Weight of The World: Sunday 8th October

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Sunday 8th October

Exercise: Melbourne 1/2 Marathon Woke up this morning to strong winds and rain....great!! Had to make a decision about what to wear, so took the safe option and wore my 3/4 pants, compression top and short sleeve tech top. Also took my jacket just in case it was raining. Luckily by the time I got to the start line the sun had come out and the rain had stopped. Unfortunately it was still blowing a gale, but at least it was a tailwind so I can't complain about that! I was a tad early so went looking for toilets. Then made my way to the 1/2 start. Spoke to the official there and explained my situation "am allowed to start when my friend who's running the full marathon comes by". Was quite surprised to hear that he knew who it was I was running with. He did look familiar but just couldn't place him! It was only when Michelle came past and she told me she had been looking out for Joffa at the 20km mark that it dawned on me who it was!! Sorry Joffa! Got to see all the Ausrunners go past. They were all looking good at that stage of the race. Anyway off we go once Michelle gets into view! Michelle is running at a good pace and already I'm feeling as if I'm running too slow for Michelle. This keeps up for about 10km. All of a sudden I can feel a pain in my stomach. Can't really describe the pain, but it's as if something has not agreed with me and it's fighting to get out! At about the 11.5km mark I couldn't keep running so I force Michelle to carry on, while I have a walk. After a couple of minutes I feel okay again and try to catch up to Michelle, but she's upped her pace again and has taken off like a rabbit! So I just keep plodding along, trying not to think how much of a let down I must be to Michelle as I was the one who was supposed to be dragging her across the line, not her dragging me! Luckily I have my MP3 to keep me company, so at least the music is keeping me going. I get to the 35km Marathon mark and there's all the Cool Runners handing out Icy Poles. What a godsend. It was like I had a second lease of life after finishing it off. Unfortunately that second lease of life didn't last long. I met Spark Driver a bit further along. He wasn't feeling too great, which is a real shame as he's put in alot of work. He kept me company for a while but had to stop for another walk so I carried on without him. Then came Fitzroy Street. I did my best to keep running up that massive hill (well it felt like a massive hill anyway!) but I had to walk a couple of times. The last 4km when I rounded the corner into St Kilda Road felt like they were going to go on forever. It was great to see Marty at about the 41km mark and he ran with me till I got to the chute. From there it was a sprint to the finish. My time on Gav was 2hr 10mins. I was given a Marathon finishers medal which I would like to exchange for a 1/2 marathon medal as I definitely don't feel as if I deserve the Marathon medal, and also because I didn't do the Marathon. Will admit that I was disappointed with my run. I really wanted to help Michelle, but I was very lucky in that she didn't really need my help as she had a fantastic race. I'm so proud of her. She did the marathon in under 4 hours. I have a pain on the outer side of my left knee. I'm hoping it will go away after I've rubbed some Tiger Balm into it and done some good stretching. I'm also going to wear my Skins to bed to see if this helps. So I'm looking to get a bit more serious about my running and actually try and get a proper running schedule organised. Alana's Quote: "Mum can you please massage my feet!"