksuit bottoms and hooded Nike top and pushed my way into the crowd at the 3 hour 15 pace balloon.
Run
  • 3h 09m 55s
  • 42.2 kms
  • 04m 30s  min/km
Comments:

It was a brilliant run on the flat course on a perfect day! When you set a personal best by 25 minutes and achieve your primary goal then it's hard to be anything other than happy! I was very pleased with my ability to maintain a very even pace throughout the course and also with my ability to keep up the mental pressure late in the race when I was feeling tired and sore. It's interesting that all through the race I was visualising crossing the finish line with the time clock saying in big yellow letters "3:09:00". And guess what? That turned out to be true even it was so only by five seconds. I wonder if that visualisation eneterd into my desire to keep pressing on as the race got longer and not allow myself to fade? I also think the other major change in my previous race strategies was to very much take this race 1 km at a time. I actually was mostly quite oblivious to the total elapsed time that I had been running and was more interested in what the pace was for the last kilometre and looking for the next kilometre mark to come by. But I mean that not in a desperate sense but rather a positive one of being able to say that I had ticked off another kilometre in the race. Overall I only had 2 "down" in moments during a race and they were very brief perhaps less than half a kilometre each. The first one that was at about 15 km when I had some gel and some reason it started my stomach aching. (I quickly remedied this by a big drink of water at the next aid Station!)
What would you do differently?:

It's hard to think of what to do differently given that the run was a great success. My hydration and nutrition were spot on and my pace and energy management was similarly very good. I guess that only leaves doing more training to get better!
Post race
Warm down:

Had a beer!! Having a Corona after a marathon I think is going to be a tradition having started after my first marathon last year. Also drank 600 mL of bottled water that was given at the finish plus an extra litre of Gatorade over the following 45 minutes. Also ate some jelly snakes. Felt remarkably good at the end and while tired and a little sore was not in as much distress as I had been after the Melbourne Marathon where my hamstrings were constantly on the verge of cramping.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I performed at my top level given the training that I had done. I achieved the target of being under 3 hours 10 minutes so it's hard to say what else could have been improved. Perhaps I could have had pushed myself harder over the last 3 km but I think that is easy to say in hindsight and overall my energy management was exceptionally good over the day.

Event comments:

A fantastic race that is well organised and has lots of volunteers. Even got a free (and very cool!) competitor T-shirt which isn't always the case were some other races. Great course to set a PB!


Profile Album


Last updated: 2006-06-26 12:00 AM
Running
03:09:55 | 42.2 kms | 04m 30s  min/km
Age Group: 32/251
Overall: 211/2291
Performance: Good
Only missed a few kilometre marks along the way, the first being the 1 km mark as I didn't see it through the crowd! Also missed the final 2 km marks as I was too focused on getting to the end.
Course: An 'open wing' out and back course down to Miami in the South and to Paradise in the North. Course was flat and fast with the only hills being the bridge over the Nerang River and also two short but steep bridges over the waterways towards Paradise. Got to run alongside the beach and see the surf for quite a while which was a very nice!
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5

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2006-07-04 1:46 AM

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Extreme Veteran
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, Queensland
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Subject: Gold Coast Airport Marathon


2006-07-04 5:05 AM
in reply to: #473293

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Expert
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5001001001001002525
Reykjavik, Iceland
Subject: RE: Gold Coast Airport Marathon

Congratulation ! Awesome race, and a PB by 25 minutes WOW That is just awesome

2006-07-04 6:27 PM
in reply to: #473310

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Extreme Veteran
393
100100100252525
, Queensland
Gold member
Subject: RE: Gold Coast Airport Marathon
Mesteren - 2006-07-04 8:05 PM

Congratulation ! Awesome race, and a PB by 25 minutes WOW That is just awesome

Thanks! It just shows what training properly can do! Next goal is to break 3 hours.

2006-07-04 7:12 PM
in reply to: #473293

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Veteran
158
1002525
Brisbane
Subject: RE: Gold Coast Airport Marathon

WOW!! beating your pb by 25 minutes is amazing, well done. You must be very proud of your super effort.

I was a pacer for the half marathon and I agree, it was the perfect day for this race.

Next time I'm hoping to run the full so I'll see you next year.

2006-07-04 7:30 PM
in reply to: #473293

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Extreme Veteran
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500100
Melbourne
Subject: RE: Gold Coast Airport Marathon
Ha! My jaw nearly dropped when I read that you had pb'ed by 25 mins. Holy cow, that's unreal, you deserve to be stoked!!! Congratulations. With improvements like that hopefully a sub 3:00 is in your sights.

Great photos too!
2006-07-04 7:35 PM
in reply to: #473656

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Extreme Veteran
393
100100100252525
, Queensland
Gold member
Subject: RE: Gold Coast Airport Marathon
pzdipr - 2006-07-05 10:12 AM

WOW!! beating your pb by 25 minutes is amazing, well done. You must be very proud of your super effort.

I was a pacer for the half marathon and I agree, it was the perfect day for this race.

Next time I'm hoping to run the full so I'll see you next year.

Thanks for the comments!

It was a cracker day - the wx couldn't have been better!

How did the pacing go? It's really good that people like you put in the time and forego your own PB's to provide that support. I'm sure that you guys help many people to get PB's that they wouldn't make on their own.



2006-07-04 8:02 PM
in reply to: #473293

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Veteran
158
1002525
Brisbane
Subject: RE: Gold Coast Airport Marathon

Being a pacer is very cool!! The 2:20 group I lead were super friendly and we chatted most of the way around. I was a bit worried about running at a slower pace then normal and worried that I might run too fast but the time just flew by and before I knew it, we had finished right on schedule.

The best part of the day was at the finishing line when people who I hadn't seen running with the group (they must have been just behind me out of my sight) came up and thanked me for helping them. It was the best feeling and it really left me on a high.

If you every get a chance to be a pacer you should do it because it's a hoot!!!

2006-07-05 12:59 AM
in reply to: #473663

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Extreme Veteran
393
100100100252525
, Queensland
Gold member
Subject: RE: Gold Coast Airport Marathon

Casie - 2006-07-05 10:30 AM Ha! My jaw nearly dropped when I read that you had pb'ed by 25 mins. Holy cow, that's unreal, you deserve to be stoked!!! Congratulations. With improvements like that hopefully a sub 3:00 is in your sights. Great photos too!

Hi Casie! - Thanks for the comments! I almost can't believe how much I improved but my training for this marathon was markedly different from the training for my first marathon last year.

In fact I used a training programme from the BT site and also had some physiological testing done to determine my HR zones accuratley. (I thought I knew what the zones were but I was quite wrong!) Add in some regularised training and voila! - an improved performance!

Next target will definitely be  a sub 3:00 Mary.!

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