Ops Kookaburra #9: Gold Coast Ready Are We!

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Since it was to be the longest run, the various target groups were scheduled to start at 15minute intervals, starting from 7pm. This flexible schedule would allow those who were earlier to start first and end earlier, in time for the transport home after the run. The group was smaller due to the weekend overseas races as well as recovery from Sundown Marathon and last week’s long run.

The enthusiastic Kookaburras spent some time getting their race tops, chatting with friends and finding out the routes of access for the night. The Half Marathoners aimed to do 21km-23km whilst the Full Marathoners were going for 30km-35km. The plan was to go at target race pace (or slightly faster) for as long as we could sustain. The earlier groups went towards Fort Road first to get the first 7km in, before continuing on the longer loop. The bulk of the Kookaburras went for the originally planned NSRCC/Coastal Road stretch, and did the respective u-turns depending on their targeted mileage. Many of the runners looked good, with a better feel of their respective paces and form, fruits of labour from all the earlier base building sessions.

The night was as usual humid, but there were some winds at various stretches, allowing many of us to maintain good paces for the first half of the run. Trying out all the hydration, nutrition, refueling and race day gear for a full rehearsal was one of the key objectives of these final long runs. Most of the Kookaburras completed their runs within the self-imposed cutoff timing (to prevent overstretching and risking injury), with the final group of Full Marathoners coming back before midnight, less than 4hrs of time-on-feet. Because of the familiarity of the participants with FatBird training programs by now, there were less time spent on briefings of SOPs and routes, and more time could be spent on the various training aspects.

Expecting more than 220 runners from Singapore this year, there would be a large group going to GCAM, many of who were first time participants of the famous course. Questions on what to wear, and how to prepare for the cooler weather were some of the more common concerns of the Kookaburras and Singapore participants. With sufficient conditioning from Ops Kookaburra training, the trainees should have not much problems completing their respective marathons in good form.

After this longest run, we will go into a much needed rest and adaptive recovery phase. This time we are encouraging trainees to rest even more, since many have had a hard 2 months of marathon training and racing for the earlier Passion Run and Sundown Marathon. The Kookaburras are ready for GCAM, and we are looking forward to one grand experience on July 3. Run Kookaburra Run Kookaburra, Gold Coast Ready Are We!
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