Today i ran in the Sunshine Coast half marathon. Its only a month since i did my first one at the Jetty to Jetty. The month in between hasnt been ideal training wise with being sick and then having an issue with my hamstring which i wasnt even sure was going to allow me to run at all! I spent much of the afternoon yesterday chasing up my hubbys step mum who had picked up my race bib for me..truth be told i should have just got it myself and then i could have kicked back and enjoyed a coffee with my running pals instead of stressing and racing around like a headless chicken. I always get nervous the night before a run but i felt more a sense of excitement until this morning when my stomach started churning and it sank in what i was just about to ask of myself physically. I have never been part of such a big event and the atmosphere really was brilliant. On the way up the hill at the start of the race i had a tear in my eye still not quite believing that i am a runner..i am one of these people out here loving being a part of this awesome experience! Yes i am a sook!!! I quickly found myself settling into a good pace although a little quicker than i had planned seeing as i was aiming for a negative split. Everything felt good..i had my breathing in good stead..i must say i started feeling my hamstring niggle fairly early on but i pretended it wasnt happening as i didnt want to psych myself out. I made sure i took the time to look around and take in the scenery. The very best thing which i am sure helped me on the day was the fact it was a looped course so i got to see my marathon running buddies several times. This certainly helped me out mentally especially as my ipod never did work..almost 2.5 hours with no music is something i didnt think i could do but being alone with my thoughts and taking in the atmosphere was great...although those last few kms i could have done with my motivating songs!! I loved the fact that people were calling out to their other friends as they went past. Seeing Nicole,Lynn and Brenda was wonderful..i kept thinking how awesome they all were running twice as far as i was going to esp as it was getting so warm! I noticed that on the first couple of times i saw them we were all smiles and as we got further into our races they were more gritted teeth type smiles hahahahah... focused and digging deep. With 8 kms left to go my hamstring started really screaming. I immediately thought of that shirt and medal and how proud i would feel once i had them on and around my neck. I really had to shorten my stride and stop and walk a few times in those last 5 kms particularly. But i didnt feel like i hit the wall mentally this time..i never thought why am i doing this? I kept thinking how great will I be when i follow a proper running program and do a good amount of training..i can only improve. But for today i am proud as punch that i pushed through the pain and achieved a 2:22 time for my half marathon!!!! GO ME!!!! Bell xo Categories: General
Posted on: Sun, 25 Aug 2013 08:54:40 +0000
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