Well it has taken me ages to get around to this! I think the DOM's affected leg also stretch to the brain....
I had a fantastic weekend with all my running buddies - as usual. The race itself was a big disappointment for me but all the other aspects of the weekend overshone so I was a happy girl when I went home.
We had a relaxing day on Saturday and I ate and drank well in preparation for the race. Early Sunday I arose and ate my creamed rice and had some gatorade. I felt much better than I had on Satruday and not very nervous at all. I was excited. I said goodbye to the family - who were all running as well but were still in bed!!! They don't understand my desire to get there "early".
Met up with Tess and we hung out at the loo line forever and misssed our chance for a warmup. We had to make do with doing 3/4 strides at the front of the race line. Wow for a minute there we looked like elite runners!
The gun went off and so did we. Owen, Tess, Liz and myself were all running 4:30's till the 5km mark and then doing whatever we could after that. Owen was a bit faster and we pushed each other for the first 4km. 4:18, 4:19, 4:23, 4:20 before I wound it back to closer to 4:30's in case I blew up. Actually it wasn't the plan - I think I just started getting slower that early on! Eddie had been so close to me and the tears welled up when I saw him getting further and further away. Damn wouldn't be the day for catching him!
It was not long after that Tesso caught up and we ran together for a while before she pushed on ahead. I chased her and got in front and we placed cat and mouse for the rest of the race. At the halfway mark we went around with Tesso in front but she stopped and grabbed my hand and we waved to everyone and ran for 100m grinning and yahhoooing like little girls. That was so cool. Pat Carroll called our names over and made fun of us and we lapped it all up...
100m down the line we got back to business. This is where I hurt. I was drinking lots and not feeling the heat very much so that was good. However I had a stomach ache that was not great and kept coming and going. Hence my running kept coming and going. I would get faster, then slower, then faster then slower etc. Looked like a rubber band I think!
I got a burst of wind 10mins after I had a gu at the 15km mark and we only had about 4km left so I put the legs into action and went out chasing everyone in front of me. I kept telling myself (and everyone around me) that it was just a 3km time trial from here. It didn't work for me. I don't think I actually got any faster - just stronger.
I finished in 1:37:25 on my watch. Just in front of Tess and about 90sec behind Owen. It was a bad run for me and I was devastated. Tess was too so we consoled each other. It wasn't long before we realised a lot of our buddies were having a bad day out there. For some reason - that cheered us up!
Hubby and Matt came springing over the line a few minutes better than Gold Coast and they were thrilled with that - even with a toilet break.
Can't wait for next year to do this one. The carnival atmosphere and partying afterwards was just the best.
On to the next race now..
4 comments:
Too bad it didn't happen for you Clairie. I hope you don't mind me reminding you of your July 11th post:
I hereby swear that I will spend my running life (when I get one back) dedicating myself to avoiding injury.
I will stretch
I will warm up
I will cool down
I will wear good shoes
I will eat protein
I will race hard and enjoy the pain.
I will never take for granted the ability to run again.
Hope you've been doing all of the above!!! :-)
great to finally hear the whole story cliaire - even if it wasn't the happiest of stories to pass on. You learn from everything though - so perhaps go back to where you were in your posting attitude in July and start looking forward again. One day you'll be a 1:30 half-marathon runner and remember fondly these races :)
Thanks Clairie. Sorry you had a bad run. Miners is right - you'll be running sub-90 easily one day.
As I said to Lizzle it was a crap race but a great weekend. Better than a great race and a crap weekend when you think about it. At least less than two hours of the entire weekend were crap. The rest of it was faaaaantastic! I've never laughed so much as Sunday arvo, who've thought we were all depressed about how we ran :-)
Bring on the 14k Champs at BRRC on Sunday!
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