Race Report: Western Sydney Marathon 2017

I had been pretty nervous going into this race - I knew I'd picked a mentally challenging one for my first road marathon. And with the combined forces of some stressful restructuring going on at work plus a few overuse injuries starting to appear after the Run Against Violence, my training had been pretty light on for the past few weeks (or should that be months?).

But there were also lots of things about this one that made it easy - it was very close to home, I knew the course, it was dead flat (although that's good and bad!), and lots of friends would be there running, supporting and spectating. Mostly I was worried about the heat but luckily on the day it was a little cooler than it could have been. Still warm, but not crazy-hot. That bloody wind however!! Gusting up to 50km/hr it wasn't so much fun as the day wore on.

The 'A' plan for this race (a very far fetched A plan I might add) was to aim for a 4 hour finish in order to qualify for Mt Solitary Ultra next year. Plan B was that 4hrs 20 and a Six Foot qualifier would be awesome. Plan C was have fun and keep smiling.

I figured that I'd need the 'perfect storm' of things to come together if I was to achieve those fast times but also knew I could hold that pace for a pretty long time so wanted to see how much further positive thinking and mindset training would take me. You never know till you try, right!?

I ran into Linda and Greg in the carpark and was excited to see Christy at the start line; I knew she'd be there spectating, and after introducing myself to Janelle in the toilets (so classy) I also spotted Lianne. She was rugged up and feeling very sick, but amazingly she toughed it out and finished.

I started comfortably and was able to hold 5:30 pace for 2 hours, giving me a half marathon PB of 1:59. I'd only 'raced' 2 other halves in the past, clocking 2:16 and 2.01, so not a huge PB. It was warming up and my calf was angry by that point, so although I tried to hold on I couldn't quite do it. I hadn't trained enough on road and had forgotten how much that pounding hurts after a while.

I thought the loops would mess with my head but surprisingly I was ok with the rhythmic predictability of it all.

Being dead flat there was no relief for the sore bits though! I zoned out listening to the Ten Junk Miles podcast and got fabulous high fives and encouragement from my friends. I wore my Salomon pack so had just enough electrolyte and gels with me so I was pretty happy with my nutrition strategy, considering I hadn't practiced what I'd need to eat and drink when running 'fast' for an extended time... not like trail running which is virtually an eating contest with a side of photography and jogging!!

6 extended laps of the regatta centre later, I finished in 4hrs 41, upright, smiling and not too broken, apart from a big toenail that's not long for this world. Last week I wasn't keen for another road marathon but of course I'm already thinking maybe I could give it another shot?