When we originally planned our trip around Australia I looked for half marathons that matched where we'd be. We didn't find too many, Rockhampton was just an accident. But I booked the Noosa 10km before we left Canada, even then the Noosa 21km race was full. That meant 6 days after getting a personal best at Rockhampton I had a 10km race.
To prepare, I spent the day before taking surf lessons and hanging out on a sunny beach. I was happy đ
It's a big race, there were over 2,500 in the 10km and then add in the marathon, half and other distances and you've got a lot of people in a small spot. This cramped area meant that to get to the race the organizers put on shuttle buses from around Noosa. Also the course is jam packed with cheering people, all the runners are doing loops on the same course.
The runners filter out into the narrow course filled with marathon and half marathon runners who started hours ago. So it was a single file start that took quite a while to cross. It messed up my warming up strategy I'd discussed with my running coach, oh well.
Our start time was 9:15, but in reality it was more like 9:30 by the time we crossed the start line. That meant it was warm and getting hot quickly as the Australian sun beat down on us. This grumpy old Canadian found it hot.
Because of the short distance this became a continual battle of controlling my heart. Too fast and too hot and I got into heart problems. Too slow and I wasn't going to get a personal best.
Fortunately there were 6 water stations and I grabbed water at every one. Eventually I was just pouring the water over myself to keep myself cool.
The crowd was lively and raucous the whole way round. It was an awesome atmosphere. For once I just had to take my t-shirt off and forget the embarassment I normally feel running with no shirt on to stay cool. Hey, it's Australia no-one knows me.
My fastest km was 5:01 pace and my slowest was 5:14, I managed to maintain a pace just in the right zone, coming across the finish line in 52:07, a personal best for me in 10km, by quite a margin đ
This was a great event and I'd love to do a half marathon or more here, I bet it would be a lot of fun.
This was my last race in Australia and New Zealand and felt like a really successful end to my trip that saw me doing three half marathons (with a personal best) and one 10k race (another personal best) in three months, roughly 40-50km running most weeks, 8 days backpacking and many photographs of amazing birds.