Weight of The World: More about the Run

Tuesday, April 12, 2005

More about the Run

Thought I might share my experience of the Dandy Dash that I did on Sunday. It was a really warm day and the wind was very strong. As usual I woke up at least an hour before I had to get up, so laid there thinking about all the reasons why I shouldn't do the run. Nerves were starting to kick in a bit by then. Luckily I talked myself back into doing it, and I know that Nick would have talked me into doing it if I'd given him any indication that I might back out of it. We got there with about 40 minutes before the run started. Parked a fair distance away - of course I didn't know this at the time, so it took us about 10-15 minutes to walk to the start/finish line. Had to fill in paperwork and get a number. Had a bit of trouble pinning the number on the front, especially with the tiny little pins that they had for us to use. Got over that hurdle by getting Nick to do it for me. Think he enjoyed that part too!! The start line was directly next to the portable toilets - Nice!! The starter guy did apologise about that. Seems that when they dropped the toilets off, they just put them wherever! I think I was in about the middle of the pack. The only problem with the start was that the track was quite small to start with, so it was a bit squishy and you had to be careful that there wasn't anyone else going to try and squeeze past. It sorted itself out after about a kilometre as the group started to strecth out. Only one interesting moment - being directed along a dirt track with a sign suggesting we had to be careful of snakes - yeah now that would be fun wouldn't it - NOT! Think that any snakes would have been scared lifeless by 250 pairs of feet running by. Thought I was doing quite well until we came around a bend and there was a "slight" incline. Once started on the incline, it became very apparent that it was going to be a very long incline. The legs were now starting to hurt a bit and my breath was becoming laboured. I tried so hard to keep running, but about 3/4 of the way up the hill I just had to do a fast power walk to try and get my breath back. Just near the top of the hill I managed to get running again, but the legs certainly wern't too happy about that. There was a bit of a downhill after that, leading us into a false sense of security because just around the bend we could see the finish line, but it was all uphill, right to the end! Nick said that as I came up the final hill I looked determined to finish but didn't look like I was enjoying myself. This was probably very true, as all I could think about when I got over the line was where I could find a shady place to lie down. Got my breath back finally, then wandered over to grab my "goody" bag. Had to laugh though as they'd put a little cadbury chocolate bar in there, and the chocolate was completely melted due to the heat! Nice thought though. I checked the results last night and I came in 149th out of 294 I think. My time was 29.31. At least I now have something to improve on. Roll on Lest We Forget Run, which is on the 24th April, with a couple of laps around the tan track. I've actually registered for this event too, so no thought of not competing. Well there's always the thought of just now showing up, but I've paid out already, and I want to get my money's worth!