Jetty to Jetty 1/2 Fun Run - my second ever 1/2 marathon

I didn’t have a lot of expectations for my 2nd go at a ½ Marathon. After I pulled up quite well from the Gold Coast event two weeks ago, I made the late decision to enter the Jetty to Jetty 25th Anniversary ½ Marathon. But as I say, without any great expectations – just go along, build on the confidence I took from the Gold Coast, have fun and see what happened.

In the back of my mind I did hope to beat my previous time but it wasn’t critical- more of a training run than an attempt to prove anything to myself.

I finished the run in almost the exact time – 2 hours 15 minutes 9 seconds (6 seconds faster) but two good things – I stopped for a pi%s stop that took about 2 minutes and the course was a LOT hillier. So overall I feel like I did better than last time. I also achieved my goal of – having fun (heaps!!), improve my confidence (yep- see above), and go with the flow.

The whole thing was good. It was a glorious pre-dawn drive to the north side of Brisbane, and to then get ready for the run as the sun came up over Moreton Bay was just special, a rare thrill. The run itself - as the name suggests – is a run along the coast, out and back to a jetty, through a Sunday market, along the beachfront, up and over hills, around the North Moreton Bay coast.

The best bit was I ran the last 2ks with a girl from the organising runners club and she encouraged me to run hard to the line ‘Knees up, pump your arms, push hard, go James go!” It was great fun, I felt like a runner (although tired) and I learnt how to push to the end. Thanks heaps to that nice girl.

The rest of the run was like a training run- just as I’d hoped. I found a pace runner for 2:15, quickly settled into a good rhythm, and joined a good chat with a bunch of other 2:15 runners. The chat lasted for 15ks before we spread out and got home on our own time.

So... a really good chat, a beautiful early morning coastal course, lots of laughs, a comfortable running pace and a great result. That’s a good way to spend a Sunday morning - No expectations, good exercise, lots of fun, and a huge feel-good factor afterwards.

More later, journey on.......
James





Word Count - 406