City2South

One of the reasons I am keen to get started again is all because of an event I did a few weeks ago. 

On the 16^th of June, I was part of an inaugural funrun in Brisbane, called City2South.  It was a 14km race which could be run or walked or wheel-chaired.  It was 14km of pain!  Haha, not really, but it was long!!  The course started from the city CBD, wend itself around the river, through the university, to finish in a park on the other side of the river.  The early morning stillness and quiet was wonderful!  The hill that went from 12-13^th kilometre was not wonderful.  The karaoke station in which the sponsoring bank would donate $50 for every person that sang was great fun!  (Crocodile Rock).  :D

Actually, yes, I was in pain by the end of it.  My new shoes (which I had bought 2 ½ weeks prior and thought I had already broken in enough) gave me blisters.  Only on the one foot, but man, did that make the last 4km or so slow going!  It was right on the ball of my foot, so that meant I was walking quite wobbly for a bit!

I saw a link for it on a news website back in March and I decided it was a great way to get myself motivated and kickstarted to get myself fit again.  I even convinced a friend to enter it with me. J  She’s gotten very focused on her health lately and has lost some weight in the process.  She’s stopped eating the foods that were making her sick, and has really upped her running.  She’s big into running now, which she enjoyed when she was in high school.  I didn’t know her then, so it’s so cool seeing her get into it.  J  Anyhow, she’s one of my motivator buddies here.  Because I know she’s taking better care of her health, and lost some weight in the process, as well as juggling work and family, it makes me feel I can too.

So, we signed up!  I had to keep emphasising to her that I wouldn’t be able to run it, but I think we kept up a pretty good pace.  Especially in the beginning.  We were dodging crowds for the first 5km or so as we were powering through.  At about the 8km mark however we slowed right down.  And that was because of me.  I hadn’t gotten in as much preparation as I had wanted and the longest distance I had covered in the lead up had been 8km.  My legs, back and FEET! were aching.  I had to keep stopping to stretch my feet.  And then of course, I worked out further along that I was getting a blister.  But I didn’t want to stop.

I had two goals while completing this race:

1.       I didn’t want to be the last one crossing over the finish line.  I knew I was going to be slow, especially after that halfway mark.  I was very conscious of the fact that I am overweight, and finishing last and slow was just going to draw unwanted attention to myself.  I didn’t want that.

2.       I wanted to finish within the allotted cut-off times.  There were three points along the course where the organisers were watching for the stragglers.  If you were late for the cut-off point, then you would have to forfeit the rest of the course and make your way straight to the finishing point.  I didn’t want that.  If there was going to be anything more humiliating than finishing last, it was not getting to finish at all.

Luckily for me, I didn’t let my friend down, nor me.  I do think my friend was a little frustrated with me and how slow I was by the end, but she kept shrugging it off.  She’s a runner, so I guess she’s more used to the longer distances.

But, how’d I do?  I think I did okay J

75^th last – woohoo!