Gold Coast Marathon

Wally World Warmup
We had a great time at the Gold Coast this past weekend. We flew with the kids up on Thursday night and settled into our accommodation near Southport, then headed off to Wet and Wild for a fun day Friday. We did all the water rides, including the Mach 5 ride in which you hurtle down a shoot almost vertical and end up with a huge wedgie at the bottom.

Saturday was Dreamworld, which was fun also. I somehow was the only one wanting to do the Giant Drop again. It's like sitting in a 8 person charilift ride that gets winched straight up slowly for 100m (the view from the top is awesome). After about 40 secs or so at the top, someone throws the switch and OOhhhhhhh... down you go. It's like taking a 100m whipper off a hard 5.11a lead rockclimb, and then wondering whether you are going to either hit the deck or the rope will pull you up just in time. Scares the bejeezus out of you. My hands were sweaty for about an hour afterwards.

Gold Coast Marathon

Race day was nice and clear. We were only 5 mins from the start, so Sophie and I got out of bed early, watched some World Cup soccer, and headed down there about 5.45am for her 6.30am half marathon start. We had underestimated the crowds, and while parking was easy enough, the porta-loo lines were long and Sophie found herself in line still with only minutes to spare. She pushed to the start and managed to get in the crowd before the gun went off for the half. I then headed to bag check and although had 20 minutes, I needed all of them and managed to get to the start with about 2 minutes spare.

I pushed into the middle of the crowd, as close to the 3:30 pace group as possible. I was about 10m behind them, and too embarrassed to push any closer. The gun went off, and I plodded on. After only 4km I needed a bathroom break, and ran to a washroom in a park off the the side of the course, so I lost a minute or so here. But generally I managed to crank out 4:40-4.50min/km pace and headed south. I felt a bit flat initially, but after 30mins or so slowly warmed up enough and felt good. I chatted to a few other CoolRunners and generally tried to relax as best I could.

I managed to turn around at 13km just under my goal of 65mins (63:30 or so), which meant I had a few minutes up my sleeve. The next 13km back to the start was were I had to concentrate hard on my form, style, and rhythm and try not to tire too much. I hung onto other runners as best I could, running in packs of 3 or 4, always being at the back. I felt I ran best this way, and could let my mind switch off for long periods of time. I drank water at every water station, slowing a bit and getting two cups into me. The kilometres soon clicked by without too much effort, and I ran 21.1km in 1:42:54 which was exactly as I had hoped and still felt strong.


As I passed the start (26km) I got some great cheers from other Coolrunners, and felt I picked up the energy levels again. The next 8km to the northern turn-around point was the key. I still felt good, but it was starting to hurt at about 32km. The last 10km was hard, and the legs were feeling sore, but managed to come home in 3:30:56 (gun) 3:30:16(net) 512th overall for a new marathon PB. Best of all Nat and Alex got out of bed and came down with Sophie (who had run 1:46 for her half marathon and gone home already) to cheer me on as I finished with a smile.

Nutrition

• Drank two waterbottles of Gatorade (1.5 scoops each), I filled the gatorade bottle with water at 10km mark, and started drinking at 45mins in, refilling with my own powder at 1:45 or so. I think I need to start drinking Gatrorade at 45mins (not 60mins as I used to) so that I get carbs earlier so that I fade less.
  

• Ate one full gel container of home made gel, lots of water each time.

• Drank one enervit drink about 40km (tasted terrible).

I found my nutrition was perfect. I felt heaps of energy in the end of the race, but the legs were hurting from the pace and the lack of long runs (longest was 2:40). Overall I am pretty happy.