Since it's been a little lean on here, I thought I'd write a race report for the City to Surf half marathon.

Training over the last 6 weeks has been going reasonably well. I had a lot on with setting up Stadium Tri Club's high performance squad and buying my first house.... Yes that has caused me to think am I doing this professional triathlete thing right????

I've been pretty happy with my decision of setting myself for two 70.3's in Oct and Nov. If there was just one race, I would have been tempted to put a few over things first in front of training.

Heading into the race, I had my best block of running volume since my hip fracture 3+ years ago. Progression has been slow, but my body can handle the big weeks now. I was tempted to train hard right up to the race and in the end I gave myself two days to taper.

Last year I went too hard early in the 12k race, so I started 3 or 4 deep to control my start. Once underway I was just a little back of the Africans and a few other runners trying to hold them. I was nice and controlled up the first hill in around 8th position and started to overtake a few on fraser ave.

I was feeling good and keeping an eye on Michael Kent in 5th who had about 50m on me. The hills weren't feeling great, but I was feeling fast on the down hills and flats as I traded positions with Stephen Stockwell a few times. Leaving Kings Park I had opened a gap on Stephen, but the gap to Kenty was growing, but I was still confident of having a crack at closing it down.

Out of Kings Park and Cormac Gallagher came by I latched on to the back of him. It was a increase in pace and I was cursing myself for being a little slack. As we went through Subi we were flying! I didn't have my garmin (it died the morning of the race :( ), but would guess it was below 3.30pace.

Cormac was running well and was my ticket up to the top 5, so I gave him a target (Kenty was 50m ahead) and some confidence. We went by Kenty in Jolimont and he didn't hop on. Things were looking up, but the hill up to perry lakes was coming up.

I just couldn't hold onto Cormac up the hill, it was only 5m but I was at my limit after the last 5k. My breathing rhythm went and I was left battling a stitch. I didn't lose too much over the next km, but Kenty came back past me in Perry lakes. I hopped on, but knew I was in trouble as we turned left and up the final hill.

My legs were cement, quads and ITB's were not happy with me. Kenty was gone (nice even paced race), but I pushed on as best I could. The downhill wasn't much relieve as I couldn't open up.

Onto the final straight and I was passed by one competitor and then Stephen came by. I just saw him and tried to go with him, but again my legs had had enough. I finished in 9th, in just over 78 minutes.

It was a little disappointing not being able to finish off the last few kilometres, but I had a good run for most of the race and a longer taper would have solved that fade out at the end. The signs are good for Mandurah 70.3 in October.

A little bit of active recovery and I'm sure my massage at BodyRight Massage on Tuesday is going to hurt and then back into it.

Mikey