This weekend was one of the most enjoyable in my running career. It had all the elements of why I still run even though my competitive days are well and truly behind me.
I headed down on a road trip with friends to Canberra for the 50KM road race that I have completed now a few times. Most of them had always completed the marathon portion of things in the past, but have never gone on to complete the short ultra that is the 50KM.
This year the organisers approached me to act as a pace target for the 3.30 grouping, and knowing that I had done a 42KM training run a few weeks back, I was confident that I was in good enough shape to take on the task successfully and comfortably.
The start of the event was the usual frenetic chaos that comes when organisers run a half marathon at the same time as a full marathon.
I got the bus moving quite well at first and there was clearly many people who thought they had the training and ability behind them to be able to complete their time goal. My pointer usually for 3.30 is that one should be able to run 45minutes for the 10KM and then you are in with a shot at things.
Long story short, my mates all managed to complete the 50KM with relative ease, proving to me that you can complete a 50KM race off of just using a marathon training program.
The highlight for me though would have to have been the 3 folks that started with me and stayed the distance the whole way to finish ahead of me – one of these blokes was on his debut and although I had my doubts, he showed some massive heart to gut it out to the end for a great result on debut.
This folks is why I run – a simple day of seeing my mates at the pointy end of the field doing their thing and of making new friends mid pack and seeing the genuine growth of love for the sport of distance running grow in people I had only met.
Running together (while making new friends on the course) – stride for stride on a life changing ride! – Sean Muller
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