Race Report - First half marathon!

Today's race: 21.1km Canberra Half Marathon, unofficial time 2 hr 24 minutes

I did it! I'm sore and walking like an old, old lady, but I did it!

Drove down to Canberra on Friday evening with my parents - we used the weekend as an opportunity to visit my sister and her hubby and my aunt and uncle whilst we were there. Saturday was freezing... not only was the temperature pretty low but the wind chill factor was hideous, and every time I checked the weather for Sunday the forecast got worse. Of course I had only packed a t-shirt and shorts to run in on Sunday morning, but on Saturday I was getting very worried about whether I would DNF due to hypothermia. The girls in the family had a shopping trip on Saturday afternoon, and as a 'just in case' measure, I bought a new long sleeved running top. I know the golden rule is not to wear in a race what you have not tried in training, but I didn't know what would be worse. Saturday night was a family dinner - I chose the pasta option!

As it turned out, Sunday wasn't too bad a day. When I woke up it was already about 8 degrees (although windy), so I figured surely the temperature would have to increase a little bit. Had breakfast, got myself dressed and ready (in my long sleeved top - and with plenty of Bodyglide applied), and my Dad and uncle came down with me to the start. I had a tracksuit over my running gear until the last moment, which was very necessary, and had gloves on and a headband that covered my ears. Didn't see many cool runners at the start, although I think I spotted BigAdam ahead of me as we waited for the gun to go off.

Took the tracksuit off and handed this to Dad, but kept the gloves and headband on, which was a wise move. Although it was sunny and the temperature had increased a little, there was still quite a cold wind. Off I went - the first part of the course was a 4km loop that went back past the start line. By the time I had gone 1km I was a tail end charlie, but that was ok because it meant I didn't really get overtaken much on the run but managed to peg quite a few runners back along the way. At the 4km mark I handed my gloves to Dad, and he and my uncle went back home and left me to it.

Then the real work started. I had tried not to start out too quick - I did go a bit quicker than I had wanted to but felt comfortable - figured it wasn't too much quicker and I would just try and hang on. I don't have a garmin, so I have no idea of splits. Most of the run was quite pleasant in terms of scenery - it was almost always next to the lake, and through woods and trees. Most of the run just involved my sticking at my pace and trying not to think too far into the distance about how far I had to run. My sister and hub were planning on meeting me at Scrivener Dam - at about 11km. That perked me up as I approached it, but they weren't there... so for the next 5km, I kept looking out for them at every corner - it kept me going quite well as a strategy! It turned out they were at the 15km mark. They had waited at the bottom of quite a hill, and my sister ran with me to the top of it, which was great. The then drove round to the finish to meet me there.

Things got a bit tough around the 17-18km mark, and there was some gritting of teeth, but the good thing was I was close enough to convince myself that it would be over soon.

The worst part of the run was the last km, coming over the bridge over the lake. Man, that wind was freezing and went straight through me! My sister was waiting about 200m from the finish, and gave me just the motivation I needed to put on whatever turn of speed I had left in my legs.

I was excited to finish. I was excited to go less than 2 and a half hours. I was excited to go less than 2 hours 25 mins. But when I finished, we didn't hang around - the whole family had come to the finish line - I didn't have the energy to talk or do anything except drink some gatorade! But what a great day!

The three hour car trip back to Sydney this afternoon wasn't very helpful to my recovery - I had a hard time getting out of the car! Just trying to catch up with how all the other competitors went on the day. Will have to start planning my next half!