running are dragging for me now. I have reached a point where I think, and I’d like to be, doing other things in between…fitness-wise that is. The trick is making time! So now it’s Monday, and with only a chiropractor appointment this afternoon after work, I thought it was time to get onto some cross training. So I plan on “hitting the gym”…in the carport! I’ve only used it 3 times since I bought it, with all good intentions, and now it’s time to make those intentions real! A girl at work, AGal, has half-promised to loan me her ski-trainer-thingy, as she said she isn’t fit enough to use it yet as it gives you a really good workout. So that could be good, aerobic work without the vertical pounding of running. I’m still yet to get the treadmill, and have been hoping I didn’t have to; maybe this will be the answer.
After the run to work on Thursday, the rest of the week/end passed very quickly. Friday was work and a movie after work; great night, fun and relaxing, after taking an hour to get through traffic to pick up my race number from the convention centre. The combination of football traffic and a train strike meant a 3km trip from one end of the city to the other took me the better part of 45minutes! And all for a race number that was small enough for them to post! After collecting my number and checking the timing chip, I was lulled by the whispers of the trade tables (ah-ha-that’s why they make us come in!)…”come and look at what we have for sale”… I saw the Five Fingers poster and I was at the table like a flash! In the book Born to Run there is a lot in the pages about barefoot running, and I’ve done some of my own research as well. The premise behind it makes sense to me, it won’t to everyone, and I’d been drooling over a pair of Vibram Five Fingers shoes for some time and not bought any. They had the pair I’d been looking at and they were $20 cheaper than the price I’d seen on the internet, so I bought a pair. Regular socks won’t fit in them, as each toe is separated like fingers in a glove, so I also had to buy a pair of socks. Kind of weird and a bit like a train wreck, you don’t want to look but are compelled to. My thinking behind getting a pair is not so much to run in them, but wear them as much as possible outside of running, like when I walk the dog. As the shoe is designed to make your feet work as if they were barefoot, it engages all the muscles in your feet and ankles that are normally inactive as the typical running shoe is so constructed and immobilises the foot to a degree. I’ve been running in my Brooks for the last 7 years and I do not want to tempt problems by changing from a maximum pronation shoe to a barefoot shoe; but I am tempted to see what it feels like to run short distances in them. For now I’ll stick to walking and building up my feet muscles so that when I run in my Brooks shoe, my feet will have better strength for the task at hand…or at foot!
Saturday was a brutally long day starting with the food shop bright and early at 8am. Then home to drop it off, out again to pick up some sheep manure I’d ordered through the baseball club (who knows when I will get time to put it on the garden!!) and then home again by lunch time. I distracted myself (from gorgeous man thoughts) all afternoon with housework; about 10 loads of washing (while the sun was shining), changing all the beds (lucky kids I haven’t made their beds in ages as they always have to do it – I was feeling generous!), vacuuming all the floors and mopping said floors. I also needed to wash a set of curtains that had spots of pumpkin, parmesan and garlic dip on them! A funny story from weeks ago, and I am still finding dollops of dip in unexpected places. By 5pm I realised how tired I was and thought it about time I got off my legs and relaxed before the City to Surf on Sunday.
Dropping in to bed later that night and sleeping like a log, I was up at 6am to get ready for the race. All along I’ve gone into the race knowing it was just another training session, but I still wanted to do a decent time! I headed into the city, on Pepe for easy parking, to meet up with a friend from triathlon days, MGal (a different one!) as we’d agreed to run together. MGal led me to believe she’d be slow, as she’d likely walk/run the race due to on-going injury issues; she ended up beating me!
The 12km race didn’t get away until 9.30am which made for a warm morning out there running. As the City to Surf now incorporates more race distances with a half and a full marathon, they obviously had to stagger the starts to accommodate some 40,000 people braving the trek uphill to the coast. It isn’t an easy run, there are some tough hills and lots of people make for squashed goings! We did manage to run from the start line which was good, as we’d thought congestion would have us walking the first 10 minutes. I had on my new Suunto watch, HR strap and foot pod and managed to get all three of them talking to each other, so I was officially able to track my distance which I’ve been dying to do to see if I am running slower or faster than I think!
I lost MGal somewhere after the first 2kms, I thought for someone going slow (her prediction) I must be super slow! Not to worry; this was training I wasn’t going to get competitive. The hills weren’t too bad, obviously slowed on them, and I think the heat made it seem worse; but my watch told me I was still managing 6:30 pace uphill! On the downhill it was fun, I was able to push harder as I knew my fitness would get me through and I’d be able to make it up the next hill without worrying about knocking myself out in between. It was kind of fun dodging and weaving between the crowd. It was also awesome to be out amongst so many people, all running for their own reasons with so many different shirts printed for the day…I felt inconspicuous in my Perth Heat baseball top. Lots of pictures of people and children that had passed away on t-shirts, their face becoming a memory of the motivation behind the reason all these people were pushing themselves to go further and harder than they’d gone before. By the look of some of the physiques, they were doing just that. Jumped off the couch and hit the pavement running. It was so good to see, and I felt lucky to be part of it. My $39.50 entry fee was coming into perspective!!
I came upon an older gent, who tracked his feet directly one in front of the other, with his knees bending at right angles to his legs, but charge on he did. Here I was, in all my concentrating about keeping a smooth gait, this fella was in front of me! Just goes to show, looks and size and style have little to do with speed! Either that or I look so much better in my head than I actually do…lol. There were lots of people dressed up for the occasion, and more pairs of skins on legs than I’ve ever seen. As the temperature climbed I wondered how many people were regretting the choice to rug up!! Though it had been cold earlier in the morning, it wasn’t cold mid-race. There were discarded bits of clothing all along the roadway. I was glad I put up with cold fingers and legs before the start.
By the time we hit Perry Lakes, and I could smell the finish, the group divided into two and the larger mass went off cross country over the grass. There still seemed to be a group running along the road and I wondered if I’d been conned into a short-cut. I really wanted to get an accurate 12km time, so I flicked off the group and ran back up to the road way. With a right turn on the roadway, I pounded on as I was getting a bit tired and hot by then and was kind of wishing it were over, and I came upon a flag saying “18kms”. At that point I realised I’d run my way onto the half marathon course and should’ve stayed on the grass route taken by the masses! I could see the masses off to my right so I cut across country again and rejoined the group I should’ve been with! Through the park and with one last climb to go, I decided to try to push a little harder up and over the top…even though my watch said I was bloody slow at this point, but I never stopped running. As I was passing an older woman and younger woman in matching t-shirts, I heard the younger one gee-up the older one and say “come on, we’re nearly finished, you can do it”. I quietly ran up behind the older woman (probably in her late 50’s) and gently put two fingers in the small of her back and offered to “give her a push”. It is amazing how helpful this is when you think you can’ go another step, just a gentle pressure in your back (not even really pushing), but the contact propels you for one last effort. We chatted a little and I told her I wasn’t sure why this helped, but I knew it did, and when we crested the hill I said good luck “it’s all downhill from here” and headed off in front of them. She was thankful and I felt better for making someone else’s efforts more important than my own.
It was really fun flying down the last hill, and like lemmings to the ocean’s edge, everyone gained momentum, pushing to the finish line the whole crowd gathered speed. I ran past a father and son, the boy only about 8 or 9 years old, and I asked him if he’d run the whole way? He said yes and I said awesome…and then took off! Be stuffed if a 9yo is going to beat me…lol. The finish chute this year was up on the road, which was nice, because as I turned the corner I thought I had another 800m around the oval…but then the inflatable finish gate was right there in front of me.
I crossed the line in 1 hour 16 minutes; my goal had been 1 hour 15 minutes. I was a bit disappointed but content with the knowledge I’d helped that lady up the hill, which was worth the extra minute! The volunteers were urging everyone down the chute and down the hill to where we had to remove the timing chips. Then the line congested and we stood still for about 15 minutes just trying to get through. I was feeling quite thirsty at that point as my Camelbak had just run out on the finish line!
As I wandered around looking for MGal I was flicking through the buttons on my watch trying to figure out how to find out how far I’d gone and at what pace. I’m still to get my head around this new watch! Finally found it, and I’d burned 987 kCal, my fastest pace at some point during the race had been 4:45 mins/km…and I’d run the grand total of 14.8km! Wow, I guess darting through traffic (people) and going the “right” way…had added a few more kms onto my 12km City to Surf. That made me happier, I’d got more kms in and it meant I’d actually avg 5:13 mins/km! Very happy Jan.
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