After many posts on running the Bunbury Marathon this weekend I have pulled the pin and decided to down grade to the Perth Asics Bridges 10k. This was the right decision for a number of reasons. Firstly, I have been struggling to mentally prepare myself for Bunbury, it is a race that has been one of my most successful as well as one of my worst. The course itself is testing and if the conditions turn against you , mainly due to humidity,  it can really test you. Thus you need to be mentally prepared for the worst case scenario and I realised today I just wasn’t. I have three goal marathons a year and two Ultra’s as well as a smatterings of WAMC races ranging from 4k to a half marathon. Adding in Bunbury just didn’t make sense. Finally add in the Australian Masters competition at the end of April , 4 days of competition, and Bunbury had to go. It’s the right decision but still the fear of missing out (FOMO) niggles at you.

So what does the competition landscape look like now. This Sunday I have the Asics 10k  where last year I was well and truely ‘chicked’ by Linda Spencer and this resulted in a 5cm calf tear that basically finished my marathon season before it even began. I had to miss the Perth Marathon for the first time in 11 years and my City to Surf Marathon preparation was disturbed enough to make it a sub 3 attempt at best, luckily I found some form at Rottnest to end the year on a high and start 2018 on a positive note. This year will be different, no getting ‘chicked’ and I’ll have a new pair of Vaporflys 4% to caress me around the course. A top 10 finish would be nice but I’ll settle for an age group win and a sub 35 minute finish. (first beard would be another target but these days there’s a lot of fast hipsters , luckily most will behind coffee machines serving customers…..)

After the Bridges I’ll concentrate on some speed work to prepare for four days of competition at the Australian Masters starting April 26th. ( http://www.mastersathleticswa.org/perth2018/  ) I’ve entered the 10,000m, 3,000m steeplechase, 5,000m and the 8k cross country. The Masters competition is great fun and I’m excited to run for Western Australia, as excited as when I ran for Australia in the World Masters in 2016.  Most countries run Masters competitions normally open to anybody over 30 (far too young in my eyes, should be 40 minimum in my opinion.) , trust me it really is great fun watching and competing in these events.  It could be worth turning up on Friday the 27th to watch me attempt the steeplechase as I have never ever attempted this race before and I have no idea how I will overcome the water jump. There may be a big crowd to see if I fall flat on my face, or worse, and end up starring in  a Youtube sensation. Is there such a thing as bad publicity , I’m sure I read somewhere there isn’t ? Either way I’ll need to pop down the track and see if I can even get over the hurdle and clear the water, maybe I’ll wear a wetsuit ?

There is also the 10,000m to look forward to , 25 laps of a 400m circuit. I’ve ran this race a few times and always lose track of laps but I believe for the Masters we have electronic timing and lap counting, I’ll still lose track guaranteed. I have no idea how people run these 24 and 48 hour ultra’s on 400m tracks, maybe I’m missing out on something but it doesn’t seem to ‘ring my bell‘, call me old fashioned.

The goal for the Masters is to try and win four gold medals like another runner we all know, albeit he runs shorter distances and a lot quicker. If Usain Bolt can do it then maybe I can too. Not sure I’ll get the same press coverage as breaking world (or even Masters) records is highly unlikely unless I can persuade my electronic lap counter to malfunction and knock off a few laps or more, you never know what could happen in the heat of battle, maybe I need to contact the Russians ?

After the Masters it’ll be back to marathon training culminating in the Perth Marathon in June (my 13th I think?) before my 10th City to Surf Marathon in August and finally my 12th Rottnest Marathon ion October. As I have mentioned before I don’t travel much but with the amount of quality races available on my door step why would I? Racing is life , the rest is details; or was the Strava, either way you get the message. To be your best you need to constantly challenge yourself and set new lofty goals and racing gives you the opportunity to do this. What would we be without racing, we’d morph into ‘joggers’ running on the spot at traffic lights and before you know it we’d be cocooned in leg warmers and day-glow head bands looking like an extra from Xanadu. Be careful people it can happen so get online and sign up for a race, it really can be life changing.