Clatters Chatter: Racing Time

Yes another race! Last Sunday I completed the Nelson Half Marathon, despite being ill and sick for the build up. I never gave up and tried to keep pushing the whole way as hard as I could.

Well in the race there were over 400 people at the start line, so it was reasonably jammed packed. My friend Josef Scott was also racing but he had done a few half marathons before, but he had to stop and walk because of other issues in the past. So I was really pleased that he finished in 1.36 without having to stop.

Well my race. When the gun went out, I was running with the guy in first place just sticking behind him, he was aiming for a 1:15, which is what I was originally intending for. I didn’t know really what I was capable of doing as I hadn’t pushed myself in a few weeks really. Anyways we went out way to hard and after the race he even admitted it. 1st kilometer was 3:10 next kilometer was 3:15. I followed right behind this guy for about 5km then I had to drop the pace I knew it wasn’t sustainable for the whole race.

After that I was alone for about another 1km or 2km. Then the next couple of guys caught up to me and I tried running in a pack with them but even they were running 3:35 a kilometer. The first 10km I ran in 35:50 ish. which was way too hard, my race predictor told my I was going to finish in 1:12. Knowing this was good I had a little bit of excitement. After that I was sitting a few hundred meters of the third place and just stayed off him as much as I could.

It started to get really hot then and every single runner slowed down. My pace dropped to about 3:48 for quite a while as I was exhausted. I had pushed too hard, too early. The last 5km I told myself I was going to run in less then 19 minutes. I just accomplished that and I was running about 5 seconds a kilometer faster in the last 4 kilometers or so which was good.

The end of the race was slowly coming with less than 500 meters to go, I tried my best to pick the pace up and then the last 150m I gave it everything. When I crossed the line I was hurting. How can Eluid Kipchoge run a sub 2 hour marathon without falling over at the finish or hurting that much, its crazy.

I ended up finishing the Half Marathon in 1 hour 19 minutes and 20 seconds a new PB and I am really happy as I have raced one before. Also being sick for the last 3 weeks has not helped either. I reckon if I hadn’t been sick I could have run even faster. And been closer to getting that 1:15 that I want.

Thanks for listening to my commentary on my race I hope you have a race soon and this inspires you to keep pushing to go faster and do better than your previous time, place and pace.

Cheers Luke Clatworthy (Clatters Chatter)

view last weeks article below:

All Luke’s previous articles can be found here:

https://www.coachray.nz/category/client-stories/clatters-chatter/

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