Newcastle Herald Hill to Harbour Marathon

I knew I was doomed for this event before I started.  Wrong attitude or realistic expectation?  I'm going with realistic expectation...

 

After a year long battle and a few near misses, I finally purchased my first house.  Unfortunately for me, the settlement date landed around six weeks out from the Newcastle marathon.  Unfortunate being that I had two weeks planned to do basic renovations and move out my current rental.  It was always going to be an incredible stretch to get all of this work done and still keep up the required kilometres for the upcoming marathon.

 

Needless to say, after two weeks of twelve hour days renovating, one-too-many tradie lunches, and almost no running, I was in peak condition for this marathon.  Nevertheless, I showed up on race day with all the gusto I could muster and had a crack.

 

An hour before the start of the race I was standing at the top of King Edward Park, laughing with about how this was going to be a disaster, likely make me cry, and still how I thought this would still be fun.  Only a few minutes later we were off and running.  It all started down memorial drive with a u–turn and back over the hill again.  So far, so good.  Next up we had a gingerly wind along the Newcastle beaches and foreshore.

 

Heading over Throsby Creek and into Carrington I was still feeling pretty good and keeping a 5:30 pace, which wasn't bad.  On the other side of Carrington, we started winding in and out of the coal works area and this got really confusing.  There were marshals directing people through an intersection that had more than a few paths, and to make it worse, they were all asking "have you done one lap or two?".  What the hell, right?  This was around the 24k mark and I had already lost my mind.  I couldn't settle in and all the twists, turns and tradie lunches started to take their toll.

 

I took a big sigh of relief heading out of Carrington and back towards the beaches, thinking that the worst was behind me.  A couple kilometres later, around the 26k mark, both my quads started cramping up and I started thinking, well, I'm a shot duck here!  I was able to press on for another 6ks which got me back to the foreshore but then the worlds biggest storm came in and started blowing a headwind that almost pushed me off the path.  I was already in trouble but with this wind, I felt near helpless.  I couldn't hold out any longer so I reverted to the walk–run–walk–run method, which helped keep me going.

 

Heading out the breakwall things only got worse.  Not only was the wind in full swing, the rain was absolutely torrential, so much so there was a couple inches of water along most of the breakwall.  I think it was at this point delirium started to set in as all I could do was laugh, which was kind of a good thing.

 

Back off the breakwall the end was in sight, except I had to pass it again to pick up a few more ks—man I hoped this was the last out–and–back.

 

Making my way back along the foreshore toward The Brewery hopelessness set in again.  I was literally falling apart.  My legs had all but cramped up and I was feeling completely demoralised after running past the finish line, again.  Turning around at the final witches hat was the most amazing feeling.  I now only had a couple ks to go.

 

It was now I summoned up every last scrap of energy and motivation and pushed for the finish line.  By push, I really mean hobble and cry.  Anyway, after a long few minutes I was trudging through the muddy mess that was now the finish line.  I honestly couldn't believe I made it.

 

I truly did thank God that it was all over!

 

Race Day Stats:

Distance:	42.195 km
Time:	4:28:50
Avg Pace:	6:20 min/km
Elevation Gain:	213 m
Calories:	3,001 C