Not pretty

Run: Canberra half marathon, 21.1km
Time taken: 1hr 44.44min
Av pace: 4.55min/km
AHR: 172; MHR: 224

I’ve decided that sometimes its probably better to listen to your body. On Sunday morning it was telling me that it really didn’t want to run a half marathon. Seeing as it was Mother’s Day all it really wanted to do was sleep in and get breakfast in bed. However I ignored the nagging little voice in my head (bad move) and reluctantly got up to have breakfast and get ready for the run. I certainly wasn’t going to be firing on all cylinders today…….

There were lots of people milling around the start near the yacht club when we arrived. It actually wasn’t as cold as I imagined it would be so it wasn’t too hard removing my jacket: 5*c instead of minus 5*c! There was the usual jostling for places, banter about times people were hoping to run and then we were off – for me it was to the Korn song “Twisted Transistor”.

Aki ran alongside me, just ahead or just behind me for most of the way. Liza, who I hadn’t seen since the half marathon in August last year, ran past me near Scrivener Dam. She did say something to me but I couldn’t hear because of the music playing so she said she would see me at the end. She was running really well and looked very comfortable. I, in the meantime, was feeling like crap and probably looking it and everything hurt – my feet, my hamstring and my ever-present companion, the niggly glute. At the 15km mark I would’ve been quite happy to finish – I really wasn’t interested. Aki was storming ahead and looking so good – that girl has improved out of sight over the past year. Mr B passed me not long past the turnaround near the Carillon. In fact, it felt like everyone was passing me.

After what seemed like an eternity pounding the pavement it was wonderful to see the finish shute. It’s hard to believe that a little over a month ago I ran twice the distance faster and a whole lot better than I ran this race. Spoke to a jubilant Liza who had run a great race and a PB. Also spoke to Mr B who had run about 1hr 42min for his first half marathon. Whereas Strewth and I looked like we were over the whole running thing!

Something I did learn: Lots of gym work, no taper, a high protein/mod carb diet and half marathons don’t go together! C’est la vie....and back to the gym tomorrow.