This is my second marathon race ever; 3 months after the virgin marathon race which seems to be enough window for two consecutive marathon races – if only I were not following triathlon training plan which is always demanding yet addictive and fun.
It’s been one month after Perth Marathon 2017, so I’m a bit behind on posting this race report as well as the previous races, which is probably appropriate given it’ll match my running of the actual race. After all, I won’t say that I am fond of running given my average pace 8 on running leg at 70.3 Ironman Bintan last year. But, I keep on finding some ways to improve it as an aspiring newbie triathlete. Running this race is one of them.
There’s always one ‘A’ race among the races where I took part throughout the year. Perth Marathon 2017 is definitely not the one 😉 .
My ‘A’ race this year would probably be the Ironman Western Australia IMWA 2017 in Busselton in Dec. Prior to the IMWA 2017, I’d likely take a couple of 70.3 Ironman and one more marathon race to keep the adrenaline high up and HR threshold intact. Yes, it seems too much for a newbie like me. Well, at least you won’t hear 50 Ironman races in 50 days in this report like what I heard somewhere 😉
So, the Perth Marathon 2017 is important to me as a build-up race towards the ‘A’ race as well as help boosting up the confidence. And who would deny the latter as far as the Marathon is concerned?
Registration
I found out about this race from the website of West Australian Marathon Club (WAMC) who organizes this annual event during the winter in Perth.
As a flat-course fan I am, the 42.2 km marathon course in the course map had convinced me enough to sign up for this race. Let alone the beautiful scenery along the running course and swan river has to offer.
There’s a small issue, however, during the online registration. The registration website somehow only accepted the residential address within Australia. It was cleared after I wrote an email to the organizer. They advised me to use the WAMC address in Burswood instead in my registration. It worked well.
Preparation
I’ve then decided to sign up for this race quite late which coincides with one-week family vacation trip during the June school holiday. Now it becomes my habit to check the race calendar in my trip destination. I am pretty sure most of you who read this report would probably do the same thing.
As a result, I ended up having about one month prep for this race, however, thanks to the Triathlon training that I have been pretty much doing quite consistently, although running is 1/3 part of triathlon discipline, it helped my prep a bit for the Perth Marathon 2017 race.
The longest run I had was 32 km interval run on the treadmill two weeks before the race.
Perth Weather
We arrived in Perth on June 13 and plan to return to Singapore on June 19. The race day is on Sunday, June 18, hence, I had quite enough time to acclimatise the cold morning of city of Perth. The temperature had been between 6 and 10 deg C at 7.30 am – the start time of the race on Sunday. Both my hands definitely can’t bear such low temperature without the hand gloves, so I’m used to wear them during my morning jog for a few days prior to Sunday.
At mid-day, the mercury shoot up a bit to 20-23 deg C which is a very nice weather indeed.
Running Course
The run course is generally flat and fast along the scenic Swan river. I recall there are only two steep ascents (four in total due to back-and-forth route) when we had to cross two bridges; one of them is not far from the start line while another is near the King’s Park Botanical Garden. It was such a nice surprise to me running for the first time here and to see the scenic surrounding Swan River for the whole 42.2 km marathon distance.
Race Day
The weather forecast for Sunday is drizzle 8 deg C in the morning and max 21 deg C at noon. The forecast turned into reality as drizzles started to pour since I started driving from Perth Vineyard into the start line in Burswood.
Lucky enough the drizzle stops before the race starts but the wind still blowing hard. I was shivering and my arms and face were turning white with cold. I had to keep doing the dynamic warm up just to make my body warm before the race starts.
The start line is a bit narrow if compared to marathon races in Singapore. There are about 700 runners and 170 relay teams who compete in this Marathon. The pacers are also available for sub 3.00 hours, sub 3.30 hours, sub 4.00 hours and sub 4.30 hours. The organizer had done a very good job to provide us with sufficient water stations and smooth flow of the runners as well. Beside the great and scenic running course, those are the things that I love about this race: A quality race that comes before quantity.
Off we start running at 7.30 am sharp. I was lucky enough to run alongside sub 3.30 hour pacers at the start line. They are really useful to keep my running cadence and pace consistent so that I could maintain sub 5 mins/km average pace up to the 14 km mark. We ran towards Maylands and there’s a u-turn at km 6.3 back towards the start line. It was really great to see the spectators and fellow Relay runners cheering us on when we passed by the start line once more.
At km 14 water station, I stopped for a while to stretch out my hamstring muscle that seems to start having issue. Luckily, it got better and off I went running again and this time without the pacers.
Without them as well the number of spectators are running thin along the way, I could feel that I was getting slower and passed the 21.1 km mark at 01:51:38.
The second bridge from the King’s Park Botanical garden towards the Finish line is somewhat a huge challenge for two valid reasons: the steep climb and at 33km mark, Yikes! 😉
I was still hopeful to aim for sub 4 hours since I have not met the sub 4 hour pacers there. But then, they eventually chased me out at around 39 km mark and off they went passing me by.
I still did not lose hope then. I kept trying to speed up my cadence and managed to be back at sub 6 mins/km pace in the last km. The sudden change in my running pace hit my hamstring muscle once more, this time is more painful. With limping legs, I kept on running as fast as possible towards the finish line with the hope to finish the race under 4 hours.
But then, I realized it was a bit too late of efforts when I saw the finish line timing displayed 04:01:30.
Nonetheless, I could not ask for better result after all-out efforts that I have given in.
