Gold Coast 10km

The Gold Coast 10km was a great race for me in 2011. I set my PB, and was at peak fitness. This year was completely different – the race was only 2 weeks post holiday, so I had no expectations. The weekend (including the 10km, the half and the full marathon) is always a major event for our squad, so not running it wasn't an option – I get massive FOMO (fear of missing out)! Because the event is so big they do the 10km, the 5.7km and the kids races on the Saturday, then the full and half marathons on the Sunday.

Most of our squad stay at the coast for the whole weekend, but I decided to just drive down on the day, which meant a 4am start. We had the perfect winter day for the race – it was cold in the morning, but not much wind.

I was lucky enough to have a priority start for the race. The qualifying standards are a bit silly – the male times are so much harder than the equivalent female times!

I shouldn't complain, because they let me in with my 43:06 from last year.

A couple other people in my squad had either elite/seeded or priority starts (the elites get their name on the bib – very fancy), so we headed to the start together to warm up on the road in front of the start line and to get intimidated excited about the professional runners and triathletes. I feel like a giant at any running event, especially when elite runners are around!

When the race started I stayed at the back of our starting zone. Someone running 4:15 pace is very different to someone running close to 3 min pace!

The course had changed a little bit since last time. In 2011 we went north for about 5km and then turned around and headed back to the finish. This year we headed south for about 1.5km, then passed the start line again and did a bit of a lollipop to the north. I like courses with a couple turn arounds, too many are annoying but generally I enjoying being able to cheer for people running in the other direction.

The first few km were uneventful. I knew I shouldn't go out too hard, and I think I ran 4:15 for the first km, then settled into around 4:20 pace.

I'm not sure when it started, but I was leapfrogging another runner for a few kms. At around the 6km mark we decided to start running together. It was exactly what I needed – I definitely slowed down in the second 5km, but it could have been much worse! We didn't say much, just the occasional supportive word.

My next big boost came in the final km. Our squad had a tent set up about 700m from the finish line, and hearing everyone cheering was absolutely phenomenal. I knew from last year that reaching the squad means we're almost done!

Me and my pace setter (photo from a friend's FB)

The finish line is in a slightly different position to the start line, and it feels like a bit of a maze getting in there. You don't actually get to see the finish line until you're practically on top of it.

The worst part about this last section was the smell of breakfast wafting from the corporate tents. I felt positively ill from the smell of bacon cooking!

In the end, my 'rabbit' finished a couple seconds ahead of me. I finished in 44:48, only 10 seconds slower than at Noosa, but with a lot less training!

For the firs time ever I thought I was going to vomit after I crossed the finish line! I had to grab a vomit bag as soon as we crossed the line – I've never seen them offered at a race before but man I was glad they had them at GC! I didn't need it at the end, I just kept dry-heaving for a few minutes. Lovely…

I think there were a couple reasons for the stomach upset. I'd tried a different breakfast (I normally don't eat before morning runs but I like to have something in my stomach for races) – needless to say, Sustagen was a bad choice!

The second reason was the smell of bacon. Funnily enough, some people loved the smell :s

And finally, of course, was the lack of training. I was definitely pushing to my limit!

The rest of the morning was spent swapping war stories, and cheering on the kid's races. It was a beautiful day – the sun was shining, and even people who didn't make their goal were still happy.

I wish I could've watched the runners the following day. There was a big group of first-timers running the marathon in memory of Steff, who we tragically lost at the start of the year. I didn't know Steff very well, so I didn't know that she was suffering depression (I don't know if many people did). It brought home to me that it can affect to anyone, even someone as gorgeous, talented and well loved as Steff. The group raised a lot of money for SANE, and all runners finished. They are such an inspiring group!

It's such a difficult issue to talk about, but one that is so very very important. Char spoke about it in this post, and she puts it into words much better than I ever could.

This one's for you, Steff.

 

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Byron Bay long run

When I was working in Lismore, I had one day off. I used my day wisely: I went to Byron Bay for some sunshine and a long run!

I did a short out-and-back along the highway, before heading to the beach to run up to the lighthouse. It was a beautiful morning, and the perfect reintroduction to long runs after our holiday!

(I didn't take these photos on my run, I went for a drive afterwards to capture it all).

The lighthouse in the distance

 

 

 

I ran all the way to the point as well

 

Post run!

 

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Marathon Talk Marathon Mile

I’ve just signed up for Marathon Talk‘s Magic Mile. All that’s required is to run 1 mile, flat-out, between the 3rd and the 16th of September.

Does anyone want to challenge me?

UK vs USA vs The World!

 

Lismore Lantern Parade

 

I work out of town a fair bit. Sometimes it sucks, but mostly I like visiting new places!

I was working in Lismore recently, and stayed there over the weekend. Lismore is a cute town in northern NSW that is a lot bigger than I expected. It’s a uni town, but there’s definitely a bit of a hippy vibe as well.

These photos are from a Lantern Parade that was on the Saturday night. I was amazed at variety of lanterns, but unfortunately my camera is crap in low light conditions so I apologise for the blur! There were soup stalls, popcorn, music, market stalls…

It was a great way to spend an otherwise lonely weekend in a strange town.

Exercise and jet lag: my first DNF

I'm pretty talented when it comes to sleeping – if they gave out degrees in sleeping I'd have a phd! This means that I've been lucky with jet lag in the past – if I can make it through the first day my sleeping patterns return to normal almost straight away.

We arrived home early Friday morning, and I'd gotten a couple of hours sleep on the plane so I was able to stay awake until a reasonable time on Friday night. I didn't have any trouble with sleeping patterns, but my body obviously struggled in other ways!

I felt fine on Saturday, so went to Bikram. For the first time ever I needed to sit out of a lot of poses – I think I lasted until the eagle pose and then had to sit down until the seated poses started. Every time I tried to stand up I was blacking out (not good!), so it wasn't worth pushing through.

When we were moving from standing to seated poses the instructor talked about not just giving up when things get tough, which I felt was aimed at me. I probably should have talked to him prior to the class and told him that I'd just gotten back from holidays!

On Sunday I then decided to race a 10km. I knew I'd be unfit, but the best way to get back racing fitness is to race! It was also the Qld 10km road champs, so I wanted to take part and support Queensland Athletics.

The first km of the race was fine – 4:15/km pace, which is slightly slower than I normally start a race. The next km was about 4:30, and it all went downhill from there.

It didn't feel like I'd gone out too hard, it just felt like my legs had no energy whatsoever, and that I just couldn't be bothered running!! I would have been happy to curl up and go to sleep on the spot.

At about 3km. Don't I look happy?!

 

The race consisted of 2 laps around a 5km course. This made my decision easy – I pulled out at the end of the first lap. My time for the 5km was about 24 minutes, so while I failed at racing at least I got a short tempo run in!

I'm happy with my decision to drop out. I was obviously quite dehydrated and tired, and I think it would've taken me a lot longer to get back to normal if I'd kept pushing through, whereas I was able to go to my first speed session 2 days later.

The rest of my first week back consisted of a couple easy runs, a Mona fartlek session (at an easier pace than normal) and a longer run. I took my time to enjoy running, and to get back into a routine without having any time or distance pressure. Running for fun is, well, fun!

 

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Denver, LAX, and my favourite fast food

Tuesday morning was a massive struggle. We were headed back to Denver – only one hour to the north, but so very very far away.

When we finally arrived in Denver we were headed to the baseball. Neither of us watch baseball, but it seemed like a fun thing to do! Plus I managed to get ridiculously cheap tickets.

This is why they were cheap – we were up so high!

I had a long list of things that I wanted to eat/drink while we were there: hot dogs, pretzels, lemonade, beer… but the thought of the food was better than the food itself. I wasn’t drinking beer (for obvious fuzzy-headed reasons), so maybe that was the vital ingredient?

I really enjoyed the game. J likes cricket much better than baseball, so he found it quite boring. Again, the vital ingredient (beer) was missing! We stayed for 6 innings and then went home. The score didn’t change in the final 6 innings so I’m glad we didn’t hang around!

The next morning we needed to repack our bags, and become more streamlined for flying. It was great having the same car for 2 weeks, but it’s amazing how much everything seems to expand in that time! I also needed to leave room in my carry on, because we were finally going shopping!

I was very restrained – I only bought a couple things at Lululemon, and a new Pandora leather bracelet + charm to remember the trip. I had to remind J that he was getting off very lightly compared to previous trips!

(top double strand bracelet = Hawaii, bottom bracelet = Colorado. A teddy bear’s not exactly a grizzly, but close enough!)

Our flight to LAX was in the afternoon. There was one thing that we were excited about in LA – In-N-Out Burger! I’m fairly certain we spent a large portion of the entire trip figuring out how to get from the LAX to the nearest In-N-Out, and what we were going to order. A lot of people suggest taking a parking lot shuttle there, but we ended up walking. It took about 15 minutes, and was really easy to find.

J ordered an animal style double-double with regular fries, and I ordered a double-double with animal style fries.

Delicious. I’m not sure what makes In-N-Out so good? I think there’s the novelty factor of the simple menu (and the not-so-secret menu), but the burgers are also fresh and tasty. The fries are pretty gross, but put plastic cheese, thousand island dressing and bacon on anything and it’ll taste good!

After dinner, and watching the planes fly in, we had a long wait back at LAX. And an even longer flight home.

And now – we’re home! While I love America, absence certainly makes the heart grow stronger. Brisbane’s a pretty awesome city, and we’re lucky to live so close to most of our family, and friends

I think mum was worried that we were going to move to Colorado. Don’t worry mum, we’re staying in Brisbane – for now!