Sunday, May 27, 2007

What's the big news?

How did this happen?

Such was the the short sharp sense of panic following a brief conversation with Coach Pat.

Pat provides the pacers for the Gold Coast Marathon.

"To adequately carry out the pace runner role you will need to be able to comfortably run the pace you have nominated for. You also need to be prepared to offer encouragement and motivate runners in your pack"

So I asked Pat if all the positions were full .... My plan was to pace a friend but she was encouraging me to go for a quicker time. Rather than the next attempt at my elusive 3:10, I felt like pacing the marathon again.

Pacing is very rewarding .... you can feel the trust and dependence that those around you have .... this is their marathon, that once in a lifetime event ...... you wouldn't want to mess it up!!!!!

Guess what time Pat needed a pacer for?

It left me wondering ... "how did I end up here?"

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13 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

2:30? piece of cake! you can do it!

6:20 pm  
Blogger vat_man said...

Same as it ever was...

9:25 pm  
Blogger Unknown said...

Ok, you really must stop leaving us in suspense like this. It's just not fair!

4:44 am  
Blogger 21stCenturyMom said...

uh.... 3:10?

9:44 am  
Blogger *jeanne* said...

Looks TIGHT there...what pace???

1:55 pm  
Blogger Samurai Running said...

Hey Toasty

Pat will take the 3 hour group so that leaves 3:15, 3:30, 3:45, and 4:00 hour groups going down from there.

I reckon you wouldn't be worried too much pacing the 3:45 and 4:00 hour groups so it must be either the 3:15 or the 3:30 groups he has in mind for you.

I ran with the 3:15 pacer group last year there and I know how much pressure these guys were under to bring us home on time.

I fell behind at about the 33km mark and was yelling at my pacer for as long as he could hear stuff like "Don't leave me!" "Please, dont leave me!" "I don't have a watch!" etc etc.

By the way, if your wanting to come to run a marathon here I'd be more than happy to assist. You'll be an experienced pacer and I still won't have a watch.

10:18 pm  
Blogger Tammy said...

3:10!! Go Toasty! You can DO IT!

2:18 am  
Blogger massoman said...

my guess...3:10.

i love those weimaraner pictures.

2:37 am  
Blogger S. Baboo said...

So...you don't have to leap between two trees while paceing, right? I'm just sayin' the dog didn't make it.

11:18 am  
Blogger Ewen said...

I bloody well hope it wasn't 3:15 - that's pressure. Probably 4:00 - still a good chance of stuffing that up completely ;)

3:43 pm  
Blogger Tesso said...

After today's performance maybe you should switch to the 3 hr pacing :-)

9:03 pm  
Blogger Tesso said...

PS I'm logged on at home and for the first time in weeks your blog didn't chew me up and spit me out :-)

9:04 pm  
Blogger Rob said...

You don't want to be in a situation where those you are pacing leave you behind. No matter what pace it is, I am sure Pat has great faith in you.

8:11 pm  

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