Still grinning and it is a wonderful wonderful day!
First up the kids didn't need to be shaken awake - they just got up by themselves *relief* at 5am so we could all go to Brisbane Road Runners for the 14km Club Champs race.
Matt thinks I'm getting fat so he gave me a cool pair of bathroom scales (no only kidding they were a requested item!) and Jordie made me a painting and all the kids signed it. Then hubby spoiled me with a beautiful gold bracelet. Very lucky indeed.
Off we set for BRRC and got there just as Tess was pulling up. So were 100 others so I raced down to sign on quickly - only to find no queue. The cars must have been for the hot air ballooning not the race!
Tess met me at the sign up table and checked if I had to change age categories - nope still a H. Fabulous seeing her there and we had a chuckle when we realised we had worn identical outfits (have no idea how that happened hee hee). Yep the Noosa Team were out there racing today.
Was lucky enough to get a birthday hug from Eddie so I knew today was going to be good!
We did a 2km warm up then a trip to the loo. We both had sworn of creamed rice after last weekend and I had had a very small honey sandwich. I say small because I cut the crusts off and there was pretty much nothing left!! That and a can of V would see me through.
I set the Garmin on Virtual partner for 4:25min/km and headed off to line up. Not sure how but the race starter knew it was my birthday and called me up to the line. I turned and faced everyone as they sang Happy Birthday. I did a little jig and laughed through it. It was a great feeling. No nerves anymore, I was going to enjoy today no matter what.
The first km was fast. Ran about 4:15 but soon settled into what I thought was an even pace. I only checked the garmin every now and then. Sometimes it said 23m in front others it said 200m in front. The km markings were incorrect (I never trust the 7km setup but the 5km set up is dead accurate). The loop turned out to be 120m long and as we had to run it twice we ran an extra 240m. Garmin said I ran an extra 400m but I think the 240 is more accurate.
I felt so good running today. Thankfully the tide must be turning on that account.
I even tried a new GU in the 8th km and it went down so well. I had no stiches, no stomach ache. I just hurt running - but it was a good hurt!
At around 10km Shane and Tesso pulled up alongside me (both fresh as a Daisy). Shane is like way fast so I knew he was just crusing and not racing. He must be unwell or have an injury? I looked at Tesso - tried to smile but think I grimaced and scared her. She told me to keep a hold of Shane and he would drag us through. Cool.
I did just that.
I didn't worry about pace or running. I just fell in with Shane's rythym and drafted behind him for the last 4km. It was great. I felt strong but knew I was working as my breathing was getting heavy. I just turned up my ipod - but must have been scary for Shane. He kept looking around to see if I had died yet or not :)
One km to go he held up the 1 finger. I didn't have enough juice left in me to push hard. Then Tess pulled back up beside me - she had been drafting behind me! and got in front. As we are both in diff age categories and some other sheila had by now already won the race I was cool to let her go past (anyone else I would have cried) we were both a sure thing to win gold for our age groups at this stage, but then I got a great song on and saw the finish chute - well the hill we run down anyway - and got a burst. I ran ahead and tried to get faster. I don't think I did but I was very very happy with my run. Tess and I finished 3sec apart which was fab as well. Running in identical outfits I think we made Team Noosa look good!
Thanks so much to Shane for dragging us home and giving up his own race. It was the best birthday present ever! Official time - 1:03:50 for 14km. Though Garmin said I did 1:03:00 for 14km and then did a bit extra. Either way - it's a great result for me.
The champagne breakfast afterwards was a roaring success and I am so grateful to have wonderful running buddies to run and eat with. Thanks to Tesso for organising and making the whole day memorable.
The kids are still talking about their icecream iced chocolates!
14 comments:
Good to hear that you had a great birthday, you are lucky to have such good friends to orgnaise the day for you.
It was no worries with the pacing, I think all the races over the last few weeks had caught up with me so after the first lap I was buggered. If it wasn't for Tesso and yourself running past after I stopped I would have cut the day short. I was glad to help out, and no you didn't scare me, it just reinforces how hard you try when racing. You done great well done.
Enjoy the rest of your day :)
Yay Birthday Girl!
Congrats on the great race. I'm so pleased it was a good one after the disappointment of Noosa. Nothing better than setting a plan and sticking to it to achieve a goal.
There was no way in the world I was going to be able to stay ahead of you. Tee hee, I just put on a burst to stir you up ... glad it worked!
We'll have to let Bern and Suzanne at Scody know that their tops made us run faster. And they made us look bloody good too ;-)
What a fantastic morning. You should have more birthdays :-)
Glad to see you running so well and with such a good result...specially on your birthday.
Sounds like you have been a bit spoiled today. Good to hear..you deserve it.
Happy Birthday Clairie! Sounds like you're having a great day with a great running start!
Happy birthday Clairie! Sounds like a wonderful day!
Happy Birthday Clairie. Good race too BTW. Lucky to have your friends together on your birthday to help you have a great race. Cheers wine lover.
Wish I could have witnessed that finish. I couldn't pick who was stronger when you passed my position on the course.
Great way to spend a bithday though.
Good to hear you had such a fantastic birthday Clairie! Glad your run was so good too.
Happy to see you celebrate your birthday running so well with your great running buddy. Lovely to see everybody make a fuss over you as well. That is what birthdays are for!
Sounds like a nice run Mate! Sorry I couldn't be there!!
PM
Happy birthday Clairie - it's a good month for famous birthdays ;)
Great race - and wonderful to see you running "relaxed" again, while still at a great pace.
And as for Coomera HIM - no, I haven't raced it, but have heard of the flat, featureless and fairly hot conditions from friends too (however they're from NSW and perhaps not used to QLD heat either). I also think the organisers just lucked out with hot weather in the last few years. It should be no worse than GC in theory - except that you won't start running till about 10.00am?
It's just a half-marathon for you - so don't do too much different with the structure of your training week. But if you get the chance, start doing a couple of your long runs at mid-day, or in the afternoon. Take heaps of water with you (there'll be aid stations every 2km + gels and snakes/jelly beans etc.. in the race) and take stops to re-fill the water bottles on your training runs if you need. A couple of "hot" runs will do wonders for you.
a lot of the guys going to the race will be coming from NSW, so you already have the climate-advantage over them. Just make sure you CAN run in your brissy heat, and you'll be absolutely fine :)
Happy Birthday.... nice way to celebrate!!!
Clarie, great running & happy birthday matey! I can't say I'm surprised to hear that you have a bunch of loving friends and family; you deserve them. But it is nice to have birthdays to bring it home to you every now and again.
I have a constructive criticism (?) to make regarding nutrition. I have experimented with different strategies, and I am now firmly of the opinion that it is best to race on a fairly empty stomach, especially for half-marathon and less. As long as you stock up well in the day(s) before the race, you should have plenty of stored glycogen on board. Any undigested tucker in your stomach and small intestine will divert blood to the alimentary system to aid digestion/adsorption. That is blood that could otherwise be carrying oxygen to the muscles. If you really need anything during a longer race, simple sugars from sports drink, jelly beans, or maybe a GU is as much as you should go in for. That's just my opinion. I may be well off the mark and I would suggest you talk it over with your coach before changing anything, but I do suspect that the breakfast may have impacted on your performance at your Noosa race; I'm not so sure about the 14k run, but perhaps. Even so, I can't see how a GU would help at 8 km. You really should still have plenty of glycogen at that stage. I apologize if these thoughts are presumptuous, but I just throw them out there in the spirit of things to consider and perhaps to try. Above all else, if it seems intuitively wrong, get another opinion or just ignore it.
Steve
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