Fraser Darcy

Last week I was sitting down to write the blog on a Thursday. This week I’m sitting down on a Monday afternoon. What is happening in the world, where has the structure gone, it’s anarchy.

It’s not really. What it is is I was just very busy last week and on the weekend. The price I pay is that this blog is getting written on a Monday. But hey, at least it’s getting written which is the main thing. What was keeping me so busy last week?

Work. Writing programs and preparing a booking system for a new gym for RunAsOne. The end of the month is always a frantic time trying to ensure I leave enough time for the runners I coach to put in more training before I write their program for the next month whilst leaving enough time for myself to actually put the program together. I started this process on Monday last week and just ran from home in North Brighton instead of Belair. That’s right, no Belair Monday morning (jeez, all the structure really is gone). It was a good easy 14km’s in a new pair of Novablasts though and by the end I felt pretty recovered. I spent most of the day writing programs, going for another arvo run, cooking dinner and then booking some Europe things for later in the year.

Tuesday. RunAsOne session day and on the cards was a session of 600m on, 400m float. With this being the final hard Tuesday session before the Launceston Half Marathon on the weekend I wanted to get a good hit-out and average above goal half marathon pace (3:05/km). The only caveat was that I was only going to do 6km of work as that’s my usual recipe for tapering for a marathon and this time around I wanted to try that recipe out for a half marathon taper.

I was off the back of Jacob in the first set of reps but held my gap pretty consistently. I didn’t look at my watch and just ran to feel until I started seeing ‘km splits’ of 3:00 and 3:02 come up. Oh boy, I’m on here. It felt good too. I thought about blasting off at one stage to try and catch Jacob but kept my ego in check instead. Save that blasting off energy for Sunday. After the session I did a little bit of work, a little bit of gym and then a lot more work. When the pressure is on to get programs out on time I tend to get more done. To celebrate hitting the amount of programs I wanted to get written I treated myself to an easy arvo jog and a sauna session with Fin. It’s all very easy to do that when living in North Brighton. I’ve definitely settled in now having come to terms with the quiet unit life in the suburbs by the beach. In some ways, it’s like Port Victoria life… quiet during the day while Alice is at work, beach is only a short jog away, I have to pay for my groceries…

Wednesday. Crunch time. I wanted to get most of my programs finished off today so I could use Thursday and Friday for sending them out and answering any queries. Hence, I skipped my usual morning run in the city with Jess and Jacob and instead ran from home like I did on Monday to save the time I would’ve lost to the commute. Structuring my day like that meant I finished off with only a handful of programs to go and ticked off everything else I had needed to do. Things were looking positive for getting them out on time.

Thursday. By being ahead of my programs I opted to go into the city for a run on this day to tick off my final taper session ahead of Launceston. The usual RAO recipe is 10 minutes of tempo + some thirty second efforts. I used to do something similar with two laps of the North Quorn parklands (about 4.4km’s) and some faster unstructured efforts. I blended the two ideas together and did two laps of the 1.9km loop we often use after a warm up with Will, Adam and Riley. I was only aiming to run the 4ish km’s at 3:07-3:10/km so was happy to record the first km as 3:07. My body felt pretty good though having had a little bit of a lighter week so far so the next kilometre I somewhat accidentally ran 3:02. I could’ve put the brakes on but instead chose to just run to feel and keep going. The next two km’s were quicker again and I was glad to stop at 4km’s so I didn’t inadvertently go on to run another 15 minute 5k for the week like I did on Tuesday. I averaged 3:02/km for the whole tempo session and then pumped out a few quick efforts for good measure. The cue was in the rack after this session, only a few more jogs and a few more programs to go and then I was going to be in race mode.

Friday. Of course I still had plenty of other normal work and organising to do. Specifically I had to organise the Friday session (which I almost completely stuffed up the whistle blowing for), grab some things from Mum and Dad’s, fix my sandals, organise some things for Europe and of course relax! The relaxing was pretty easy to do on Friday night, Alice had a dinner to attend so I had my first quiet night at North Brighton with 500g of pasta and the French Open on TV. What more can you ask for?

Having the French Open on TV this past week always incites good running vibes. Long time readers will be familiar with the original pre-season training blogs I used to pump out during Australian Open time when life was simple. Run, work at the pool, watch the Australian Open, run again, watch the Australian Open, get really fit. Having the French Open on allows me to tap into that same two week training camp mindset. It was the same scenario two years ago when the French Open and the World Championships for trail running that I attended were both on at the same time. Would this year’s edition of the French Open lead to good running results??

Saturday. An easy jog in the morning, some pasta for breakfast and then into the airport for the trip down to Launceston. I was travelling with a few RAO mates which was nice and then ended up bumping into Jess in Adelaide and a few other running mates in Melbourne. As we landed in Launceston later that afternoon the trip had all the hallmarks of a school camp. Big group mingling in the airport, mini buses, two people in charge of us, all very good and all very normal considering some of the other times I’ve travelled to Launceston in the past have been with school trips. I was fortunate to be in this ‘elite’ field having free access to airport transfers, hotel accommodation and race entry. It meant I was literally rubbing shoulders with Stewart McSweyn on the bus and at dinner. The opportunity to have this elite setup and hospitality is great but at times I was wondering if my solo-operator set-up from previous running trips was just as good. I mean, on school camp you have to meet certain times and deadlines whereas on your own schedule you can do what you want, when you want. It just costs more as a solo operator. I figured getting used to being on the elite schedule and relaxing into it was the best mindset to take as I’ll be in a similar forced position later in the year for another event. There was the familiarity of rooming with Jacob for this event though having done the same in Sunshine Coast last year. We watched a combo of the Crows v Swans game on TV as well (Jacob’s pick) as the Sinner v Lehecka tennis match at the French Open (my pick).

Sunday. Race day. Up at 5:30, down for breakfast at 5:45. Two bits of sourdough toast and honey plus some coffee. Then it was a bit more mingling with friends, up to the room to grab my kit and then walking across to the elite area. I warmed up with Luke, Jess and a few other South Aussies for twenty minutes, found a few places to do some nervous wees in the bushes, whipped off my jacket and then stood on the start line.

I had a bit of a different headspace about this race compared to my previous races this year. Pre-Ballarat all my races were about building to Ballarat. At Ballarat the race was about trying to get a PB and trying to place as high as I could. At Adelaide, post-Ballarat, it was just about trying to win. Here at Launceston, an event that I only got offered an entry into after Ballarat, I had no real chance of a podium and only a chance of a PB. It was the best opportunity I’d have to race a half marathon for likely the next twelve months without any pressure on trying to win. The game plan was pretty simple for me then. Go out at 65minute pace (3:05/km), hopefully form a group to work with and then just run and enjoy the challenge of seeing how long I could on for.

Off the start line the front group went off quick. Their aim was to run 2:53/km (60:50 pace) and everyone was getting sucked along for the ride. I hung off the back hoping to keep an eye on who else was running 64/65 minutes. Sure enough, after 1km there was a small break and a group of 4-5 was forming around me with another two lonely souls further up the road. My group stayed together for a good 8km’s with each of us mixing it on the front. The first 8km’s were a great section of the course with enough going on visually and geographically (slight hills) to keep me focused in the early stages. We were bang on pace for sub 65 at this stage and had formed a good gap over the next group of runners who were actually just a group of two, Luke and Lachy (also from SA).

Somewhere around the 8km mark the two lonely souls from earlier in the race absorbed themselves into our pack. I was making a solid claim to have the front bedroom in the house having been at the front of the pack for the longest. I was feeling good at this stage too. It was cold and there was no breeze so it was perfect conditions. It was one of those days where I knew I was on for a good run and as long as I didn’t stuff it up, I was going to be eating a chicken dinner (if getting a PB makes me a winner).

At the 10km mark we split 30:48. Still bang on pace for sub 65 minutes and still with the same group. I had gone to have a gel at 9km’s in but accidentally dropped it while I carried it in my hands. Not to worry, I had packed two gels just in case this sort of thing happened so had my next gel instead which was a Bix gel. Yes, I’m off the Winners gels having been given a few gels for free by Vlad Ixel and his company Bix. They’re good and have more carbs than a Winners gel too.

We were ticking off the km’s pretty smoothly and I was getting excited to hit the 14km mark. From there we would make one final u-turn and then head back into town. It was cool getting to see the front of the race as we approached this point. It’s very rare that I’m in a race with the absolute elite runners of Australia so to see them in live action doing their thing was cool. We turned around shortly after at the u-turn and here’s where things started to get interesting. Our little group was breaking up and the pace was staying the same. All I had to do was make sure I tried to stay with the group as long as possible.

By 16km’s I was still with the group and still feeling ok. At 17km’s things were starting to feel hard but I only had 4km’s to go. I was still on sub 65 pace but didn’t have much time to spare. It was here I probably should’ve stopped worrying about the time and just worried about the race in front of me. A the 18km mark I dropped of the back of the last two other remaining runners in the group. I was now fighting to hang onto them, a couple of steps behind. They had picked up the pace by only a couple of seconds per kilometre and I resided myself to the fact that all I had to do was maintain pace and I would run sub 65. When we came down to the final kilometre the equation was simple, run about 3:12 or quicker and I would be in the sub 65 club. I put my foot on the gas one last time and could feel myself tipping over the edge, here we go, kick for home and see if we can sneak past them…oh what, there’s an extra out and back, fuck, abort abort abort. I had forgotten about a little add-on at the end of the course and had to drop back a gear so I didn’t completely exhaust myself before the finish. I got around the u-turn and started to wind myself back up. Ok here we go again, get past the Mongolian and run sub 65. I got past him, the other fella was up the road, and I knew I was going to run sub 65. You beauty. Hang on a sec, the Mongolian was coming back at me. Dirty bugger, this 44 year old veteran of 6 Olympic Marathons showed his experience and pipped me at the line. Ah well, I still ran 1:04:55 to break into the sub 65 club!

It was a result that I thought was possible if I had an amazing day but never sort of really believed that I’d be capable of it. Breaking 2:20, 30 minutes for 10k and 65 minutes for a half were all sort of benchmarks I’d set myself a couple of years ago and I always thought sub 65 was going to be the hardest. It turns out it was pretty hard but I’ve done it! And I did it with all the doubts about this race being an extra add-on after my Ballarat block. It would’ve been very easy for me to wrap up after Ballarat and have a bit of a mental reset so to instead carry on and drag myself to Launceston I was on edge of biting off more than I could chew. Instead, I’ve gotten myself a big hunk of a PB in the half marathon! Talk about taking opportunities and running without expectations.

After the race I caught up with Luke and Lachy, chatted with some other mates, watched Jacob and Will in the 10k and was pretty much on Cloud Nine. After successfully travelling to Launceston for various outdoor ed trips over the years it was nice to add a successful running trip to the resume.

Talking of resumes. Having ticked off a big half marathon goal it certainly fills out my resume for the first five months of this year. National Mountain Champs win, 5km PB, HM PB, Mara PB and 2nd at Ballarat. They were all goals I’d set for the year and I’ve done pretty well in reaching them AND training well at the same time. With the conclusion of Launceston comes the conclusion of this period of the year. I could continue training hard from this week onwards but if I did that I’d be going through from November/December 2024 to October 2025 without even one week as a mental break. Hence, I’ll be taking the next week off ‘hard’ training to reset my mind. Instead of viewing running as a person aspiring to be a sub 2:20, sub 65 runner I can now look to set some goals as a sub 2:20, sub 65 runner. While I was flying back home yesterday the early indications are I’d like to try for 2:15 in the marathon, and continue running fast in the half marathon, break 29:45 for the 10k but I’d like to have a week reflecting on it before I lock in the next set of goals.

In saying that, I don’t have too long to wait. Sydney Marathon is my next big race at the end of August and then another big race at the end of September. From the time of writing to Sydney is now 13 weeks away. This next week will serve as a freshen up and then I’ll be able to attack a 12 week block into Sydney without any interruptions to try and chase a 5km or half marathon PB like I did leading into Ballarat which should be fun. While thats all good and exciting to hypothesise what the future holds, the important thing is that I focus on executing the day to day stuff well like I have been doing for the past five months as that’s obviously what has worked for me. So, what that looks like on this Monday afternoon is wrapping up this blog, going for a walk or an afternoon run and then getting ready for another day of running, working and relaxing tomorrow in true North Brighton style. It’s been a good start so far to North Brighton life! Thanks for reading and thanks for the support!