Central Coast Half

Dean and I headed up to the Central Coast on Saturday afternoon. We made a stop at Tuggerah Westfield and I managed to score some really cool running clothes from Rebel (they had heaps more than Sydney) and also stocked up on booze at Dan Murphy's as they had a sale (was in the process of buying a whole case of my favourite sparkling when my Mum called me to tell me it was on sale and she was buying some, gee, wonder who I take after!!)

We arrived at the motel which I booked during the week. I had booked the only motel left which didnt require you to book 2 nights. We turned up and it was an absolute dive. It was like one of those seedy motels that hookers use in the movies. There was an odd looking couple there that were on holidays and were smoking on the front porch and drinking bourbon and coke cans, they were still there when we got back from dinner that night. Dean also told me that they were out there doing the same thing when he got back from dropping me off at the race at 7 in the morning!! We had trouble getting into a restaraunt on Saturday night as everything was booked out but managed to get a seat where all the CR's were having their dinner and they were pretty much leaving as we had got in.

Sleeping in such a tiny bed, the pounding rain and nerves meant I didnt get any sleep at all last night. I did get to have a bit of a laugh though when Dean hit his head on the corner of a shelf near the bed.

We rushed over to the race, and I entered the line for registration which was extremely long. I started to get worried that they would cut off registration and I couldnt enter but all was fine with the race starting 20 min later. Because of the weather I had decided to let myself have a bludge, but after meeting some other CR's that were looking to go around 1.50 I was busted and had to put in a little effort. It was a nice run on a really nice course. Very flat with a bit of a surprise hill near the end, which I didnt notice heading out. I dont think I have ever been so drenched in a run. The puddles were so big and it felt like every time I had drained my shoes I ran in another puddle and ended up with lead feet.

I managed to stay with the 1.50 guys for about 5km but just couldnt keep up. In hindsight, they ended up doing 1.45 and 1.46 so no wonder. I was very inconsistent with my km splits so I had no idea what finish time I was heading for. I really thought I was going to be coming in in around 1.51-1.52 up until I saw the finish line and had 1.48 on my watch and was very shocked. Ended up coming in in 1.50.10 which is a 12 minute PB for me, very very happy. I havent shut up about it all day. I started to think that I could have pushed a little further in the race as I was feeling pretty good afterwards and wasnt really puffed, but then a few hours later I realised how shattered my legs were from running on concrete and got over it.

Dean and I went for a nice big breakfast afterwards and then on to have a beer later before heading off to go car shopping. Was a great weekend and there was some really great efforts from lots of CR's with lots of records being broken this weekend.

Will post some photo's later.