After than we got cleaned up and went through to Scarborough to bid Lee-Ann and Pete farewell as they were heading of to Buenos Ares the next day to start their 3-month island-hopping sailing trip. We had a lovely evening chatting and laughing and again the wine was flowing. We'd braai'ed with them the previous week-end which was another really fun and festive night.
Sunday we packed up and then met a friend for brunch at the Barnyard in Constantia before going through to Mat's place for his housewarming braai. He has a gorgeous little cottage in Steenberg. Lovely place with a great vibe. We stayed quite long but in the end had to leave reluctantly to trek off to Wellington for the half marathon. We were again staying over. To avoid having to wake up at a ridiculous time on the morning of the race. We have stayed at the same place for 3 years now and it is reasonably priced, comfortable and very convenient. She pretty much reserves the room for me every year now. :)
We managed to get a few things for dinner and got settled into our flat-let and then the boys and I had a quite night watching telly snuggled on the couch in Wellington. When the morning of the race arrived I was still not feeling fit or strong or very enthusiastic. Part of me wanted to bale and just not do it. But I never give up that easily. So I got my but out of bed and got ready and off we went to the start. At almost exactly 6-month post-broken-ankle and after just securing a personal best time at the Spar Ladies Race 3 weeks before I wanted to prove to myself that I CAN still run a half-marathon. The previous 2 times I ran this race I’d finished in 1h56m. So I had hoped to maintain that, but at the start line my goal was just to finish it.
The weather was good and when the race started I got going. The first few kms were fine. I felt ok. By 6km I was doing well and was even enjoying it, I thundered down the long steep gravel section and it was great, but by the time I got to 10km I was feeling decidedly tired. My friend Lorien passed me and I told her I was struggling and didn’t even attempt to chat to her. Although she was ‘taking it easy’ so somehow I got ahead of her and her club mate again. At 15kms I was really huffing and puffing and my friend Paul passed me and I told him I was TIRED! I really didn’t feel like I was doing very well at all.
By 18kms I started getting weird visual effects and just knew I had a migraine coming on. NO!!!! I tried to stay calm and breathe deeply and relax as much as possible but it was tough. I decided I was not giving up, but couldn’t push myself all that hard either. At 20km Lorien caught me again. I charged down the last little hill and then really plodded up to the stadium telling Lorient she could totally take that hill and she did. I made my way into the stadium expecting the time to be over 2 hours by that point and was super surprised to see the clock on 1:53.. WOW. I made a mad dash for the finish and crossed the line at 1:53:25 a new PB by over 3 minutes! HORRAY!
Afterwards I had to lie down and recover for 10 minutes and the boys went to get my some headache tablets. Unfortunately I was nauseous and not very well for the rest of the day. But still the run was actually good and I am more than happy with my time.
Once I got home and showered and had a nap I was ok again and I think whatever was bugging me has moved on now and I feel well and like myself again.
The race results are already out, so here is how I fared officially:
653 FRASER JANE 1007 37 F O TEMP 1:53:29
- I came 653th out of 2947 finishers. In top 25%
- I came 88th female out of 1102 women finishers. Top 8% :)
- I came 52nd female out of 534 women in open category. Top 10%
- I came 346th out of 1277 in the open category. Top 27%
Congrats on your birthday and best ever run!
ReplyDeleteThanks Cat! :)
ReplyDeleteyou doing awesome as usual! :)
ReplyDelete