A big week...and its not over yet!

Thursday 20th - off
Friday - 10km easy run
Saturday - Twilight Half Marathon. 23.5km including the race and a bit of a warm up beforehand. I had planned a longer warm up and a cooldown but I just didn't feel well. The race was good. Flat course, very strong headwinds in parts (it was a 4 x loop 5km circuit with the last two loops an extra 600m added on). It was a warm night and following the race I was violently ill for 24hrs with gastro so assume that had something to do with how I felt during the race. All things considered I was happy then with my 1:38:50 (was aiming for 1:33) and 1st Place Age Category trophy and cheque woo hoo!
Sunday - Sick! :(
Monday 24th - 21km steady @ 5:14min/km before work.
Tuesday 25th - off
Wednesday 26th -28km average 5:05min/km pace. Lots of slow stuff so some fast km in there too. A good fartlek session without planning that beforehand.
Thursday 27th - 8km easy with two buddies over mostly flat course around Bulimba.
Friday 28th - A magical run - just the fact I could manage 33.5km on my own plus the energy I was feeling was amazing. I practiced my marathon food and had a mouthful of powerade beforehand and a gu at 10km and a gu at 21km. Protein drink recovery of course. I normally run around the city and do only small runs around home (it gets boring otherwise) but out of necessity I ran from home today. Here are my thoughts that I emailed to a friend:

I had a perfect perfect run. Could not have been more magical. In fact I think it had a touch of magic in it. I ran around the neighbourhood – got out the door around 4:25am and just turned left (because right would have been UP a hill!). Travelled in the dark over many many hills through streets I have never ventured down and surprised myself when I came out on streets I knew well. It was so surreal watching all of suburbia come to life in slow motion.

At the halfway mark I needed water and the bubler taps in a park were turned off. A chinese yoga class was happening and they saw me and all yelled out “tap tap” and all 16 of them in one fluid movement pointed together to the tap at the top of the hill. I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at the weirdness of it. I couldn’t thank them as they got straight back into their silent chanting and movements.

The sun was up by now and having made halfway I figured I needed some encouragement to get me the rest of the way so I put my ipod on.

With 10km to go I found myself going over a small bridge crossing the river with lush greenery. It was like a childs fairy book. I kept following the path and found myself in the Rocks Riverside Park. I’ve been there many times but this was the first time so early in the morning. The grass was dewy, the river was flowing strong and it was so quiet. I ran right to the very end where industrial works have been turned into amazing area for kids. Chasing Cars – Snow Patrol was on and I could have just wept and knelt down for the true beauty I was seeing in every step of my run. I felt it inside me and I was smiling and laughed aloud – more like a ‘weeeeeeee lets do this’ as I turned for home.

There was little beauty in the last 4km but I was still reeling from my moments with mother nature – in my own backyard!!!!