On Sunday I ran my second half marathon. I'm not site why but with both of the halves I have run I got sick two weeks before. My Crossfit coach mentioned that it is "normal" if training for an event as you've pushed your body towards its peak and the taper period allows for recovery before going out and smashing yourself (and your PB). It sounds good in theory but I didn't exactly train for my first half (you can read about it
here).
The week before I dropped the intensity of all my sessions but I looked sucker than I was as I ha a mild case of conjunctivitis thanks to Adelaide sharing. I didn't do my speed session as my legs just didn't feel right and I wasn't risking an injury. Even my last long run got shortened as both Helen and I just didn't feel the love for it. I can clearly see why Em said she was concerned that I was going to crash and burn. I'd pushed things to the edge but I was lucky and pulled back just in time.
Late Saturday we arrived at Runaway Bay to our unit. The view from the
living area was lovey and could have enticed me into not running had I
more than a sore throat. The view from the otherwise of the living area
and 2 of the 3 bedrooms was perfect for watching the half marathon.
My parents and after a while I get around to cooking spaghetti bolognese. The kids get into bed early with some help from Ma, the gear is laid out and double checked and make and early night as Steven and I would be getting up at 3:45. I was feeling like I had forgotten to organise something and about 30 minutes later it dawned on me - my ear buds. That slight error was fixed up and off to sleep I went.
Before I knew it the alarm was going off and we were up and trying to get ready as quietly as possible. Somehow I managed to feed Adelaide without disturbing her. After a piece of bread, we were on a way, via a trip to get a cup of coffee, at 4:30 in the morning.
By the time dropped our bags at the storage tent, found the
parkrun tents and then a pit stop at the porta-loos it was almost 6am. As my times had gotten better than where I expected to be when I signed up, we jumped into Group C (2:00 - 2:15 finishers) and walked towards the start line. That walk took over 5 minutes from when the gun (which we didn't even hear) went off.
As expected when you have over 10,000 people running, the start was slow and a little messy. People were in the wrong starting areas and some where even walk (WTF!). Why would someone intentionally start in the sub 2:15 group only to be WALKING in the first kilometer? Other than dodging left and right my pace during the first couple of 5k's felt pretty good and averaged out at about 6:08. Somewhere between the 6th and 7th kilometer I lost Steven and apart from the hairpin turn just before the 7th kilometer I wouldn't see him until about an hour after I finished.
7k's down and it was time for a chomp and a bit of water. Its taken me a while but I've finally worked out this running and drinking water at the same time gig. The easiest way to explain it is that you grab the cup and the top and squish the sides together to form a point. At this stage you will spill the excess water, but the point you form enables you to just pour the water straight into your mouth without getting drenched while you keep moving.
I passed the 10k mark at around 1:01. Part of me was a little disappointed as I would have loved to be under the hour mark but then I remembered that I'd only recently cracked the 1hr mark in a shorter run. Running back down the esplanade at Paradise Point and I think I pass Steven at around his 10k mark. I didn't actually see him but I heard runkeeper talking to someone and he is the only person I've ever seen using the voice prompts without ear buds.
At around the 13k mark my music starts playing a cool down track. I had this happen in my first half marathon too and silly me never got around to taking the track off my play list. I pull out my ear buds after I can't make the music skip to the next track but I can still hear the slow beat of "Take My Breath Away". It's quite strange that this one song was enough to annoy the crap out of me yet for the rest of the run I didn't actually "hear" any of the music that was playing. Take away that background noise and I know that I would have been in a whole world of pain not long after 10k.
Coming up to the 14k mark I throw down another chomp thinking the drink station is coming up. WRONG. It was until 15k and by then I was desperately in need of that water to wash down the sickly sweet but salty taste in my mouth. Apart from that I'm still happily chugging along and averaging a pace of around 6:09. Its somewhere around the 16k mark that the photos below was taken. I'm guessing its location based on the fact that the building we were staying in is in the background as I have no recollection of the photographer being directly in front of me. I was in my own little world happily running long not knowing what was ahead.
As I'm approaching the 17k mark I realise that my pace is starting to slow a little and try to pick up the tempo. I pass the 18k mark at 1:50 and even through my pace has slowed its still over 9 minutes faster than my only 18k run (even though the majority of that run I was pushing the pram). Uncharted territory was now in front of me as my longest training run was 18k and I hadn't run a half in just under 2 years. All I was thinking is that I've got around 20 minutes left and this run is OVER.
During the 19th and 20th kilometers there was a headwind. Of all times to hit a headwind. My legs were tired, my pace was slowing and there's a frickin HEADWIND. I didn't matter what I did I just couldn't get my legs to turn over any quicker. There only thing that made me feel better was the fact that I was passing lots of walkers. Unlike my first half I now have a little more understanding of what hitting the wall is like.
After 2.5k of heavy, slow to move legs the end was in sight. The streets were once again thick with people hanging over the barricades in front of the supporter tents. I see the brown parkrun tent ahead and hope there will be someone hanging over the barricade that I know. Sure enough there is Ingred, a fellow parkrunner and Awesome Runner. She goes to get the camera out but I'm too fast and all she gets is this shot of my bum.
I round the corner and I'm into the finishing chute. There's people
everywhere. I pass the 2:20 gun time pacer and the end is in sight.
Who would have thought that I could smile like this at the end of
running 21.1km.
I stop my watch and get a shock at my time. 2:10:49! Two things go through my head - Firstly "Holy Crap!", quickly followed by "No wonder my legs feel so heavy and sore now". I managed to rip 22min 24s off my previous time. Before I started training for this my goal had been just to beat my previous time and get below 2:30:00. Then after a bit of reading and looking at my 5k time a 2:19:00 seemed achievable. Only days before the even I revised that to 2:15:00 and I thought that would be pushing it. Oh so close to a 2:10:00 for the half. If only I could have started closer to that pacer, I just may have cracked the 2:10 as well.
As I waddle down the finishing area I see two familiar
Awesome Runners faces. How would have thought that we'd just run 21.1k. Hardly a sign of a beetroot face to be seen. After a couple of orange slices and a bottle or water, Alison hobbles off to the physio tent as her hip has locked up and is giving her grief and Aedita and I part ways as we go to get our finishers shirts.
On the walk back to the parkrun tent I bump into another parkrun, and for the life of me I can't remember his name. We were discussing our run and it turned out that this half marathon was a big event for him. Not only did her run a sub 1:50 race but it was his 100th Half Marathon. Yes 100th, no typo there. How amazing is that!
15 minutes or so after finishing I think that Steven should be finished by now but with the congested airways and the possibility that he's not finished I send him a text message. I hear nothing, 10 more minutes pass and still nothing. I hobble of to the coffee line and nearly bowl Helen, my running partner over. I was still over the moon about my time and it also meant that I got to queue jump on the coffee line (don't tell anybody now). At this stage Aedita walks past again and informs me that Steven isn't dead and that she saw him cross the finish line.
I finally catch up with Steven about an hour after I finished the race. He finished in 2:33 but struggled from around the 16km mark as he had run out of chomps. When we packed our spibelts I'd put 2 chomps in for the start, 7k and 14k mark and left 2 for the end in our bags. Unfortunately for Steven he though they were also in his belt and used his 14k one at 10k with the intention of using the finishing ones at 15k. His feet are also a tad sore and he was more than happy to remove his shoes.
I'm one very happy camper on finishing my second half marathon and at this stage I have no intention of running a full. The time commitment is just too great when you have such a young family. That being said, I'll never say never. Some may also call me crazy but I'm now signed up to complete another half marathon only 4 weeks after this one. There will be no half marathon PB for this course, I'm going out just to enjoy the run. But I do have one goal in mind... All I want to do is beat my first half marathon time as this will be the second time I'm running the Brisbane Marathon Festival.
Sunday started off with my third half marathon. This was my second one in four weeks and it was also the second time I'd run at the Brisbane Marathon Festival. I've been fighting a bit of a cold ever since running the Gold Coast Half and I'd decided not to take it easy on this run. All I wanted to do was complete it, even if it meant doing 21km of intervals and preferably beat my previous time at this run of 2:33:25.
8 rounds and 3 reps later and I'm sufficiently tired. I don't know when it happened but somewhere in the last few months double unders have just clicked. I never thought I'd be happy to have them in a WOD and in this one they were actually kind of like a recovery part. Now maybe one day I'll feel the same about burpees (I think hell will freeze over first).
After a bit of grunting and groaning and strategically hiding for Em and her camera I find my maximum squat. I've improved by 5kg over 6 weeks and I probably only stuck with about 50% of the Smolov program. I'm now up to 60kg so it will be interesting to see if I can gain another 4kg and squat my body weight. The squat session was then followed by a nice and easy Zen/Yoga session and then they gymnastics ab program.
