While we’d all love to think that our best race is still ahead of us,  for most runners there’s a race or a couple of races that already stand out as particularly memorable. Not necessarily the fastest you’ve ever run, though it might be. Not necessarily a race that you won, though it might be.

What it tends to be, is a race that was deeply satisfying because you achieved what you were hoping to…or surpassed the big hairy audacious goal that you’d set yourself. They’re the kind of races where you sit back later in the day and think, “I may run faster one day but, on this day, in the shape I was in, that’s the best I could have possibly done…my best race so far”. That’s a great feeling. 

It’s a sad thing if we can’t enjoy what we’ve already accomplished or are so driven by the pursuit of the goals we have ahead that we miss the opportunity to say ‘that one? that one was really good’.

These are the stories of a bunch of different runners from BT RunClub and their best races so far.

We hope these stories will inspire you as you chase your ‘best race so far’.

Here’s to the best races ahead…and running the race marked out before us.

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JULY:
GRAHAM KENT AND THE 2015 GOLD COAST MARATHON

The Second Album.

I’d guess that anyone who’s ever written one of these has had to do some pretty serious soul searching to make sure that they’ve understood fully the criteria which define the words ‘best ever’, and if they’ve had as much of a hard time as I have, they’re still not sure if they picked the correct one.

I’ve finally settled on the criteria of: a) In which race did I learn the most about myself, about running and about racing; b) In terms of results, did the chosen race hold anything significant when it came to the numbers?; and c) how did that race define both the next race and my running future?

Before the race, Gold Coast Marathon was expected to tick one of those boxes. Now that it’s done, I think with the right mix of success, disappointment, hindsight and clarity, it definitely ticks all three.

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When you’re waiting for the gun and the person next to you lets you know that he’s running his 26th marathon and that your goal is one that he’s still working towards, it’s not hard to recognise the Simonism ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ lacing up a combat boot with which he later intends to connect squarely with your bottom. There does not seem to be much middle ground with the BHAG, you’re either in for an incredible celebration or crushing disappointment. But just maybe, if you’re lucky, really lucky, something that finds itself in between the two with emotions to match.

So the gun goes off and south the run goes. I’d chosen not to follow the first pacer who was having an argument with the runner next to him but rather to run with Steve Monegetti, mainly because he’s Steve Monegetti. Only thing was that he’d started about 100m ahead of the 3hour groups the first kilometre was spent catching up with the pacer, 5 kilometres in and I’m tired, this is not how this is supposed to work! I check my watch for the first time at 8k, Ive been running 6 seconds per minute faster than I had planned and am nearly a full minute ahead of where I should be, this is not good! At half way I was bang on target but I felt I had very little left to give. I’d gone out too fast, I’d experienced stomach cramps, needed to stop for the toilet and to the sounds of spectator pity and disgust, relieved my stomach of a couple of gels and a fair amount of water.

This was where it was supposed to be getting hard, instead I’d crossed that burning bridge at least 10k ago. My A, B and C goals were long gone; the rest of the race was a mental battle to keep myself moving towards my newly acquired D goal. I told myself that as long as my time was 3:0.. all was not lost.

I crossed the line in 3:08:19, a great time for anyone who wasn’t targeting a time starting with 2.

It’s taken me almost a week to come to terms with what actually happened on the day, I’ve replayed every aspect of the race and in almost every one found something that I could have done differently. From not trusting a pacer who’s not running my race (and why would he) to more frequent self-assessment during the race I have come up with all the things that could have made GC a perfect race.
However with all of these revelations not changing my result even by a second I think I have come up with a good way to use my new found wisdom; It’s all just preparation for the next one.

The background of my iPad at work has the Pre quote “Don’t be afraid to give up the good to go for the great” (Which as it turns out is actually a John Rockefeller quote) and when I read that after this race I realised that however unintentionally it was, that was exactly what I had done. Not in the first few kilometres where my pacing was off, but during my training when I changed my goal pace from 4:25 to 4:20 to 4:15. I could have gone out at 4:25 and definitely run a 3:07 marathon, but running a 3:08 marathon meant that I might have run a 2:59.

Above everything else I learned in that race and in the reflection time I’ve had since then is that I am a runner, and that is what defines my race times, not the other way around. I think that it’s easy to use a disappointment to fuel your next training plan or inspire you to work harder next time, but my next race will not be fuelled by or measured against this race. Of course I’m going to work harder next time and of course I am going to race harder and plan smarter, but I am going to do all these things because I am a runner and that’s what runners do, not because Steve Monegetti owes me 8 minutes and 20 seconds