City To Bay 2007

Pre- Race Ramble
Well, after an uncertain week leading up to the race, due to a calf injury, I managed to run the race according to plan. I experienced strong calf pain on Tuesday night after a pace run, and had to stop all exercise for the 4 days leading up to the race. Right up until the morning of the race, I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to run, as I will still experiencing pain just walking. I had convinced myself that I may have to walk it, but would just wait and see.


Race Report
Race morning I got up at 5am and went for a morning stroll - to check out the race preparations (was staying right by the finish line). Drank a powerade, and then a diet coke at about 6.15 - following Jeff Galloway's advice re caffiene assisting with reducing muscle cramps/stiffness at the beginning and assisting with performance. We headed off for the bus at 6.30 am (all the family were running, plus 1 friend and 1 cousin - a party of 7 in total!)



Since we were early, there was plenty of room on the bus, and it dropped us off right by the start line. A quick trip to the toilet (followed by about 4 more later on!) and we went for a slow run around the Torrens area. Wasn't sure whether I should run to warm up or not - what if my calf only had 12 good kms in it - and the warm up would prove to be too much???? Well, decided this logic wasn't too sound, so gave it a go. Calf felt ok, so I was encouraged. Took some panadol for a bit more courage to run on it, and lined up for the race.



Bit disappointed there were no time markers for the line up this year- as it put everyone in together and I had no idea whether I was with people of similar running pace or not.

Any way, the gun went off, and about 10 mins later I crossed the starting line!



Had set the Garmin pacer for running the 12 kms in 72 mins, and was armed with the mantra "just stay ahead of the pacer, and you'll come in on time" The conditions were cool and overcast, quite perfect for running, and apart from weaving through the crowds, it is a relatively easy race - all being slightly downhill apart from the first 100m or so.



I stuck to my guns and ignored everyone sprinting off through the crowd, or those who were walking within the first 500 m or so ( and there were a lot of them!). Ran a good first few kms, not experiencing any stiffness or calf pain. At about the 3 km mark, someone tapped me on my shoulder, and it was my youngest daughter Tessa (11 years) and my nephew Luka (also 11). Its amazing how easily the young ones find this - I couldn't believe they had kept up with me (they had said something about running one km/walking one km) and then they sprinted off in front of me. Well, I guess I might just have to face the facts that I might be beaten by 11 year olds who hadn't even trained! But they stopped just up ahead for a drink, and I didn't see them again until the end.



In retrospect the first 8 kms were pretty perfect, I was slightly ahead of the pacer and doing quite well. But after that, I started to tire. Not surprisingly really, as I had set my pace at what I really considered my 5 kms race pace, and I knew a 72 minute finish was going to be a very big ask. But this was really the first race that I had planned to run as a real race.... all the others had been about pacing myself to make sure I could manage the distance. But this one, I knew the distance wasn't the issue, this time it was about how much could I push myself on the day to achieve a PB, rather than holding back to make sure I had enough to get to the end. So it was all about how long could I hold out on the pace, and could I push myself hard enough to just keep going. I was about 100 ms ahead of the pacer, and finally gave in to a brief walk. But I was astonished to see how quickly my 100m lead disappeared (about 10 - 15 secs I reckon), so as it approached a zero lead - I started running again. But from here on in, it was really hard work. I just kept picturing how much I would love to achieve it in 72mins, and how the pain would be so short lived, just hang in there and keep going. I started to feel the calf ( I think - or was this phychosomatic speak for an excuse to stop??), and I realised that I couldn't keep up the pace. The choice was to either stop and walk, or drop the speed. So I dropped the speed and stopped focussing on the pacer time, as I started to fall behind my goal. My main focus became just keeping running to achieve a reasonable time. I stopped once more for a brief 10 sec walk, and at the 2 km to go mark, tried to pick up the speed and regain my lost time. But I just didn't have it in me, as hard as I pushed myself, I wasn't making any gains, so I dropped my speed again, with the aim of a reasonable run to the end, and to look strong when I ran past my husband - who would have finished ahead of me and be watching me come in (Appearances are very important!)

Didn't watch the watch any more until I crossed the finish line, starting to feel a little nauseaus, and very glad to have finished.



And the unofficial finishing time:......



73.10



Very happy with that. I may have even scraped into the 72 min time as I didn't press the stop button hard enough when I finised, and had to stop it again a few seconds later, and I may have actually started it just before the start line - so I will wait and see.



In my head my goals had been:

72 mins - ultimate goal

75 mins and under - happy to achieve

less than 83 mins (last years time) - essential



My learnings from this year:

• The 4 days of forced rest were actually very beneficial. Usually when I start running I experience some minor discomfort in my legs, until they warm up and relax. I didn't experience any of this - this is was either due to the caffiene ( I'm not convinced about this) or the complete rest. I think I am normally experiencing some levels of fatigue from whatever exercise I have been doing over the previous few days - so I think I may repeat this sort of taper in future.

• My heart rate is always higher in races. Here's some interesting readings. My resting heart rate is generally around 42 bpm (have even seen it as low as 38). On the bus into the city, my HR was 78 and I was sitting down. Standing in the line waiting to start, my HR was 108 - and I was doing nothing! And over the 12kms - (and I didn't look at this until after the race) my HR averaged at about 178bpm (about 95%). and no, that's not normal for me. I guess it shows how much race anxiety or even just the adrenaline rush makes a difference. This is what caught me out in the half marathon, so I made sure I didn't look at it during the race. But it does also tell me that I was working as hard as I could expect to, and that a faster time than what I achieved was probably not in me.

• If I hydrate well the few days before and the morning of the race, I don't need to stop at the drink stations for a drink on a relatively short race such as this (at least when the weather is cool)

• Running a near 5km PB (29:30) is really not advisable in a 12km race, and probably should have told me that I was running too fast. One day I might perfect the art of negative splits! or set more realistic times.

• Training pays off (duh!) My husband finished in 64 mins - improving his time from last year by 2 mins. His training consisted of going to a few football practices and a couple of runs beforehand. But he did learn from last years race to pace himself better - probably led to the 2 min improvement. But I improved my time by 10 - 11 mins, and I'm closing the gap between our results. Last year we finished 17 mins apart, this year 9 mins apart. If I keep improving my fitness - maybe I'll beat him one year after all!

By the way - the rest of the family did as follows

Tessa and Luka - the young ones - about 90 mins - WOW

Tara (my eldest - 20 yrs) 100 mins ( has done very little exercise this year, but wanted to give it a good go, and did)

Kaelia (my 17 y.old) and friend from school - about 2 hours something - apparently they gave up at the 3 km mark ( I originally thought she meant at the 3 kms to go mark, but no - she meant near the beginning) and decided to walk it all.



Regardless of their times, I am really proud of them all for just giving it a go - I love having the family all involved.


Post Race Ramble
For my active recovery, I got up early this morning for a walk. Tried running a few times but the legs really just weren't ready for it. But as I walked around geocaching, with no time restraints, didn't realise that I ended up doing 13kms over 3hours (see I kept it nice and slow!). Not sure how the distance will affect my recovery though!



Any way - that's it for this year's C2B. To finish off, here are my C2B times over the last 4 years:



2003: 2:20 (trained to be able to walk this for 6 months, was terrified I wouldn't make the distance, and originally thought it would take me 3 hours as 4kms/hr was my top speed!)



2004: 1:57 (trained hard again to walk it, thought I was a lot fitter. 6 kms/hr was my dream speed that I aimed for, and my goal was sub 2hrs. Achieved this, but my HR was over 100% for the entire race, and I had to lie down for an hour afterwards before my HR returned to normal)



2005: Did not compete - was in Europe



2006: 1:23 (my first race as a runner. Followed a 12 week training program to the letter, and was in awe of the distance -would I ever make it?)



2007: 1:13 (maybe I 'm a real runner now? hope to scrape into the top 1000 female runners (about the top third))