50 Miles per Week: 02 Gold Coast Half Marathon
Mileage: 54.6km
Opened the week with a track session of 4 x 1km reps — misread the recoveries as 90 seconds instead of 60, so I really paid for it after going too hard on the first rep with a 17 second difference between the first and last reps.
Two easy runs through the middle of the week to balance out the hard efforts and stay tapered using the Heart Rate Monitor to keep the effort easy. I’m still learning the ins and outs about running to heart rate and it takes a fair bit of concentration to keep your efforts easy on the easy days. Thursday’s run to beat the rain spiked up the heart rate up trying to get out of the rain. Flew out to sunny Gold Coast for the first time on Friday ahead of the half marathon on Sunday, spending some obligatory time at the Expo picking up my race bib.

Surfers Paradise parkrun: I’ll admit that I’m a sucker for parkrun tourism so when I found out that there was a parkrun near my accommodation I couldn’t resist. In previous years they’ve closed the parkruns in the Gold Coast area for the marathon weekend, partly as the Saturday events clash with the. Main Beach parkrun which was the first to be established in Australia was closed for the weekend, but when I learned that Surfers Paradise parkrun was on for the weekend I knew it was perfect for a shakeout run. The objective was to remain calm and relaxed, controlling my effort and form and as my time suggests I may have gone a little too hard going out at a sub 5min/km pace to run a time of 23:48, but other than that was a fairly nice effort.

It’s a great parkrun worth checking out, a three lap course behind the Gold Coast Arts Centre, fairly flat and of course with beautiful weather and scenery to run through. It’s typically one of the quieter events on the Gold Coast averaging 30–40 parkrunners each week though there was a bumper crop of tourists bringing up the day’s attendance to 104. A warm thank you to the volunteers who made it happen.
Spent the rest of the day mostly off my feet, had lunch with some of the Crosbie Crew and feasted on pasta while watching footy on the TV, prepping my bag with all the gear I would need on the way to the event (extra shirt and an energy gel to start with), with the occasional foam rolling to work out any tightness in my legs.
Gold Coast Half Marathon 1:28:00 Personal Best
Despite a restless night, I got myself down to the race precinct at 5 am, where I got myself settled in with a slow 2km jog for 12 minutes and doing some strides before getting myself settled into the starting zone. It was surprisingly crisp for a Queensland morning in just my race singlet and shorts, but was banking on generating all the heat I would need The form and fitness was there, it was all a matter of bringing it out when it mattered.
When the gun went off we started slow through the starting line,running ahead and then with the 90 minute pacer for the opening few kilometers, getting through the crowds of masses before getting on the target pace. I didn’t want to be beholden to the numbers on my watch, but the opening kilometer was by far the slowest at 4:29/km so once I moved into space I made some. Mentally I tried to set a pace that I could hold onto and still charge if I had to, all the while taking in the sunrise on the Pacific Ocean and the scenery of the beach side suburbs.

After the first kilometer I managed to get my pacing fairly static at around 4:10/km pace and holding that for the majority of the race. At 29 minutes I had made the 7 km marker and a quick check of the math meant I was about on track for around 87 minutes at 21km. I’d say that this was the point that I was confident that if I could maintain my form and effort I’d be able to hit my goal. There was another confidence boost going through the 10km mark in under 42 minutes and again clearing 14km after the hour mark.
Effort-wise it didn’t feel too hard throughout, though I could feel a blister on my left foot which hurt to impact on and in turn altered my form slightly so there was a bit of concentration to correct that and on any of the slight rises from the bridges on the otherwise mostly flat course.
The final stretch on Marine Parade heading towards the end felt like it went on forever as my pace dipped just over 4:10/km though still under goal pace as the sides of the roads started to line with crowds, but after reaching the final post marking the last 250m of the race I knew I had clinched a new personal best under 90 minutes. In the final 50m I raised my hand pointing to the clock as validation that I had done it. My new half marathon personal best is now set at 1:28:00.

Post Race
Caught up with my teammates as we walked through the finishing chute to the event precinct and we generally all agreed there and then that the day was a huge success. The weather was perfect, the odds were in our favour and we all delivered what we expected of each other. You’d be hard pressed to wipe the smiles off any of us that day.

A fair few of my teammates were running the marathon which had started an hour after the half, so after catching up with after the half was done, I headed back to my room for a quick snack before heading down to the course right by my accommodation. I just caught sight of the 3-hour pacers and ran alongside some of my teammates to check up on how they were going 25km into the race. I give those guys nothing but credit as the Queensland sun was well and truly up by then and there was a noticeable difference in temperature running in and out of the shade and sunshine.
Watched the footy on the couch afterwards and caught up on social media, before heading down to a local bar for the celebratory re-hydration drinks.
Celebrated the personal win for next couple days, before heading home and easing back into my routine for the week ahead.
