Lest We Forget Run
I'm up in plenty of time to get up to town, find a park, find where we're meeting, find where I get my number from, get to the toilet (again!) and stretch for 5 minutes before we have to line up. I thought there were going to be lots more people than there were, and I was a bit worried that I was going to be only one of about 30 people, but alot showed up with about 10 minutes to spare. I can't seem to find my running watch anywhere (think Alana has pinched it) so Nick let me borrow his watch. Got that all set up so that I just had to push the start button when I ran past the start line. Also made sure my MP3 player was going before I started running, as it can be hard to push the little buttons when you're on the move. So I'm off and running when the siren blares, and most people are running alot faster than me. I'm pretty much at the back of the pack with a couple of other ladies who are running about my pace. I gradully get into my stride after about 5 minutes and soon realise that the ladies are running a little bit slower than me, so head off in front of them trying to find another person who's running about the same pace as me. Get to the corner of Anderson Street to be confronted by a hill. Now I've done alot of hill training since the Dandy Creek Dash and I actually make it up the hill without having to walk (yay for me!) and it's a great feeling to get to the top of the hill, turn the corner and be confronted with a bit of a downhill gradient too. Managed to get the breath back and catch up to someone who I ended up running behind for the rest of the race. Get closer to the start/finish line only to be overtaken by a guy who I can only assume is the lead runner as he zoomed past me at a giant gait!! Congratulations to him whoever he was!! I run past the start finish line, wave to hubby who's looking very comfortable sitting in his chair, enjoying the sunshine and reading his book. Grab a drink from the drinks table and nearly slice my tongue off as I'm trying to drink from the bottle. I've never been able to master this act so give up and chuck the bottle to one side.
I'm now getting into my stride again, but in the back of my mind is that bloody hill again. Finally reach it and I'm quite out of breath already so I try and run as far as I can before I have to do some power walking. Then once I've got some breath back again it's another slow jog to the top of the hill. I grab another bottle of water as I'm gasping, then get my breath back as I run back down the hill on the other side. Manage to get some water out of the bottle this time without drawing blood this time, but had to do a very slow jog to make sure of this!
Then it's a very tiring 2km run to the finish line. I did a mad 100metre dash to the line, got my little strip ripped off the bottom of my number thingy on the front of me, got a photo taken as I crossed the line (god knows who that was!) remembered to stop my watch and then hobbled up to where Nick was observing everyone (including the scantily clad little girles in their shorts and singlets).
Do you think I'm being a bit scummy because I was expecting something because I finished?? No showbags, no medals.....but there was a Sausage Sizzle and a free protein bar and a small 2pack of anzac biscuits.....
My time was 46.57 which I was totally amazed at. I thought it would take me more than 50 minutes to do it, so I'm very happy. Next race is the Mothers Day run on the 8th April. Need to decide by the 27th if I'm going to enter online. Yeah of course I am. It's on the same track so at least I know what to expect this time.
Here's a couple of photos I took of the finish line. As you can probably tell, I didn't finish early, so alot of people had already left.
posted by Jaykay @ 4/24/2005 07:41:00 pm
Comments: 3
