A Long Silence

This last marathon I ran seems to have temporarily sapped my love of running. Perhaps I was not even in the right head space before I ran the race. Although I had a beaming smile afterward, I think it was more of a relief reflex than a feeling of accomplishment. Whatever, it has taken me until today to fall back in love with running, which is probably why I have been so quiet. Every time I thought about sitting down in front of the computer and writing a post, my energy levels plummeted because I had nothing that felt interesting to share.

This short journey has highlighted to me the importance of the mind and exercise. It is so easy to talk oneself out of doing something, or to tell oneself that it is much harder than it really is, or even to think “I am not enjoying this anymore”. It has highlighted to me the minds ability to talk nonsense to the body.

And so today, as I headed out for my run I suddenly popped out of the negative state and decided I felt good and could do more. Which is what I did, I ran further than I had planned and I enjoyed every minute of it, even though it was freezing cold to start and I was running into a head wind. And when I finished I felt good, and the feeling of accomplishment came back, and I am ready for what tomorrow will bring.

Post Marathon Thoughts

My week on the Gold Coast has come to an end and I am sitting at the airport waiting to fly home. I don’t think I am suffering from post marathon blues as such, but I am feeling as if nothing really happened of a phenomenal nature. Or perhaps that IS the blues?

I haven’t been analysing the race and my slower time, I haven’t really thought about it much. Am I putting it on the scrap heap because I feel I didn’t do as well as I wanted, or am I honestly not worried about my performance on the day? It’s a strange feeling.

I went for a walk/jog yesterday and discovered my legs were tired, they felt heavy and blobby. I only ran a short distance while I was out, I walked most of it, maybe I ran 1km out of the 4km I did. I don’t remember feeling like this after the Auckland Marathon, but then again maybe I did.

When I get back home, I need to set a goal, I don’t have one yet. Perhaps that is the problem.

Done And Dusted!

I sit here this morning with a few sore muscles contemplating my achievement yesterday, and on the whole I think I did okay. Sure I am disappointed that I didn’t better my time seeing as the course is flat, unlike Auckland, but with all that happened in the week prior to the race, I am just glad I ran it!

I was doing really well until the 32km mark and this photo was taken about 2km before that by my ever supportive husband who crutched his way from our resort to the start area, a distance of about 2km – a marathon for him! He even managed to recruit a temporary fan club who happened to come from Cape Town (where I grew up)!

 

At 32km the wheels fell off….I was overcome by a wave of nausea and had to start walking. My friend (who is also a Homeopath) had warned me the antibiotics may make me feel sick and I might want to throw up half way through the race…at least I didn’t do that! The next 6km were spent having conversations with myself about reasons I should not pull out of the race, until I realised I had 4km to go and I had better suck it up and just finish.

Once I got to the 40km mark I had pretty much got the nausea in check and chugged along until I heard a spectator yell out “Only 700m left”. On went the power, I still had gas in my tank (amazingly!) and I powered down the finish shute to finish in (by my watch) 4:38:24 (according to my watch I also ran 42.47km! What’s with that!). Unfortunately I did not have the energy to smile for the cameras, that was in the too hard basket at that stage.

After the race, my hubby and I strolled/crutched over the road to the shopping centre to ease out my legs and have a bite to eat…..I think the smile says it all….

 

While we were sitting in the cafe we agreed that if I ever say I am going to do another marathon, my husband has permission to shoot me. This time I mean it, I am not doing that distance again, but will stick to the 21km and 10km distances. I love running, just not that long!

And now for a nice relaxing holiday on the Gold Coast 🙂

One Final Run

Today I did the final training run before the race tomorrow. 5km very slowly wearing my new GPS watch. I felt good running, and the temperature was nice and cool (same predicted for tomorrow). My hand seemed to cope…

After I had finished I waited outside our resort to watch the 10km race pass by. I was amazed at all the different running styles, some people seem to glide past and others almost stop each step they take. I sat on the side of the road for a while until I started to feel cold then went in to have breakfast and a shower. While sitting there I noticed my hand was hurting a little and had swelled up a bit.

My hand has been a little grumpy all day, the thought crossed my mind to pop the blister, but I am not sure if that’s a good idea. I hope tomorrow it will be okay as I get quite puffy hands when I run long distance anyway. We shall see…

My running gear is laid out, my race number and gels all ready to go. All I have to do is set my wake up alarm for 5.15am and I am all set. All the training, tapering, carb loading and hydrating has been done, now it is time to do that Marathon!

A Slight Hiccup

I have had a slight hiccup which could put paid to my race. In the early hours of Tuesday morning I was bitten by a white tail spider while asleep in bed. By yesterday afternoon the bite looked horrible and so I went to A&E. Short story is I have had two doses of IV antibiotics and come away with oral antibiotics to take as well. I have an itchy, sore, blistered thumb with an enlarged lymph gland in my armpit. It appears as if it is getting better, hopefully it will be okay by Sunday. Here is a picture…..bit gross really!

 

You can see the fang marks!

The doctor said running on antibiotics should be fine as long as the infection isn’t too bad so I’ll have to see what happens in the next two days. Tomorrow we leave for the Gold Coast, so depending on how it goes I do the marathon, drop to the half or don’t run at all…..

Nearly Race Day!

I have been quiet I know. The last time I sat down at my computer to write anything was almost 2 weeks ago! Various reasons….been feeling tired, and a bit meh…. This week we were away in Auckland and Colville. I have still been training, had a few hamstring niggles, went for 2 painful massages! It was almost as if I got the 35km run done and thought to myself “That’s it! Job done!” Not so….

I have a new toy, a Garmin Forerunner 410. I used it on Sunday for my final long run and again today. Why did I not buy this toy earlier? It is so simple to plan and do your runs, so easy to upload the info when you’re done. The only downside is the size of it. I have VERY small wrists, so have to use the smallest watch strap while the watch itself is HUGE, so no wearing of this one other than while running.

This week is final taper week. I am enjoying the severe shortage of runs. Today I went for a 6km trot, on Friday I will do 5km. Then Sunday is Race Day! I am going to wear my new toy as it tells me my pace, however I need to figure out how to drive it properly as I don’t want it beeping at me each km and reminding me that I still have screeds of kms left. I am hoping the weather will be good, and warmer than here. A few runs I have done lately, it has felt as if my face is going to fall off, it’s been that cold. On two mornings last week I was running along the boardwalk and it was covered in frost. I am hoping I can walk properly after the race, as when I did the Auckland Marathon, I had such sore feet I couldn’t walk properly for 2 days afterwards. I am dosing myself with Vit C so I don’t catch any bugs.

We leave for the Gold Coast on Friday morning, driving up to Auckland Airport for our flight. Perhaps I am starting to feel just a little bit excited…..