Timing Chip on bib? FAIL
I am such a slack blogger. I have seriously been attacked by a case of the sleepy-bug. I am pretty sure it's a cold trying to take hold but fingers-crossed, I think I am fighting it off valiantly.
On Sunday morning I woke up bright and early to get ready for my first Fun Run in forever. I was quite surprised that I had slept so well because normally I tend to work myself into an anxious mess over things like this. It gave me some hope that I may get more than 30 seconds sleep the night before the triathlon.
I really had no plan for what to eat pre-race. I guess this is a part of my triathlon prep that I haven't worked on enough because a fun run would have been a perfect time to try out any combinations. Instead, I chugged down half a coffee and a bit of Powerade. Certainly not optimum fuel and certainly not what I, as a serial 'nervous pee-er', needed. No joke, I hit the port-a-loos FOUR TIMES before the start of the race!
As we lined up for the start of the race I felt surprisingly calm despite the fact that my Mum insisted we be at the front of the pack! I was very reluctant to do this because I know that the front is ideally the best place for the faster and more elite amongst us but she pushed and pushed and I decided to just go with it. I felt a bit better about it (and a little bit peeved) when I found myself in the second 'row' right next to an older couple with their dog. They got a lot of grumpy glances from other people, and rightly so I think. I felt terrible for the dog because I knew in a matter of minutes he would be surrounded by 400+ pairs of legs stampeding past him with only their best interests in mind. Within the first 30 seconds I was kicked, elbowed and stomped so I can only imagine how he fared! Poor pooch :(
We soon left the couple and their dog behind and the crowd started to thin out a bit. The course wound it's way through a golf course so we found ourselves on rain-sodden grass pretty quickly. Despite the pouring rain earlier that morning, the sun was now beating down so everything was a bit sauna-esque... Not my favourite running conditions at all.
My Mum and I had decided to stick together during the run. Because of this I was sans my iPhone and therefore, my music. It was a new experience for me and I'm not sure I really liked it. At the start, the rhythmic shuffling of hundreds of footsteps around me was quite nice but as the crowds spread all I could hear was the hard breathing of the other people around me, and later in the run, the sound of one kid, about 12, coughing and coughing until he was almost sick. Oh, and the glorious sound of the gorbie spitters... *heave*
About four minutes in we came across a man and woman who were also running together. It was like a flash back five years, except for the whole 'male' thing. The lady was obviously quite fit and the man, not so much. He was giving it everything and it showed. Unfortunately, being only a few minutes in, he was giving a bit too much, too early. He was breathing like an out-of-control freight train and his face was tortured. He gasped to his running buddy, "I've got to stop" and he slowed to a deflated walk. This was me five years ago and I wanted to tell him to not give up on it like I had, to keep trying, and to keep calm and carry on. I am so full of Yoda wisdom :)
A few minutes later, I watched as one of Danny's workmates passed me. I knew there was no way I was going to cross the line before him so I wasn't surprised. What was worrying me though, was the sheer volume of people that seemed to be overtaking me. I didn't dare turn around to look behind me, I was so convinced I would look back and see only one or two people quickly gaining and then no one.
I knew that, even though she had done (she says ;) ) barely any prep for the race, I was going a bit slower than the pace my Mum would normally do. I willed my body to go faster but it just wouldn't... And then we got to our first hill. It was shorter but steeper than 'Ass Breaker Hill'. I took as deep a breath as I could and headed up. All of a sudden people were slowing... All those speedy little devils had hit the hill and flagged. Some were even walking! Up, up, up I went and as I cleared the crest of the hill, I realised my Mum wasn't with me anymore. I looked back and saw her slowly catching up as she gasped out the words "Hooley dooley, you power up those hills!"
Hell yeah I do!
We came across a race marshall not long after and asked her how far we had gone (there were no distance markers) When she told us we were almost two kilometres in my heart sunk a little bit. We had been going for over 12 minutes and, by my maths, that meant a 30 minute finish was not looking good.
Fun runs are very surprising things. I found myself running past people who looked much, much fitter than me (it's amazing how expensive running clothes can make others perceive you!) and then, out of nowhere, a 65 year-old speeding bullet would zoom past, shattering all preconceived notions about what a 'good runner' looks like. I reminisced about one of the fun runs I had done all those years ago where I had been absolutely humiliated by the fact that I was overtaken but a 80+ year-old gentleman who was power walking. The image of him disappearing into the distance while I dragged myself along the course somewhere between and stagger and a crawl won't ever leave my mind.
Not far after the halfway mark we started playing annoying games of 'switch-a-roo' with other people on the run. They would charge past at an almighty pace only to wear themselves out and have to walk a few hundred metres away. There were three people in particular that started to irk me. One I dubbed 'Ponytail' because she was constantly tightening her ponytail. The second I called 'Hunchy' because she held her shoulders right up around her ears. It looked really uncomfortable. And the third was 'White' because not only was she dressed in all white, she also had blonde hair and very pale skin. 'White' annoyed Mum too because while we were sweating our behinds off, she looked as fresh as a daisy. She spent most of the course walking at a break-neck speed, interspersed with burst of pelting like a mad-man. It really was amazing that she looked so un-sweaty.
The course ended with a slight incline and then a hair-pin bend into a straight line to the finish. I had been thinking about that incline since the start of the run and had built it up into a mammoth hill in my mind. I was so happy when I realised it was nowhere near the incline that I remembered. 'Hunchy' was just in front of us, while 'Ponytail' and 'White' were somewhere behind. As we approached the tight bend, 'White' tore out from somewhere at her break-neck running speed, still looking like she had just started the run. I let out an expletive as Mum mumble something under her breath, there was no catching her now.
As we rounded the bend a race marshall smiled, waved, told us we were almost there and that we could almost sprint to the finish from here. I may have mentioned something along the lines of 'Not likely' and a nano-second later I saw the big, purple finishing arch. All of a sudden, a bit of extra speed didn't seem like such a crazy concept and I was off. 'Hunchy' was history!
Errgh, worst photo ever, but can you spot Hunchy?
It's quite an ethereal sensation, the sprint to the finish line. The pain of only moments ago disappears and your legs feel detached from your body yet still controlled by your brain. Nothing matters except that line... And the fact that you've left your Mum somewhere behind you and you're going to cop it when she catches you!
Look at Mum's face! Priceless!
Once I had crossed the line, all the crappy feelings came back though. My legs wobbled, my face was burning and I would have killed someone for their cup of water. Mum wandered up behind me babbling about "taking off" and "not likely, my ass!" as I tried to find Danny in the crowd, or a source of hydration, or even better still, Danny holding a giant bottle full of ice cold water! I found Danny who was sadly lacking in the water stakes but knew where I could find some.
We watched another of his workmates cross the line for the half-marathon as I sucked down my much needed and loved bottle of water and then we went home. Once I got home I hit a giant wall and and any energy I had left disappeared which is pretty much how I have felt since then. Triathlon training while feeling like you've been hit by a small truck = suck town.
What was even worse was the fact that when I went to check my results online, I found my name missing from the list :( Turns out, when they suggest tying your timing chip into your shoe laces, they do that for a reason. Safety pinning it to your number bib places it too far from the timing mat and your time doesn't register *sob* Mum's official time was recorded as 32:20 and, in Danny's professional opinion, I was at least 5 seconds ahead of her so 32:15 it shall be... I was a bit sad to not get my 30 minutes but, like my Mum said, it gives me a starting point to improved on... And it's a hell of a lot better than the time I did on my last 2007 5K... 43:40!! And I think 204th out of 456 ain't too bad...
Thanks for reading... K
