An Eggciting Race

I did it! Despite having one of the crappiest weeks ever, I ran my first race for the year.

After Wednesday last week I was having serious doubts about doing the event. I felt like I'd been smacked down to the canvass and had zero emotional energy. But Saturday I had my long walk with my walking buddy Natalie. Three hours of walking and sitting in a coffee shop = a lot of time to unburden. I vented. She commiserated. We laughed a lot and I got home feeling so much better.

Sunday I woke up after a very unsettled night. I'd stayed up till midnight watching the first set of the womens' finals at Roland Garos then tossed and turned. (Pretty normal for a pre-race night) I was a little more nervous than usual but that makes it way easier to go to the toilet race morning. I could only stomach half a banana but decided it didn't matter because it was only a 5k.

We arrived at the race an hour early and in time to see a lot of the 10k and half mara runners come in. It felt great to stand at the side and yell at my running buddies as they finished. I went for a bit of a trot to warm up and it was then that I realised I'd forgotten my MP3 - bugger! Ah well, it would only be about 25 mins of no music so I could cope.

8:30 came and we were sent on our way. I tried to keep my pace conservative but I went through the first k in 4:36. It was the most glorious day for running - sunny but the air was cool and I was quite enjoying the new flat course. Second k came up and it was 4:42 which was a lot more where I was intending. We ran out to a new industrial area went down a side street and suddenly we were running back to the start. Third k was 4:49 and the fourth k was exactly the same.

I'd been trailing this little girl most of the way. Honestly, she looked about 10 and I was determined not to let her beat me. I gradually caught her between 3 and 4k's and left her eating my dust about 500 from the end (What a champ - Beating a 10 year old and enjoying it) My final k was 4:51 - dying big time - but I still hadn't entered the race course. The finish line was over 100m from when my Garmin clicked over. Finish time by my watch (nothing official yet) was 24:06 but the general consensus is that the course was long by almost 200m. That would take my time into the 23min zone and I'm not unhappy with that.

Then to top off my happy morning, while we were having coffee with Coach Chris I got a text from no 1 son Sam to say that he'd found 3 eggs in the Rockettes' cage. Does that make me a Grandmother?

So my very crappy week finished in a really nice way. My cloud had its silver lining.