Weight of The World: Sunday 28th May

Sunday, May 28, 2006

Sunday 28th May

Exercise: Sri Chinmoy 1/2 Marathon - Williamstown Up early this morning to get to Michelle's place by 6.15am!! It had been raining overnight so I was keeping my fingers crossed that it has all passed by! Got to Williamstown at 7am, so sat in the car and kept warm until about 7.30am when we ambled over to the start area. First port of call was getting in line for the loos. Best thing we did as the line had grown considerably by the time we emerged from them!! Met up with TigerBoy who we didn't think would be there because of a very tough week, Chilliman & Stormbikes. There were also alot of CoolRunners there today and I'm now getting to know faces and names, which is great! Didn't actually get to speak to Beki or Emma before the start as we didn't have alot of time before the race began. I was feeling quite good about the race today as I'd been much more focused on my food intake and liquid intake this week. No alcohol at all this week and hardly anything "bad" to eat. We set off at a reasonable pace with music blaring in my ears from my MP3 player. At the 5km marker the MP3 player died....aaaghhhh!! Now what was I going to do?? Running without my music I could hear my breathing, the sound of my feet on the concrete, lots of thoughts going through my head, none of them good!! Saw Emma running by. She was doing the 10km and hoping for a PB. Gave her a loud cheer. We saw TigerBoy doing it easy as always! Didn't see Beki or Rogo (who was pacing her). She was looking to do a 55min 10km. We got to the 9km marker and I felt like crap. Michelle kept pushing the pace, and me being me, didn't want to slow her down at all. Unfortunately I got to the 12km marker and felt totally dejected with the whole thing. I tried to give Gav to her so that she could carry on and record her splits, but I don't think she understood that I didn't want to continue running. I really was going to stop when we got to the track at about the 13km mark. We slowed the pace down and I felt alot better so I decided to keep going. Saw Stu Mac at his car, and he yelled some kind of encouragement (or rude remark, we couldn't actually hear what it was!!). Running up to the West Gate Bridge it felt as if the turnaround point would never come. I nearly gave up at this point too!! Really having negative thoughts now. Just put my head down and kept running. We then had to run past the track again (which is where the finish line is!) and continue running down to the final turnaround point. Nearly got to me again...almost didn't continue. Can you see a trend emerging here!! Anyway I just kept thinking "only 3 more km's, only 2 more km's etc". We finally got back to the track and someone put this little hill in the way just before we entered the final 1/2km....very nearly cried!! When we finally entered the track it was just such a relief. Wonderful to hear the Ausrun & Coolrunning cheersquad as we ran by. I actually ran faster then than I had for the last 10km!! Our time today was 2.03.33, which is no personal best but definitely not our worst. I want to apologise to Michelle for slowing the pace down yet again! Really need to concentrate on some speed work, strengthening my legs and getting my confidence back for running 1/2 marathons! I seem to have lost it somewhere. If anyone does manage to find it, can you please bring it back. You know where I can be found!! We met up with the usual suspects after the race, but as lots of people had time constraints today there was little time for socialising. Managed to grab a couple of pancakes and rolled them up with Apple Crumble inside.....yummo!! A couple of things to remember from today's run: 1. Don't do Pilates the day before a race (sore hips and upper quads). 2. Don't let Michelle go out too fast.... 3. Use Gav as our pace setter next time. 4. Don't wear too many clothes (too warm today!). 5. Remember to charge the MP3 player before a race! Alana's Quote: Walking past the Bottle Shop: "Mummy do you need Champagne?"