The Hidden Half....Bankstown

Poser, I know! But how else can I show that shiny, 1st place age category medal, not to mention THE SKIRT!

Jim & I left Mittagong this morning at the unearthly - for me - hour of 5:30 a.m. & were at Bankstown just one hour later. So I had plenty of time to register & then do the usual 20 minutes warm-up.

A perfect day : sunny, no wind and quite a bit warmer than the Southern Highlands at this time of day and year. The start was right on 7:30 a.m for the half marathon which appeared to have a really good roll up of runners of all levels including those running the State Road Half Marathon Championships.

This is one tough course of 1 small loop and 2 long loops winding its way around the lakes, up hill & down dale. Very pretty, plenty of shade but the hills are real killers, so tonight the glutes are screaming from trying to run uphill and the quads from speeding down hill. I'm pleased to say I didn't walk at all, not even once! Nevertheless, I finished feeling that I'd been running all day and that the time must be somewhere in late afternoon!

No chance of getting lost or taking a wrong turn. The course was superbly marked making a wrong turn impossible & volunteers were everywhere they were needed. This has to be one of the best organized runs ever!

Around 10:30 the presentations began followed by the longest lucky draw I've ever waited for; but no win this year in that direction.

I was very pleased with my time though and that more than made up for any missed lucky draws! My 3 week horrible cold came back to haunt me over the last two days and I almost didn't get out of bed at 4:30 a.m! Glad I did!

The last time I ran in this event was in 2007 when my time was 2 hours 36 minutes.

Today's results : 2 : 31:05!
Avg. pace 7:07; Best 4:54
AHR 84%; MHR 95%.
5km splits : 33:53; 36:21; 35:24; 36:48; (7:73).

And on the strength of that mighty effort, I feel two photos are perfectly justified & I'm continuing my lucky streak of all this year's runs so far, being 5 to 7 minutes faster than those of the same events in 2008 & 2007!