Half-Marathon Madness

After 3 months of training the day finally arrived and contrary to all weather forcasts dawned clear, dry and crisp - perfect running conditions! I got up at 5am to make sure I had plenty of time to eat and digest my breakfast before the big run. I arrived at the train station at 6am in the pre-dawn dark and easily picked out the other runners on the platform. The sun was coming up as I arrived at Hyde park and I started to prepare for the run - removing all my excess warm clothing, brrrr, applying vaseline to salient areas and stretching to warm up my muscles.

From the start gun it took about 5 min to cross the start line, but as each runner had an individual transponder no one was too concerned about when they actually got to cross. It didn't take too long before I was running at a steady pace. I went out a little faster than I anticipated as I got bit carried away by the atmosphere and the pace of the people around me! However for most of the run I managed to keep the speed up. I went through the 10km mark around 55 min, and even with a desperately needed loo break at the 11km mark managed to get passed the halfway point without being lapped by the race leader (one of my initial goals). I passed 14km in 78 min so I think I'll be in good shape for the City-to-Surf come August - I'll be aiming to break 75min! The hills on the second lap hurt alot more than the first time round, but atleast they are short (500m max) so once you are passed you can recover. Around 17km I was really starting to hurt and had to will myself to keep pushing, I had wanted to pick the pace up again from 18km but it took til the 19km mark before I could really get my body moving faster - I ran as had as a could for the last 2 km and came home just outside my ambitious mark of 2h, perhaps if I hadn't needed a break at 11km I'd have broken it? I ended up with an official time of 121 min 45 s an effort I am very proud of!

My muscles were definitely telling me they had tried pretty much as hard as they could within about an hour of the finish! I then had to get homw, rest, recouperate and head out to a hockey game - madness! I played pretty much the whole game, but didn't move much faster than a walk and spent most of my time hunting around the goal post - turned out to be my most successful match in years with 5 goals slotted in from the left hand post! Afterwards I could barely walk and had to haul myself up the stairs to my apartment! The quads are feeling a bit better today - still sore but manageable! I'm definetly keen to run another one and to break that 2h mark, but perhaps give the hockey game afterwards a miss!

A happy finisher!