Race report: Goodlife Fitness Victoria Marathon

Date/Time: October 10, 2010, 9:00 am
Weather: 10ish partly cloudy with sunshine
Distance: Marathon
Gun time: 3:07:55
10K: 41:48
Halfway: 1:28:58
30K: 2:08:56
Chip time: 3:07:53 (4:28 min/km pace)
Age Group: 6/59
Overall: 109/2643

No need to lookout anymore WORLD, a Winstorm has qualified for Boston with a gun time of 3:07:55! Yep, I’m so flipping delighted; I have to say this feeling is dangerously contiguous! You have been warned. =D

So this past weekend, I was pretty much all business going to Victoria. They say once you have completed your second marathon, you can usher in the new coveted title of becoming a true marathonER. I did my first marathon in this same race two years ago with a time of 3:22:34, but I was just a rookie and ran a near positive 20 minute split. Yuck! I just remember being remotely incapable of running for 6 weeks after that race and the excruciating pain of course.

Zee 42.2K Run

This year I enter the race with a little more confidence in my abilities because of the 2008 experience and I have done a lot more mileage base training in the previous 10 weeks. It really did pay off, I must admit. I ran a near positive 10 minute split this time, which is a huge improvement. Maybe next time I can cut it down to 5 minutes and eventually even-Steven. That would be an amazing improvement on my style points, but until that happens I’ll take whatever finishing time I can get.



I ran with Vince pretty much shoulder to shoulder from start to the halfway point. We were banking a lot of time on our desired pace of 4:20 per km. Vince’s plan was to run faster (sub 3hours), but my plan was to try and hold 4:20 pace as long as I physically could. 4:20s would take me in with an expected time of about 3 hours and 2 minutes with about 9 minutes of buffer time to accommodate for any undesired kinks in the game plan. Fortunately Vince had an awesome race, pretty much holding 4:10ish pace for the remaining half.



I realized by the halfway point, my powerful cardio engine was too much for my legs. The calves and hamstrings started twitching. From about 22K onwards, I felt like if I ran any faster, I might pull something and would risk a DNF. I eased off the killer pace and luckily didn’t walk and started to just run base on what the legs could hold for at a comfortable steady rhythm. Gentle feather feet, I was thinking to myself.

By 32k, I looked at Garmin and knew I just needed a sub 50 minute for the final 10k to reel in Boston. That was my motivation to finish strong. Thanks to Scott and Celeste for bringing me home at the final 1km point.

I enjoyed the final stretch and totally cruised the final 200m with the amazing cheers from the crowd.

km Pace

1 3:50
2 4:04

3 4:09

4 3:58

5 4:11

6 4:17
7 4:12
8 4:17
9 4:17
10 4:09 10k Split: 41:48 (4:11 pace)
11 4:13
12 4:14
13 4:15
14 4:12
15 4:09
16 4:10
17 4:13
18 4:14
19 4:08
20 4:14
21 4:09 Halfway: 1:28:58 (4:13 pace)
22 4:14
23 4:24
24 4:24
25 4:25
26 4:30
27 4:25
28 4:21
29 4:37
30 4:40 30k Split: 2:08:56 (4:18 pace)
31 4:44
32 4:49
33 4:47
34 4:47
35 4:48
36 4:47
37 4:51
38 5:00
39 4:59
40 4:41
41 4:41
42.2 4:41 Chip time: 3:07:53 (4:27 pace)

This was a fun race with music and kids trying to high five me. Joerg Winter and Jesse Chao, my hostel roomies did pretty awesome in the half, both running PBs. There were also many other tri-club members doing the half and full marathon. I think everyone I talked to managed to get a PB, awesome and congrats! Also congrats to Liam Harrap for placing third in his age group for the half marathon! And congrats to Andrew for signing up pretty much fashionably last minute and deciding he would shave off 1 hour of his previous PB. Special congrats to Mel and Vince for also qualifying for Boston!

Thanks again for all the support World, really appreciated it. =)