Adelaide Greenbelt 1/2 Marathon 2007

Well here it is, the start of the 2007 Adelaide Greenbelt 1/2 Marathon. Of course you can't see me here - as I'm somewhere at the back of the back. Don't want to get in the way of the real runners! The conditions were good, my fears of rain allayed, and I'd had a reasonable nights sleep.

Here I am starting off (the one in the centre).....

....and here's me from behind - laden up with water bottles and "gu+" for energy along the way. Whilst many of the better runners don't need to worry too much about energy supplements at this distance - I do because I'm slower and have to run for so much longer! So the good runners are only looking at about a 1 1/2 hr run - I'm facing up to 2 1/2 hrs! (Plus I'm a gadget queen and have to have all the latest)

Here I am taking a drink at about the 10km mark. I don't look too bad considering I was having an awful time! I don't know what was going on, but for some reason from about the 2nd km my heart rate was way up and my speed way down. My HR monitor was telling me that my HR was between 160 - 170 bpm. Now for any exercise enthusiasts you would know that with my Max HR set at about 178 bpm this is not good news and certainly not sustainable over two + hours. It was worrying me enormously, and there was no point me slowing down as my GPS was telling me I was only running at about 8 km/hr! (I aim to average just under 10 km/hr). This was far from normal for me - usually I run at about 140 - 150 bpm and I just couldn't work out what was going on. The options I came up with were a) nerves b)the result of some mild cold symptoms I had experienced in the morning. Either way it wasn't good and I thought of phoning hubby to come and pick me up. (he tells me afterwards that he doubts that he would have - said that I had trained too long and hard to give up and not finish!). So after even the first 2kms I had to stop and walk briefly to try and drop the HR, but it didn't seem to help much.

In the end - around the time of this photo, I decided to ignore the HR/GPS watch, put my head down and focus on just running. And so I did. I picked a line on the path, focussed my eyes on it, and just ran. And I'm pleased to say - it worked. My records show that the second half of the race my speed picked up, my HR dropped, and I coped much better.

As you can see from the photo above, it really was a beautiful run - I don't know what my excuse was for such a lot of whingeing. Unfortunately the HR issues I had put to bed all my plans of running 5kms/ walk briefly to rehydrate and then continue. Although I had practised this religiously in training, I found I had to stop far more often (I usually walked up the short steep hills at the bridges as this would send my HR flying) but not for as long. And I have to say that all the volunteers along the way, like this one were so encouraging. Most of them clapped and cheered as I went past, and you have no idea how helpful this was when all you wanted to do was go home! Once I hit the city however with 6 kms to go I was in good spirits. This was the part I had been waiting for. The realisation that I'd run from some distance in the suburbs, hit the city and then had the pleasure of running past the Adelaide Festival Centre, people feeding the ducks, people out on paddle boats etc. It was a great feeling. It's also a bit cruel as you are running on one side of the river and actually run past the finish line - which is on the other side - and there's still 5 kms to go! and believe me, they seemed to go on and on. You run along the river with the knowledge that at some point you turn a loop and run back along the same path before you cross the river and finish. So I was watching all the runners ahead of me passing me on their way back, and I kept thinking "how much further can this loop be..." and it was further and further and I never seemed to get there. Well I did of course, and turned around and headed for the finish line. Over the last 5 kms I passed a lot of people - which was quite interesting - I don't know how as I had "had it", legs no longer possessed individual movement - they were stuck in one position and I just swung them from the hips, and I was still walking every so often. But I did pass many, and when I turned a corner and could see the crowd at the end, I still managed to pick up the pace and sprint to the end. Only problem was I couldnt see the finish line - as you can kinda see from the photo below. I crossed over and was looking around thinking "is this it - can I stop now?" Whilst the announcer was still announcing everyone crossing over, the presentations were on - and most people were focused on this. Ah well, not to mind - I DID finish, and I was FAR from last, and it was an experience I will never forget.

I finished the race in approx 2 hrs 20 mins, slower than my goal of 2 hrs 15mins, but then again the race was longer than I expected! My GPS clocked up 21.5kms - which would explain the extra 5 mins 0r so, and combined with my earlier problems - I'm pretty pleased.

A very big thank you to my husband who spent a lot of time supporting me leading up to this event and then running around meeting me at different points and taking all the photos. These will certainly help me to treasure the memories.