Tomorrow is the Fremantle half marathon. I’ve ran this race at least 5 times but the last two have been disappointing, both times finishing just over 80 minutes, and just outside the podium places. In both cases I had entered the race in a racing ‘slump’ of sorts. My 2013 times were a distance memory and the objective was to try and get close to my previous best times. I had convinced myself that 2013 was the finally year of running PB’s and the times reflected this.

Fast forward to 2016 and I’m hitting PB times again and have a new passion for running, not that it ever really left me truth be told. Where as previously I’d look forward to my one run a day, I now have two. Distance wise this has helped enormously and it seems to be the answer , for me anyway.

So can I PB tomorrow at Fremantle ? I’d say no at the moment. The 10k win last week took a lot of out of the legs and as I mentioned in a post earlier in the week I’m a believer in a day a kilometre to recover after racing. Also with the Rottnest half marathon in 2 weeks and the Masters Marathon 2 weeks after that I have two goal races to aim for. Fremantle, tomorrow, should be more of an indicator race. A race were you set yourself a goal time, normally just short of a PB time, one that will test you but not do the damage a PB run invariably does.

Of course if there’s a podium place up for grabs all this ‘indicator’ talk goes out the window. ! The 10k and 21k race start together and it’s a trait of the Marathon Club that you can decide en-route which race you decide to complete. I remember last year at the DeepWater Point 7.5k/15k race I was sitting in 5th place at the half way mark and doing the numbers realised I was 3rd for the 7.5k. A medal was too good to miss, so even though I planned to run the 15k I sneaked over the line for the 3rd place in the shorter distance and then continued for the second lap anyway. So rather than finish 5th with nothing I had a medal for 3rd in the shorter race.  I did take a bit of a ribbing from the boys afterwards but as I said to them at my age chances of medals are becoming slimmer and slimmer, you got to take them when you can. It’s all about the bling.

So back to Fremantle tomorrow, as an indicator race it would be nice to get a 1:17.xx time, anything quicker would be a bonus and be dependent on how I pulled up from the 10k last weekend and also conditions on the day. Currently as I type this post I’m listening to the wind and rain outside, not perfect conditions. A lot can change overnight of course.  As with all races you need to trust your training. If you are an experienced runner you normally know within a few minutes what time you will run. The shorter the distance the more accurate of course. For a 5k I can get to within 30 seconds, a 10k probably a minute and a half maybe 2-3 minutes. So anything over 1:19.xx would be deemed a bad race, but I would be playing the ‘tired legs’ card to keep up my confidence for Rottnest in two weeks. It’s important to be in the right ‘mind space’ for racing. Racing is a very mental thing and the right attitude will certainly gain you a few minutes. You need to trust in your training and don’t be intimidated by the runners around you. No point going out too hard with runners who will run a lot quicker, it may feel nice to punch above your weight initially but with running you will be found out. That being said because we live in such GPS watch dominated times I sometimes feel we hold ourselves back as per our training plans and goals. The days of the racing at ‘suicide pace’ and hanging on seem to be behind us, I mean imagine running without a watch, just by feel.