Inspiration

Today's run: 5 km in I-have-no-idea-how-long

I love the school holidays, for a great many reasons, but one of them is that I can pack up and go away for the weekend without having to think about when I'll get my marking done, or how I'll fit things in. So on Saturday morning, it occured to me that the Canberra Marathon was on on the Sunday morning, and why not drive down there to watch a bit of it? Since my sister and her husband lives in Canberra I have free accommodation, and I thought it might give me a little inspiration to keep running!

So on Saturday afternoon I headed down, singing along to Dire Straights in the car! Sunday morning I got up relatively early (considering it was the holidays!)... I had missed the first lap or so of the race but positioned myself at a point in the course where the runners pass by 4 times. One of the things that struck me as the competitors ran past was that runners really do come in every shape and size. There was every age of competitor, some rake thin, some with a few kilos to lose. Some had the most awkward looking gaits, I wondered how they could keep it up for so long. Some were obviously struggling, some were doing it easy (well, it looked that way anyway). Some looked pretty 'normal', and there were definately a few odd-ball looking characters!

Whils tthe thought of getting out there and running for that many consecutive kilometres and hours is an obcene thought at this stage of my "running comeback", I did get a sense of "Well if they can do it, so can I".

I do have no doubt that if I put my mind to it, I could run a marathon. After all, that's what I did when I trained for and ran a half. Aside from my distinct lack of endurance at this stage, one of the biggest hurdles I think I would have is how many HOURS and HOURS it would take each week to invest in training. It was one of my most dominant thoughts as I watched the runners... especially for the back-of-the-packers, it involves such a big chunk of time (already a precious commodity) being invested in training. And for me, at least, it's not only the time on your feet, but time recovering afterwards. I know when I was doing my long runs last year in the morning, I would be absolutely pooped during the rest of the day!

Anyway, strong respect to all competitors!

Following the marathon, I of course went for a run today before I came home. Just a 5km loop around the middle of the lake in Canberra. Normally, it's a beautiful and very scenic spot to run. Well, I suppose it was still scenic today with the autumn colours all around (we don't really get autumn here), but there was quite a cold wind and it was incredibly overcast. I forgot to set my stopwatch too, so I have no idea how long I took, but I can say I did enjoy the run and it wasn't too strenuous. I suppose that means I could have pushed it harder, but like I've said, I'm all about getting back to the consistent and enjoyable training.

I have now done 6 runs in my 10-runs-in-the-holidays goal. Go me!