Watson - agree with Piwi, that's a good time on that course given you've hardly had an ideal run of training this year, well done.  I see Brian Garmonsway put up a solid 1:12 in the half despite fading a bit at the end.

Steve - excellent job and congrats.  I commented on Strava about how consistent your pacing was, really impressive.  The wind would've been a net negative but good job finding someone to work with at least for a bit, that would've helped.  I think you may also have set a record for getting your RR up the quickest too!  Andy Good is a beast, pretty sure he's still younger than 40 and he's been a core member of UC's very good relay team for a number of years.  Anyways enjoy the bourbons!

James - congrats on the World Series.  I did always find that name amusing!

Me - biggest week of the year and felt good enough at the end of it to give it a bit of a nudge on today's long run.  Next week will be a bit lighter due to the 3000m "race" on Saturday, fingers crossed for good weather.

Weekly for period: From: 01/11/2021 To 07/11/2021

Total distance: 104.22km

Watson - Congratulations, sounds like you did very well under the circumstances.

Steve - Congratulations as well.  I'm sure you're delighted with the time and the effective pacing, as well as with just getting a race in.  (Are you the last person on the board to race this year?)  If you wind up close to a PR or other milestone, it always helps to be able to say honestly that you really couldn't have done much better.  In response to your second post, I have two shelves of baseball history books and had never heard of the New York World/World Series angle.  From what I can tell from some quick online checking, some people say there's a connection between the paper and the name but most historians disagree.  Even the ones who say there's a connection say it was related to a previous incarnation of series in the late 1800s and not the current one that started in 1903, though I guess if the name was associated with the earlier ones, it could have been adopted for the later ones as well without there being a formal connection with the paper.

Thanks JMac.

I hate to ruin any of this, but I think I forgot to mention in the report that by the time we got to the headwind stretch the second time he’d fallen behind so we never got to work together. It was such a sparse race that it was impossible to find someone to work with on that stretch without altering the pace.

James - I think I might be (I don’t count the ChCh half which I ran at marathon pace as training for Wellington which obviously didn’t happen).

watson - Working until midnight is terrible before a race. I didn’t sleep well either but working is a whole new level.

Mark - Andy Good is in the 40-49 category now. So fast. Also forgot to say great week! 3 figures

Wairarapa Country Marathon (Half) RR

1:30:09
9th out of 49

https://www.strava.com/activities/6221946904

Early October each year, there is the Wairarapa Country Marathon which has a 5km, 10km, half and full.

However, this year, the Wellington event in June got postponed due to Covid-19 restrictions, to early October. And therefore, Wairarapa rescheduled for four weeks later.

November is not ideal for longer races due to the potential for it being hot as it's late spring. The other risk is a very strong northerly which makes the last 7km very

Wellington 2021 ended up not happening (this would have been Steve's marathon). As Wairarapa is a small event, it can happen under the current Covid-19 restrictions.

They cancelled the 5km this year due to managing Covid restrictions.

I've ran Wairarapa full in 2017 (slightly different course) and the half in 2020 (exact same course). The full is two laps of the half, except for a few small differences.

In 2020 I felt on track for 1:28, but then hit the final 7km false flat with a signficant head wind. I ran 1:30:18 according to my watch (not sure of official time).

I had a pretty good 8 weeks build up. After having a few injury issues the weeks before.

My 'A' aim was 1:27:30 which required everything to go right.

Due to injuries and lock-downs, from 2019 to 2021 (incl. this race) I've only raced four half's so I'm a little out of practice and haven't cracked sub 1:30.

The main challenge I had was that I ended up having to work to 2am the night before (from home) for a customers IT change which can only happen after midnight. The roll back time was 3am, so it went pretty well.

But that left me with 3.5 hours sleep the night before which wasn't ideal.

The wife is also running, so we got up 6am and leave about 6:50am.

It's about a 70 minute drive. The drive includes going over some ranges.

The forecast for Masterton (the town in Wairarapa) was very good, at around 14 Celcius with very light winds. It turned out to a be a little warmer and windier. Although for this time of year, I couldn't hope for much more.

It was very wet over the ranges on the drive there, but once I got to the flat of Wairarapa it was OK.

We got there about 40 minutes before. By the time I collected my bib and got changed, there was just enough time for warm up drills plus a warm up jog to the start line.

The full starts 1:45 before the half, so whilst we waited there were a few full runners that went past.

There was the standard brief, and then we start.

My 'A' plain was 4:14 pace for the first 8km, then 4:03 pace for the next 6km (this section is net downhill), and 4:08 pace for the remainder.

The first 6km pacing was exactly what I aimed for. Last years race I got a little excited early on, and was determined not to do this. I also had a club mate, Phil a little ahead of me that I expected to be doing 1:25 to 1:28 so I was careful to let him go.

I realized during this stage that the weather was not quite as good as I hoped for, a little warmer and windier. It was fairly humid. During this time there was 3-5 minutes of rain which was quite helpful.

As mentioned earlier, the conditions were 'B' conditions, so I'm not really complaining. I was just hoping that I could be really lucky and get 'A' conditions late spring!

At the 8km I realize I'm about 10s behind plan. The 8km was a little slower due to the first of the two small hills.

At this point, I realize that the 'A' time was not going to happen.

Somewhere around 10-11km I overtake a half racer. Excluding the marathon and 10km racers, this was the only person I overtook in the race. Excluding the first 50 metres of the race, no one overtook me.

The next person ahead of me is Phil who is slowly drifting away.

The 8km to 14km period averages 4:12km pace, original plan was 4:03km. I'm not in a position to quicken up. Although this period includes the second hill, which always feels harder than it looks on the map, it's net downhill.

I take my gel around the 12km to 13km mark, and take water at the next aid station, of which I drink a little and pour the rest on me.

The last 7km is a false flat with a total rise of 20m. Although not much, it is significant. Last year there was a really strong headwind. This year the forecast had it being crosswind although in reality is more like 45 degrees between head and cross wind.

Sub 1:30 is what I'm hoping for now.

Phil has drifted a bit further ahead.

The next km's are 4:14, 4:19, 4:22, 4:17 and 4:22.

There were a few cars going the opposite direction that went past rather quick and didn't give me much room, which was annoying. I made sure to give thumbs up to the courteous drivers.

My math thinks that 4:20 gets me just under 1:30. Of course this assumes alignment of my watch and the course. Given how few races there are it's pretty easy to run the tangents.

Also my watch normally reads shorter than other watches so it tends to be fairly good to estimate races.

The majority of the race is through country roads, but at around 19.5km it goes back into suburbia.

The 20km is 4:26, so I think sub 1:30 is gone now. I'll need a strong last 1.1km.

I've closed the gap on Phil, so although I'm fading, he's fading faster.

With about 800m to go I turn off the road and go under the bridge onto trail which goes to the finish line.

I'm not sure exactly how long to go, the trail by the river is a little windy so you don't see the finish line until quite late.  I'm hoping I can sneak sub 1:30, but it's unlikely.

I run past a few 10km runners at this point (their course is quite different).

It's just run as hard as I can and hope the finish is really soon.

I go over in 1:30:08 (my watch) which if 1:30:09 official. Phil had finished about 49s before me, I talk to him and find out he did have a big fade.

I also see another club member Brian and find out he easily won by about 8 minutes, with 1:12:something.

I have a few of the electrolyte drinks and then head back to the car. The athletics club that holds the event has a 200m running track (5 lanes only), a few people are running their cool down on it. So I do one lap, and whilst running it I realize it's bigger than I thought and is actually a full 400m track.

I then get changed and hurry back to the finish area, as my wife was also running, hoping for sub 2. At this point I'm hoping she hasn't done sub 1:55 as I'll have missed it. She finishes 3 minutes later in 1:58.

We then talk to a marathon finisher we know, and then we head back to the car for the drive home.

Although the time was a little slower, I'm fairly pleased as:
- This year has not been great. The 8 week lead up I'd definitely gotten quicker.
- The small races are harder than good size races (in NZ this  is 1000 for a half) as it's pretty much always running by yourself.
- I paced well. I'm much better off starting at 'C' goal pace, and then if I go well speeding up, and if not just trying to hold.
- With injuries, Covid restrictions, and terrible weather causing my ultra to be halved, this was the first 'A' race of the year. So it was really good it happened.
- The forum support. This course is actually net uphill 5m so if someone wants to normalize it to 1:29:59 then be my guest!

watson - I enjoyed your race report.  And yep, 2am makes it even worse.  I probably would have politely refused/rescheduled.  Great result for your wife.

If you get a clear run without crazy injuries, and a race on a nice course in autumn or winter, I have no doubt you'll get that A goal of 1:27.30.

DW - LOL, I wouldn’t know, no gaga for me yet except for that photoshop from Piwi. I guess it counts as Gaga costume though if I can't run sub 40 😎

Mikkey - Well considering superman could finish the race with 2 giant leaps, 38 minutes is super slow.

Steve - Super congratulations on going sub 1:30. So annoying coming so close to the PR but you got your sub 90 after a super long training block.

Mark - I think it’s just me pacing my brother in 2019 in the superman costume and you running with that fairy skirt once. 

Piwi - Got it, I’ll make sure to wear super tight lycra pants!

James - Ugh, sorry to hear about the cold but I guess it got you the break you needed.

Watson - Ugh, so close!

me - I had a very nice run on Tuesday, I felt really great and packed in quite a bit of elevation, also first pain free run after the marathon.

But then caught a cold and had to skip Thursday and Saturday. It's weird, I just get a super swollen throat making it hard to swallow and a headache.

Then got out there again today planning to run 10km but cut it short as I'm not 100% recovered from the cold yet.

On the bright side I've got the strength training sessions in and those are helping.

Weekly for period: From: 01/11/2021 To 07/11/2021

Total distance: 12.16km

Watson - yikes, that early morning at work would not have helped, especially then having to drive over the Rimutaka's to get to the race as well. I agree with Steve, if you get some good consistent training over summer you could target something in autumn.  Good RR, it's nice to have some RR's to read on here!

Steve - that was exactly my experience the first time I raced in the Next%'s.  I really noticed them with a few km to go when my legs were tired but I was still able to work and hang on to the same pace.

Flavio - urgh, bummer on the cold.

Me - the forecast looks pretty garbage for Saturday (warm, windy and quite possibly wet).  Oh well that's still five days away so a lot could change.  Either way it's only 7.5 laps!