Tuesday 7 May 2013

Catching up

It's been a while between posts! Between running, injuries and completing my postgrad degree it's been a busy few months. I've been pretty consistent with my running and have banked a few PBs along the way. A quick summary of my races and life over the last few months.


City2Surf Sydney 14km

My first big race in ages! I was one of over 80,000 people to complete the 2012 City2Surf. This was also my first racecation with my training group. After a slight stuff up with the people-mover we mad it to Sydney with enough time to check into our hotel, grab a quick bite and catch the Swans play the 'Pies. Up on Sunday to walk through the Domain to our start line in College St.

This race was HARD. Harder than any other race I have run. The weather was cold, windy, and a bit drizzly, Heartbreak Hill really is that bad, and running out past the finish line before doubling back into Bondi is just cruel. Trying to find everyone at the end was a bit of a nightmare, and we ended queue ages (about 90 minutes) for a bus. Despite all that, and the disrupted preparation due to an oblique strain, I loved pretty much every minute of it! I've already registered again for this year :)

Wagga Trail 10km


One week later I ran my first trail race. My calves hurt all week after City2Surf and I'm a bit uncertain about running on trails but I thought it a good excuse to take a trip back home to visit my parents. I usually take advantage of the parental taxi system to race in Wagga, but Dad had been in hospital and the whole trip was pretty low key. Despite some narrow sections of trail where I couldn't pass people, this was a pretty fun race that Dan and I ran together. I was pretty happy to run within under 60 min given how heavy my legs were.



Wagga Lake to Lagoon 9.5km

Another trip back to home to race and visit my folks. I'd had a sore hip in the week prior to this run, what I thought was a niggly hip flexor. The Lake to Lagoon is the largest free fun-run in Australia. It runs from Lake Albert, down one of Wagga's busiest roads, along a section of the Murrumbidgee River and finishes alongside the Lagoon. I had run it 3 times previously; once as the City to Lake (9km) and twice after they swapped the direction and made it a longer race. I had set myself a goal pace and made sure I stuck to it. What I didn't realise was I had my footpod on the wrong way- I ended up running much faster than I thought possible and knocked an amazing 6 minutes from my previous PB! The only downside, after I finished running I could barely walk. What I thought was a slight niggle turned out to be a suspected tear of the hip flexor cartilage.

City2Sea Melbourne 14km

I had to have some pretty serious physio and soft tissue therapy to keep running. My mileage dropped a lot and I could only manage 1-2 5km runs a week. I had already paid race fees, flights and accommodation to run in Melbourne and I really didn't want to stop running. I was lucky to see a brilliant soft tissue therapist, who was a runner and understood the runner's psyche. I flew down with one of the other girls in my running group, and after turning up to the wrong hotel (whoops) we had the day to wander around Melbourne before meeting up with the rest of our group for dinner. Even with the dodgy hip I had set myself a goal time of 80 minutes.

This is a MUCH easier race than City2Surf, but also a lot less fun. The lap around Albert Park seemed to last f o r e v e r; even the karaoke stand didn't break up the monotony of the course. Once again we were forced to run past the finish line before turning around to run back into St. Kilda and across the finish line- 79 minutes and 14 seconds after I started.

After this race I took a few weeks off running to give my body a break, but I kept my eye on my 2013 goal of running another half marathon.



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