GP Press Run Race Report

The third race of the season was a great success for both Amber and myself! We were both a little nervous going into the first half marathon we've done in about 15 months but it turned out terrific. The race was a bit of a challenge because I knew I had some stiff competition going in, Trevor Kolkea (a triathlete from the area) wins all the local races and he is a very, very fast runner. I looked up some of his previous times and they were incredibly fast and I wasn't sure I was capable of keeping up with him. I forgot about all my expectations a couple days before the race and said to myself that I'm just going to do the best I can.

I started out fairly conservative and Trevor was right there beside me I could tell he wasn't pushing the pace and I slowed down to try to get him in front of me. The wind was about 60kms/hr in my face to start and Trevor backed off and tucked in behind me. I was running in the lead for a minute or so and I knew he was just going to draft off me the entire race and blow by me before the finish. I decided to put the hammer down at that point and if he could hold on and suffer like I was going to suffer then he deserved to win. I pushed the pace really, really hard and ended up running my fastest 10km ever- 35:50! I was hurting but the goal at that point was to simply hold on as long as possible and keep a distance between us. I reached the turn around and I could tell that he was only 300m behind so I did my best to keep the pace as high as I could handle. I reached the 17km point in 1 hour and I was shocked to see how fast I was holding the pace. I only had 4kms of hell to get through and I was determined to take it to the finish. I really suffered for the entire race but I managed to set a PR and take the win by 2 minutes- 1:16.25!! Amber also had a fantastic race winning and setting a PR as well- 1:35.42, fantastic job babe I'm really proud of you.

Amber with a super stong finish-