I felt awful, borderline throwing up, headachy and chills. I couldn't work out if it was just my body's reaction to getting up too early after not enough sleep but I wasn't going to miss this for anything... I would have had to have been hospitalised to not at least attempt this.
I got the kettle boiling for a morning cup of tea in the hope that a warm drink would settle my stomach and get my digestive system moving so that I could fast track my "morning constitutional" and avoid needing to find a bathroom during the race (.. No such luck unfortunately, nothing was moving that fast that that time of the morning) I had a protein shake with almond milk, whey protein concentrate and strawberry nesquick.
I carefully got dressed, rubbing body glide anti-chaffing balm all around anywhere that could potentially rub and taping up my toes in anti blister bandages. I packed and repacked my post-race bag with powerade, snacks and a warm jacket filled my drink bottles and then we headed in (me, Julie and Byron; Steve was to follow with Eli and Lisa later as he was doing the 10k which didn't start until 9:30)
We got into the city and parked about 6am as planned and walked to federation square where a big crowd was gathering. It was freezing walking from the car but we didn't notice the cold once there. I put on my rivers gift singlet and pinned on my race bib on my front and the honour roll of babies on my back. Miraculously i spotted and met Sarah (Sarah E), another one of River's gift's runners in amongst the crowd, we took a couple of photos and then checked our bags. We then waited in a huge queue for the toilet... (Still no sign of a #2 :-( ) and headed to the start zone.
There were so many people, we had to walk for about 10 minutes from the start line to the back of the pack so that we could join the final (and slowest) wave of runners. The first wave headed off on time and we slowly inched forward onto the track. Our wave eventually passed through the start line around 7:19; nearly 20 minutes behind the fast runners.
I started off strong, comfortable in my space and those around me. There was a little dodging and weaving as we all settled into our pace. I found I was right near the 2hr 10min pacer (6:08 pace). I knew that I had been on target for a finish of about that time before I had become so sick and my training had been thrown out for the last month and a bit. I hung around her for the first 6km up the first couple of hills. It was the first of these hills that i remembered i had forgotten to have a puff of ventolin before the race and had to slow down to pull that out of my pouch and take it) It was a really challenging course for me; much more hilly than expected, and lots of mental blocks with loooong steady hills and longer dog-leg turns.
I found myself alongside our other Sarah (sarah J) at about the 6km mark, and commiserated with her about her lack of timing chip which was safely stowed in her checked bag at the finish line and then I released her on her way as I knew she was much faster than me and I didn't want to hold her back, but still that was a lovely surprise :-)
I struggled a bit with the longest hill and by the time I was back down the bottom "my pacer" was a good 500m in front of me and I was already struggling to maintain a 6:20/km pace. I had told Steve before the start that I was just hoping to come in under 2:30 but really I had wanted to surprise him with a big fast finish, but at this point I knew I didn't have it in me. So I revised my plan and told myself I could still do 2:20. I wasn't even half way yet. I pulled out my earphones plugged them in and got some tunes going, hoping they would keep me on track... I put it on random shuffle but the second and third songs were from Melinda's funeral tacks, which was both good and bad as I struggled to hold back tears but it reminded me why I was doing this.
At the halfway point my Garmin was reading 1hr 8minutes. I was still running and hadn't had to walk yet but I could feel my muscles getting fatigued. There was another hill shortly after that and I had to walk about 5 steps but quickly got myself moving again when I got a text from Steve saying he, Lisa and Eli were waiting at the start line to cheer me on. The start line was about 14km into the course, so I knew I was 2/3 of the way there when I saw their smiling faces. I sprinted to them and kissed them all. I had been running along amongst all these people encouraging each other in teams and had been feeling a little lonely.
The sprint cost me in terms of my energy levels and my heart rate alarm (205bpm) started going off as soon as I rejoined the pack of runners at the bottom of the hill going up to the shrine of remembrance, I had to walk for 30seconds to get it under control and took the opportunity to get my puffer out in case that was part of the problem.
I ran up and over that hill and started to feel my groove again. I knew my pace was quite slow but at this point it didn't really care so much, I just focused on keeping moving one foot in front of the other.
A good song came on (from the planetshakers beautiful women conference resource cd) and I grooved my way along, drumming out the drum solo with my arms and lip syncing to the words, much to the amusement of the marshals. I started to flake again at the bottom of the next hill so opted to power walk it... Still keeping pace with those alongside me that were jogging, so I figured that was good enough and it gave me a chance to rest some of the bigger problem muscles. I downed 2 cups of electrolyte at the next drink table just over the crest of the hill (until then i had been having one at every drink table) and ran freely down the hill again. Next it was the long and seemingly endless dog-leg (17-19km). It was so demotivating to run all this way (seemed like well over a km, I'm not really sure how far it was) down one side of a road all the while watching the streams of runners on the other side of the rope running back in the direction you came. Once I rounded the bend I promised myself that if I just ran to the next drink table I could walk while I drank. I finally caught sight of a familiar face, Sarah, our other rivers gift runner going in the other direction and detoured to greet her and give her a high five. i was so proud of us at this point and I sped up a little making it back up to 6:30/km for about 500m before the drinks. I had another 2 cups of electrolyte and took my sweet time finishing them (well, I walked fast still but didnt have to run until I had thrown the cups in the bin.... Playing mind games on myself by now was all I had, my hips and shins were screaming with every step).
When I finally passed under the sign that said we were at the 20km mark I thought-yes! We've done it, I can run 1km! That's easy!! But it wasn't, I managed about 200m at 6:30 pace before I had to walk again, I was feeling so tired I could've curled up then and there, hare and tortoise style and slept the day away. I kept going this way; running and walking, running and walking. At the 19km point I had been running for 2hours 6 minutes and thought I was in with a chance to make it in 2hrs 20 minutes but I saw that slip away when I couldn't maintain what i considered a reasonable pace (less than 7min/km). I asked myself if I wanted to finish the race running but outside of my goal time or walking because I had smashed myself to try and get my goal... I decided I wanted to finish running and I started moving in a slow shuffle type run that conserved my energy. I watched the 2hr20min tick over just after my garmin recorded 21km, I was so close! In the end my garmin recorded the track to be just over 21.3km(I must've run the long way lol)
When I finally made it to the finish chute I found I could run a little faster, keeping my eyes out for Lisa and Eli I ran for that finish line as hard as I could. I spotted them just down from the line, I saw them before they saw me and I ran to the side a bit to get their attention. Eli grinned at me with the biggest smile ever and yelled "yay mummy" I crossed over the line about 2hrs 45min behind the place winners . I gave the photographer a victory V and then wandered dazed looking for an exit to get to my girls before suddenly remembering and stopping my garmin at 2:22:25. I contemplated briefly stopping at the first aid tent, I was feeling so shaky and confused and nauseous. Then I spotted the guy handing out medals as everyone came over the line and I thought "one of those is for me" I got my medal, slung it over my neck with a big smile (at least I think I was smiling) got my apple and bottle of water, surrendered my timing chip and went to find Lisa, who hugged me with the biggest hug ...and the tears came.
Julie and Byron both finished strong with respectable sub 3hr times (Julie, 2:53, Byron 2:45) I was so proud of them and so honoured to run with them, beyond moved that they would train for such an event if honour of my special princess's first birthday.
Steve's race had started just before I finished and after meeting back up with Julie and Byron, we all pushed our way through the crowds at the finish line to see if we could catch him finishing. I wasn't sure what time he would do, as we had both barely run in the last month, he had been quite sick with a cough and the most he'd ever run in a day was 5km! I expected it would be somewhere between 1hr 20 and 1hr 30 so imagine my surprise and pride when he came running in shortly before 1hr 15! I was so very proud of him, I swallowed the lump in my throat, wiped my leaking eyes and screamed for him waving my arms like a madwoman "Yay! Steve! Go Bubby! I'm so proud of you!!"
Thanks for staying the course with us, for supporting and encouraging us, for motivating us and just loving us. Thank you for those who sponsored us, I promise Rivers gift is going to accomplish amazing things with your money, and you are a part of that. We couldn't have made it here without you all
Xoxoxo
Kath, Steve, Eli, Jonathon and Melinda
Ps.
Trusty Garmin stats
Dist:21.338km
Time 2:22:25 (confirmed by run Melbourne as 2:22:08 according to the timing chip)
Calories burnt: 2064
Avg pace: 6:41min/km
Avg hr: 184bpm
Max HR:204bpm
Km 1 6.12
Km 2 5:57
Km 3 6:07
Km 4 6:03
Km 5 5:47
Km 6 6:11
Km 7 6:16
Km 8 6:10
Km 9 6:44
Km 10 6:29
Km 11 6:45
Km 12 6:52
Km 13 6:50
Km 14 6:47
Km 15 7:30
Km 16 6:31
Km 17 7:49
Km 18 7:08
Km 19 7:26
Km 20 7:11
Km 21 7:15
Last 338m 2:16
