Bribie Beach Bash + Suprise Party

Saturday I prepared for the worst - it was going to be a stinking hot day Sunday so I froze my water bottles, picked my shortest running shorts and a singlet that would breath but not get me too burnt. Packed all the sunblock, bathers, sandals etc and made sure I got to bed reasonably early Sat night.

Sunday morning woke up and nearly froze to death! Cold wind had come in overnight.

Arrived at the race on Bribie Island at about 7:10am not the ideal time for someone racing a 15km at 7:30am who hadn't even entered yet. I quickly completed my registration, jogged to the loos and then threw my shoes on before they called us over to the line.

All the runners doing the 30km and the 45km had left already but I was looking forward to seeing them come in as we ran out.

MJ was on the starter gun and we all took off as she said go. It was very sandy and then a narrow bridge/stairs going down onto the beach. I went faster than I was aiming for so I could get in front of everyone and not get stuck at the back. Unfortunately my legs stayed running in that position and for the first 3km I was only 200m behind Lizzle. Then at 3.5km there was a river that you had to cross. Surely not so I started running up the beach trying to find the sandbar that you ran across the river to get to the other side. Ummm there wasn't one. The boys - Glenno, Scotty and Geoff came up and just barrelled through the water. Yikes. So I did the same and then whinged about getting blisters and having to run in heavy wet shoes.

Shortly after this - around 5km I think, we past a herd of the 30kms coming back in - Little Kirloo, Tesso (woohoo first woman), Karen and Nick and loads more. It was fun to high-five them and boost their morale a bit. A bit sad to think they were so close to the finish and we were still on our way out though :(

Up until the turn around I kept with the guys - was almost drafting I suppose as I didn't want to excert the energy required to pass them and was quite happy to tuck in behind. Then I felt my legs ache a bit so I thought I would stride out and ended up going in front. Glenno said 'whoa claire where you going' and I said "home straight boys time to kick in" and then started widening the gap between us. Secretly I was wondering how I would recover from the shame when they just cruised past me towards the end and I think I fixated on this devastating event and incidently kept widening the gap.

When I ran past Nick who was doing the 30km and should never have been anywhere near me (he is fast!) I felt great and knew I could take it home.

Got home as the second female but more importantly - got home in front of the boys :) How good was that?

The rest of the day just went in a blur. As it was also Tesso's suprise party we had to suspiciously organise a load of balloons, champagne, birthday cake and dips and chips. Was quite hard to arrange to bring all the balloons out without her seeing so we made a big announcement as soon as we got them from the car and sang Happy Birthday. She was so suprised (yah) and totally loved her cake - it had all the names of the races she had run in the past twelve months. So cool!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TESSO. I know it was last week but as you were in Sydney we couldn't exactly have a party without you. What a great present to get First place - especially seeing as you did it injured!!

Everyone else went home but Allan and I and the kids decided to stay behind and play cricket on the beach for a few hours. The water was so refreshing but I did jump out when a jellyfish landed on me and refused to go back in....okay it was harmless but if you knew how many bluebottles I popped with my shoes on the run earlier that morning I was still a bit panicky.

Red Rooster for Dinner (OMG I am a glutton) and a long hot bath. What a wonderful, fabulous day :)