Woke up this morning from a really rested 7 hour sleep, What parent with twin toddlers gets that! ha! I am one lucky mama!
Plain Bagel and a handful of grapes for breakkie and I was out the door with the Sister-in-law Kelly to drop children off and pick up Amy for today’s event.
All ready to go in our tried and true race day gear we were ready to make our very first timed 10km.
And just so we don’t attract to much attention to ourselves we wore this on the back of our shirts…
Kelly of course was still bitter toward me almost all the way to the venue, saying “you do this for fun?” Me thinking – haha! Doesn’t everybody?!
We Park up about 5 mins walk away and we head in to see Half marathoners finishing their last loop, I couldn’t wait to get started!
The venue was swarming with runners of all shapes and sizes, in it for a PR or for a fun run, the place alive with enthusiasm, all just as eager as I was. At this point I wasn’t nervous, in fact the whole day I wasn’t nervous, I was just itching to get out there and do it.
5 minutes to start gun and we crowd around in the start lane. 5-4-3-2-1… the sea of people move more quickly than I had thought it would and we had past the start line with in seconds. I could tell some took off too fast for 10km abilities, stopping to walk even before the 1km mark.
Amy and I had a plan, and we were keeping to our plan – a nice easy pace all the way to the 7th km, where we meet the Mount and get amongst the trail, then we would get some sprints in there for all the downhills! Meanwhile Kelly had already buggered off up ahead, we saw her briefly at the beginning quickly weaving through the crowd making her way closer to the front pack.
The first 2km flew by quicker than we had planned, I guess the excitement of being among 400+ runners was just too much for us. Just after 3km we met the turn around point and made our way back toward the start area which we had to pass through to get to the next part of the route. As we move through the starting area and take a left down and around to the next straight, we see Kelly’s husband Caen and two kiddies waving furiously to anyone, not quite sure where Aunty Neenee was among all the other runners.
We approach the next turn around bay, boost round and head toward the Mount to do the last 3 or so k’s, both Amy and I still donning Cheshire Cat smiles at this point, so excited to get to the bit of the race we know so well. “I can see it”, “Were almost there”, “To the last trailer”, “Yes! The last trailer!!!” – You had to be there to know what we were on about haha we do this, conversate about were we would slow it down, pick it up, go nuts and boost, haha we tag team! I honestly don’t know how I would rate on a solo run, we just feed off of each other!
We meet the entrance to the Mount base walk way and we pretty much boost through past what I counted to be 7 runners in our race, the ones who peaked too soon and didn’t save anything for the Mount. We start talking out our plan we had made for the Mount, Run here, walk this uphill, sprint this down hill, cruise this flat. We met the 9km marker, our Nike Apps sounded metres after, “9 Kilometres, Time – 1 hour, 4 minutes…” Amy – “Oh My God, did you hear that, 1 hour 4 minutes”…. We push on harder and faster, still following our plan, but with smiles 50 times bigger than they were at 7 k’s.
We meet the dreaded ‘Big Hill’, the one that I am sure all Mount runners solemnly sigh at knowing that they must get up it to get to the end, half marathoners twice so. Its not a big hill, not a hugely steep hill, but after running 9km (for someone who only started the 10km distance 4 weeks ago) is a “Fuck this” moment – excuse the french!
We got to the top of that hill, Glenn’s voice in my head, “Use those Glutes”. Eyes widen as we are heading for the home stretch of board walk, adorned on both sides with spectators. That last 500 metres seems so easy to sprint across, so many strangers cheering their lungs out even though they don’t even know you from a bar of soap. It was actually really great to hear as we didn’t have anyone there from our own families/friends cheering us on.
After pounding that boardwalk as fast as we could, giving everything we had left, Hi-fiving all the way down to the finish, We cross that line, we slow our pace, we find our bearings and we start going on about how much fun we just had, and incredibly great we feel. It was like teen aged girls at sleepover, children who have had too much sugar, crazy drunk people at a sports game rooting for the winning team! We were so filled with endorphin’s, it was over-flowing!
We grab some R-line and head toward Kelly who had finished the race at 54.53, She was a machine! Even for someone who run’s purely to burn cals, I hope today she felt a little bit of we felt, the running for fun feeling! Judging by her results today, she should be really proud of what she achieved, I can only hope to get sub-1 hour one day!
We clocked at 1.11, 5 whole minutes off of our best 10km, probably only the 4th or 5th 10km distance that we had ever run before, ha! And even though my shinsplints came back to haunt me for the first 3 k’s, I loved every single minute second of it!
I really can’t wait to get into my Half Marathon training, I can’t wait to get to my next event, I cant wait to heal up and go for my next run… I just can’t wait!
Next time I will have to get someone to take more pics, but there you go – My Race report.
Next event – Whangamata Run/Walk Festival August 31st.
Now for some Beast rest!
Jay 🙂
On a Jam Hunt 