I was supposed to run my version of this race last week, but we were in Hobart moving furniture for our daughter and taking loads of rubbish to the tip. As a result of that I did my back in so that it was very, very painful to move or do anything. It was so bad that I had to get Val to take over some of the driving on our way home. Then on Thursday I had to have a tooth removed, and while it was totally painless for the rest of the day it is still tender to touch. It has only been in the last couple of days after starting some stretching exercises that it has really improved - but that might be a coincidence! So today was my first opportunity to have a crack at the distance.
I set myself a time I would like to complete the distance in (3 hours 45 minutes), though thought I might be able to do a bit better than that. Not having had a run since 5th March I was feeling quite fresh as I started off, knowing that I had to keep a steady and slow pace. The best laid plans of mice and men, at least for me, don't always come off and I found myself running at a steady pace but a little bit faster than I had intended. Still, I wasn't too perturbed because it was well within, so I thought at the time, my capabilities. At 8k I was running at around 6.30/k.
I had a litre of Staminade and a Winners gel for my run, as well as 4 bubbler stops for water.
I was still running along nicely at the halfway mark when I turned around - I sent Val a text to let her know but had to walk to do that which slowed me down quite a bit. I had a couple of slow sections until I reached the 24k mark, but then I really started to slow down. For the last 8k I found myself needing to stop and stretch my legs whenever they started to get a bit sore or tight. I was also needing to walk a little bit every now and again.
I plodded on and finally made it home in 3 hours 50 minutes and 12 seconds - a little bit slower than I had planned - but I completed the course. The only real downside was that my GPS watch was running very low on battery level (I should have fully recharged it before I left) and I didn't know if I would make it, so I tried to hurry it up a bit over the last couple of k, even though they included my steepest uphill sections. And when I arrived home I found that the watch hadn't recorded the altitude gain. At least I had checked it some days ago and found that the gain on my particular course was similar to the real race.
My darling Val had a hot bath waiting for me along with some chocolate, chips, nuts and a muesli bar. She also brought me cups of tea.
I'm still a bit sore from the run but pleased to have been able to complete the course, though I didn't pump my arms or anything like that when I finished. During the latter part of my run I found myself doubting my ability to run the marathon distance and especially to attempt the Bruni Island Ultra Marathon in December, which is not only double the length of today's run but it also contains many steep hills. These runs just seemed out of my reach as I was finishing off today's run. I know that I will feel differently about them in a day or two, but I don't know if I'll be able to get much jogging under my shoes while we are travelling and in WA.
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