Team Moore results
161 Roger Pilkington 3:18:08
177 David Webster 3:19:15
238 Cathy Newman 3:26:40
360 Gary Bowen 3:39:27
544 Geoff Moore 3:58:38
597 Ruth Baussman 4:05:17
598 John Stoney 4:05:17
722 Peter Hogan 4:27:15
I have never seen anyone as comfortable and happy as Cathy looked with about 7km to go.
Post Marathon Thoughts
I don’t know what happened with some of the other pacers and pacing groups, but I was fortunate to feel pretty good all the way (and when I felt bad I recovered fairly quickly) and managed to maintain the pace and finish very comfortably. What was good was that the four hour group started nice and slowly, worked up to being slightly ahead of schedule, and could afford to ease back slightly up the hills, so they were never extended beyond their capabilities and also felt good at the end.
Another interesting thing was that, although I was an official “Pat Carroll Pacer”, there were no detailed instructions about how I should do the job in hand; perhaps he simply trusted me to do it right, but that would explain why a couple of the other groups self-destructed if he also gave them minimal or no instructions. On the other hand, Pat kindly organised a racing singlet and a belt for me on top of the free entry, so there is no way I can fault his generosity. And I don’t know what happened to the other groups, there may be explanations, lots can go wrong in a marathon!
Another interesting thing was that, although I was an official “Pat Carroll Pacer”, there were no detailed instructions about how I should do the job in hand; perhaps he simply trusted me to do it right, but that would explain why a couple of the other groups self-destructed if he also gave them minimal or no instructions. On the other hand, Pat kindly organised a racing singlet and a belt for me on top of the free entry, so there is no way I can fault his generosity. And I don’t know what happened to the other groups, there may be explanations, lots can go wrong in a marathon!
My pacing experience - perfect pace judgement?
The run was not dead even – as those who followed me closely all the way will know - I did stop a few times, once I disappeared into the bushes for a longish pit stop, once at a drink station when I let the pack go through first so I wouldn’t slow them down, and twice when different niggles caused pain!
And as far as comparisons with other paced groups are concerned, to be fair, pacing a four hour group might have been easier than pacing faster groups; more margin for error at the slower pace.
Lots of thought and planning went into it; I worked out well in advance the pace I wanted to run for each km and also I practised running at that pace a couple of times ahead of the day. Then there was the challenge of keeping to that pace on the day, but it wasn’t so hard.
I deliberately eased back with 7.5km to go – the plan had been to slow down at 33km – few in the group were keen to slow down then so they moved ahead and left me with a few who were happy to slow down with me. I wanted to finish just a little under four hours, in particular I wanted to be able to be seen by other runners coming up behind me, so they would know that they too were on target for fours hours. Quite a few runners caught and passed me over the last few kilometres as I jogged home.
I was very comfortable and could have gone much faster at the finish, it was fun. The belt I was wearing and the flag behind me were no problem whatsoever, I hardly noticed them after all. My only “injury” is a raspy throat from four hours of talking and shouting! And a bit of sunburn. The quads will feel tired later today or tomorrow I expect. No blisters, no new injuries!
I actually went for a warm down jog afterwards! Another big surprise is that I didn’t lose any weight during the marathon. I didn’t eat anything; gel or anything else. I hardly sweated. There was no dehydration.
I actually went for a warm down jog afterwards! Another big surprise is that I didn’t lose any weight during the marathon. I didn’t eat anything; gel or anything else. I hardly sweated. There was no dehydration.
I will still probably come down with a cold as usual; and as I end this report, I can feel my quads starting to tighten up.
Coolrunners
After the marathon was well and truly over I ran a few kms with Horrie and Lucky Legs as they completed the 50km event together (I’ve never done a cool-down jog after a marathon before!), also great to meet Lulu and Steve, and many others for the first time.
My progress
last week’s target not advertised!
achieved 100km
this week’s target 60km
weight 64 kg, weight loss -1 kg, total weight loss 3 kg
song of the week “Sunday Bloody Sunday” – U2
How long...
How long must we sing this song?
How long?
how long...
- just one of the songs we sang on the run.
Some of the four hour group at the 30km mark
