A PB for me!

Today's race: 14km, 1hr, 33 mins

When I woke this morning at 5:45, it was dark, but not too cold, and it wasn't raining. Had some brekkie, got dressed and started my drive in towards the city for this mornings 14km race. I had been driving for about 10mins when it started sprinkling lightly on my windsheild. "That's ok, a little sprinkle won't hurt" I said to myself. I keep driving another 10 minutes or so, and it gets a little heavier. "Well, I'd rather it didn't rain, but I guess I'll just get wet" says I. I continue on, and by the time I pull up to the race venue, it is chucking it down, and there are a few rumbles of thunder. Now I'll admit that I'm a more wussy runner than some, but I can cope with running in the rain. But I just didn't like the thought of running in torrential rain for an hour and a half.

But because I had told my family that I would be running, and because I didn't want to get called a wimp for backing out, and because I was there anyway, and because it may clear up, I went and got my race number and got ready. The start of the race was delayed a little, which in the end turned out to be a good thing because it had started clearing quite a bit by then. In fact when the starter called "Go", it had pretty much stopped raining. Of course what that meant was that the course was quite slippery and muddy, and I ended the race with some lovely brown splodge marks all down my legs, and I've had to wash my runners tonight!

The run itself was ok... I was at the tail end of the field, which I expected, but I wasn't on my own which was good. After just a km though, I looked at my watch - I had done the first km in about 6 mins 30ish, which I was worried was too fast and unsustainable. After a short argument in my head though, I decided it felt comfortable enough, and I figured I would just keep going about that pace and see if I could stick it out.

So on I kept plodding. The only point of confusion for me was the two times we came back near the start... I could just not work out where the route was meant to go. Both times I followed the runners in front of me, but both times they went different ways! Particularly as I started the 7km loop again, with all the early finishers milling around the start / finish area eating their pancakes, it was impossible to know where I was meant to go! Oh well!

In the end, I managed to maintain a pace of around 6:39 (some faster kms, some slower), but I was really happy with that. Also at the end of many races I can still sort of sprint it in, but this time, it was all I could do to maintain my pace - so I'm happy I gave it my all. I finished in a watch time of 1 hour 33 mins 14secs (no official time yet) which I'm completely thrilled about. When I ran in 2006 I started running in January and continued until August when I ran my best 14km time of 1 hour 39 mins 9 secs. So today after only 3 months back running I blitzed it by about 6 mins! It certainly gives me hope that with some more training I'll be able to hack a half marathon in May!

After the race I had my free pancake with nutella, and some fruit, had a chat, and made my way home. I've been pooped all day - I only managed to do my groceries and make dinner, punctuated in between by a very long nana nap!

I love good days!