Patrick Hughes from Ireland ran a blinder in the 2019 Gold
Coast Half Marathon, finishing in the top 25 in a top class
field with a 4 minute PB. Patrick has been coached online by
Sean Williams for the past 2 years and has improved markedly
in that period.
Here is Patrick’s account of the race that took him to a
completely new level.
I had a great race yesterday in the half marathon. I ran
69:37 with an average pace of 3:17/km so much quicker than I
thought. My original plan was to go out around 71 pace but
after about 4 km I noticed a large pack of about 20 people
which included the lead females around 50m ahead of me so I
made a move to catch them rather than running solo. It took
a few km to catch them but I settled in nicely behind them
and went through 10km in 33:15. The group started to break
up around 17-18km but I stayed with the leaders and went
through the next 10km in 32:55 which is also a PB. At around
the 20km mark I made a move and passed Sinead Diver and did
the last km in 3:08. I think I finished around 10 seconds
ahead of her. I wasn’t expecting to run sub 70 but I’m glad
now that I made a move early in the race to catch the large
pack otherwise I would have been running solo and it was
quite windy and wet at times.