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My mate Hugh Spencer wanted me to get him round the course in 105 minutes. Not a major task you might say, but the older we get the slower we become. I can remember only a few years back when a half marathon time over 90 minutes would have been considered something of a failure.

Race day came around with just about perfect conditions; a cool autumn morning with cloud cover and virtually no wind. Spencer and I decided to get a good start by shoving ourselves towards the front of the field, close to Lisa Ondieki. God, she's thin! We did ponder for a moment the possibility of getting trampled underfoot by the real runners around us. Fortunately, the race organisers have improved the start from its earlier version which had the field squeezed into a narrow section in the first hundred metres or so.

This year the start was a fast one. Not really knowing how fit Spencer was, I decided the best race strategy would be to go out like the clappers and try to hang on. There have been some notable occasions when this ploy hasn't worked but this time it did.

I still have to say though that we felt a lot better on the first loop than the second. The few hills on the course, particularly the climb up to Chifley Square, were sufficient to test us out after our flying start around The Rocks. We passed the 10k marker in a little over 45 minutes, well ahead of our planned 5 minute per kilometre pacing requirement. I sensed the commencement of some whingeing from Spencer and so we did back off a tad in the second half until it became clear that sub 100 minutes wasn't completely out of the question. Spencer implored me to abandon him and give the race my own best shot, but I refused. I just wanted to be there to see him suffer.

We dragged each other through the final few kilometres and across the line in a smidgin under 100 minutes for the pair of us. Success for the two amigos. Not our fastest ever half but a decent result taking our advancing ages into account.

Overall, the race was well done by the Sydney Morning Herald. A field of some 3,500 runners is a success by any measure in today's post running boom era. I did feel that only two drink stations was a little light on, but otherwise pretty well done by the organisers.