Run With Dogs : Gold Coast Half Marathon Done!

Gold Coast Half Marathon Done!

Posted by: Audrey Post date: July 7th, 2009

I haven’t done much blogging… I’ve posted a bit more on Facebook lately because I can add tiny snippets here and there. So much less time consuming than constructing a carefully thought out blog post. Yes – these posts are indeed carefully thought out, for those who snorted into their cuppa.

I had planned to go to the Gold Coast half with the Moreton Bay Road Runners, they were putting on a bus, and lunch in their big tent. I figured it would save me trying to find parking amongst all the closed off streets etc, so I booked a seat. Imagine my horror when I received an email to say the bus was leaving the Redcliffe Jetty at 2.30am!!

I managed to get up, dressed and to the jetty in time, and off we went. A coffee at Coomera went a long way to making me feel human, and by the time we arrived at the coast at 5am, I was awake. The tent was already up, so I spent the time trying to get my race belt on and my timing chip laced up in the pre dawn darkness.

About 6.10am I moseyed over to the start, to find my spot in the masses. I was hoping to do 2.15 so slotted into the 2.10-2.20 area. There were so many people!! The race started and it took me nearly 10 minutes to get across the line. It was like a boxing day sale at Myer, with crowds of people shuffling into each other. Eventually I found some fresh air, and off I went.

The first 12km was just great!! Really comfortable, good rhythm, and I kept a steady 6 min/km pace all the time. Then my legs started to remind me that I had averaged one run a week of less than 6km for the past 2-3 months. My pace slowed a bit, but I still plodded on fairly comfortably.

Around the 16km mark, my feet started hurting again. The left one was realy sore over my metatarsal heads, so the last 5km was a bit of running, a bit of walking. The finishing chute was so long, but I eventually crossed the line in 2.18 gun time, 2.10.47 nett time. I was pretty happy with that. After the run, I had chicken, ham, salad and champagne for lunch as we waited for the rest of the MBRR to come in. We left the coast in the bus and got home around 5pm. I was absolutely stuffed!! Although it was crowded, I really enjoyed this race. It was so well organised, there were plenty of portaloos (that’s a first, in my experience), and the weather was perfect.

I’ve since been to the podiatrist twice, Steve H had left Intraining but thanks to Google, I found where he’d moved to. My left foot is bruised, and the skin is broken over the bruise, which is the worst it’s looked. In spite of appearances, it wasn’t as painful as it has been in the past, so I think we’re on the right track with the adjustments to my orthotics. I’m pretty confident we’ll get my feet sorted, and then I can make some more long term plans.

Less than two weeks until Kokoda. Not that I’m counting.