Melbourne Half Marathon

Early Morning Preparations

I woke up bright and early at 5:30 am, beginning my race day with three pieces of toast spread with apricot jam, a glass of orange juice, and two multi-vitamin tablets. On Friday, I had collected my race kit from Melbourne Town Hall and bought a box of PB sports gels, even though I had never used them during training. I briefly considered taking one before or during the run, but common sense prevailed and I decided against it. I plan to try them next week instead.

Getting to the Start Line

My running mate and his wife (Dale & Sharon Attwell) picked me up at about 6:25 am. We made a quick detour to the Arts Centre to pick up another friend and then continued on to Ricketts Point. We arrived at the car park around 7:30 am, greeted by a bitterly cold morning. Our parking spot was situated roughly 300 metres, maybe more, from the start area. To keep warm, we stayed in the car in our track-suits, taking the opportunity to do some stretching in between. The cold made it tough to spend much time outside.

Pre-Race Warm-Up

With about ten minutes until the race started, we took off our track-suits and began a slow jog towards the starting line. The area was packed with runners, and as we approached, the cold quickly faded into the background amid the excitement and crowd. Although I didn’t hear the starting siren or gun, I saw the runners in front surging forward, indicating the race had begun.

The Race Begins

I intended to start my stopwatch as I crossed the start line, but with so many runners and unclear markings, I missed the exact spot. It wasn’t until I had run about 400 metres that I managed to start my Garmin Forerunner 301. Once I settled into my rhythm, I maintained a pace of approximately 4:30 per kilometre from the second kilometre onwards. The first kilometre proved difficult to get up to speed due to the sheer number of participants.

Pushing Through the Course

At the 16 km mark, I had planned to increase my pace, but found it was becoming more of an effort as my calves started to tighten. Although I couldn't speed up, I was determined not to slow down, and managed to maintain my pace. Approaching the 20 km point on St. Kilda Road, the finish line came into view and I managed a final burst of speed. I crossed the line at 1 hour, 36 minutes, and a few seconds, feeling reasonably happy with my performance. My goals for the race were to run at a sub-5 minute pace, finish under 100 minutes, and, ideally, break 90 minutes. While I did not quite reach my third goal, I was satisfied with my results.

Official Results

Update: My official time was 1:36:58, placing 427th out of 2,823 overall and 24th in my age group (45–49).