Well following a limited training schedule over the last month that included a number of visits to the physiotherapist, sports massage sessions and the ongoing search for new runners.
Having tracked down the latest New Balance 850 runners with the assistance of Footpoint in Mosman I was very excited to be taking on my fourth marathon in four months in Canberra.
This would be the first marathon challenge in Canberra and would also be significant to return to a former home. I spent three formative years in the nations capital between 1991-1993 studying my first degree at the Australian National University.
I signed up for the Canberra Marathon late Saturday afternoon after a relaxing drive south from Sydney and then into Manuka for a pasta meal and early evening. The next morning I headed out for a early start to hit the streets of Canberra. It turned out to be a much larger field than expected with more than 1,100 competitors and many people clearly making the jounrney down from Sydney for the Sunday morning run.
I was conscious of the ankle injury sustained during the opening stages of the Six Foot Track Marathon and also very aware of the major marathon schedule ahead in May across Australia and New Zealand.
I spotted my good friend Stephen Jackson who managed to provide a little inspiration in the early stages where I pushed it a little harder to the point where I felt the left ankle so made the decision to not push it along too hard. I did start hard as ususal coming in under 55 minutes for the opening 10km. I then passed the 20km mark in just under 2 hours and it was not too long before the 4 hour pace group passed me.
The real pain had well and truly set in when the 4:15 group passed by and although the group leader attempted to raise my spirits and inspire me home around the 33km stage there was not much left in the tank to push along at the required speed. In the end there were a number of people going down with injuries and I was focused on seeing it through to the end.
As I approached the home stretch a friend Craig Bulmer ran side by side with me for around 500 metres to provide great support to see me take it home in 4:21:13. I woulls like to send out a big thank you to Kevin McCathy, New Balance, Andrew Taylor from Footpoint in Mosman and Susie Harrison ...
Now I will be focused on ensuring I have the right shoes and also working on the ankle recovery for the big month of May ahead with the Lion Foundation Rotorua Marathon on my birthday 2nd May, Sydney Half Marathon mid May and then Christchurch Marathon on 31st May. Hope to see you there :-)
