I really don't enjoy road running. The sense of achievement when you finish a HM, particularly if you've run well is great but other than that it's fairly monotonous. I entered the UQ Twilight Half Marathon event on Sunday night, knowing full well that it was more an exercise in mental preparation for the Scottish Ultra than anything else. I started out well, feeling very comfortable for the first 10km keeping a 5 min per km pace. Then at the turnaround for the second lap, things started to go slightly pear shaped. The course took a detour before the 2nd outbound crossing of the Green Bridge to make up the extra 1.1km on the second lap (The first lap was only 10km). This messed with my race plan and my head as I had set this bridge crossing as a "slow & steady" sector of the race. So when I saw the bridge coming up I didn't realise that I had another km to go. This meant that I started my "slow & steady" sector way too early and it seemed to take forever to get to the turnaround and the 5 km to the finish. After the turnaround (where I had hoped to make a big push to the finish) I started to feel a sharp nerve pain in my lower back which started to worsen until the hill leading up to the last Green Bridge crossing. Everyone was passing me, little old ladies, crippled old fellas, crawling babies, three toed sloths. I had to stop and walk up the hill. When I walk up hills I take fairly wide steps. Strangely, after about 10 paces the nerves in my back eased. it was like I was carrying someone piggy-back and then they got off. I felt fantastic and started running at about a 5 min/km pace. I started passing people like they were standing still (sort of) and even managed an Orangutan sprint around the last 300m of track to the finish line!
I had used the HM to test some of my gear which I had hoped to take to Scotland. Firstly the new Merrel shoes that I have been using hurt my feet and I managed to get small blood blisters on both big toes, They also seemed to retain heaps of moisture. I'm not sure whether it is the Gore-Tex that stops them draining. I have decided to stick with my trusty Salomon Wings.
I bought a shirt on Ebay. It is a CoolMax type cycling shirt with the pockets at the back. I thought that this type of shirt would offer sun protection, give my a bit of extra storage and most of all not give me any rash/abrasion issues. I was wrong.The shirt was made in Pakistan. I think they used a combination of sand paper, barbed wire and asbestos to sew the underarm panels. Suffice to say that I couldn't use underarm deoderant this morning.........
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