Well Onehunga Half Marathon was my “warm-up” for Auckland. It gave me an opportunity to check pace and see how things are going.
It’s the 3rd time I’ve run Onehunga. 2013 was my first ever run/race, and it took 1:46. Then 2014 took 1:35 and this year (2015) it was 1:33.
This year Barry McGee is my coach, and in his words: “Any idiot can run the first half of a race fast, and I emphasise idiot” So… the pressure was on for me to run the 2nd half faster than the first.
I ran the first half conservatively at 4:35/km pace, with things just “ticking along” (which I reckon will be about Marathon pace for me) then around KM 11, I slowly increased the pace, till at KM 16 I was up to 4:15/km, then for the last 5km from KM 17-21, I increased the pace to 4:05/km. I was over taking people at that stage quite quickly as their pace dropped off. The last stretch up the hill to the bridge was hard going, as were the steps going down the otherside, but I managed to ramp the pace up to 3:30/km for the final 400 metres.
The conditions were perfect, sunny, cool and no wind.
I think I ran a good race; though in hind-sight I would have run the first half slightly faster. It turns out that I ran the second half 2 minutes faster than the first half, which meant I cruised a bit too much at first. Live and learn as they say.
Overall the day was great. And it was great to finish strongly too.
Want to see some actual detail? Strava lets you view it here:
https://www.strava.com/activities/400812786/overview
Would you like to sponsor me and help out Oxfam with their amazing work? Check out my Oxfam page here:
https://www.oxfam.org.nz/fundraise/dion-blundell-auckland-marathon-0