Goldy Half

Ahhh what a great weekend. It will take me another day to get over it I think!

Arrived on the Gold Coast at about 4.30pm on Saturday arvo and headed off to the hotel to meet my fellow runners. We sat around chatting, drinking as much water as we could manage and generally trying to relax ahead of the race. I hate the pre-race nerves, I cannot 'go to the toilet' which is NOT good ahead of running 21.1km or whatever it might be, and I can never, ever sleep. We went off to dinner, had simple Italian (carb loading - my favourite) spag bol with HEAPS of chilli flakes, which is usually a good trick for getting things moving. Didn't work, but whatever. We also had a glass of wine each, deciding that it would help us sleep. Also didn't work! Went to bed at about 10pm and was really only able to doze until 3.50am when I decided I might as well get up as lying in bed wasn't helping me in any way.

Really didn't feel hungry, but ate a banana and piece of bread with peanut butter on it as I figured I'd need SOME food. Felt pretty gross I must say, like I was just topping up from the night before. Drank more water, had a coffee and we headed off to the start of the race.

Pre-race stuff I MUST do: check all my gear 1001 times, have a shower, brush my teeth twice, put on several layers of deodorant (obviously this really only lasts for about an hour of serious running), pack and repack my bag and post a note on Facebook giving myself a call-out!

We got to the start of the race without incident but f*** me it was freezing, 6C or so and we're standing around for 30minutes trying to warm up, stretch and keep warm. Hah, didn't work. Spent the first 3km or so of the race wondering when my hands would stop feeling like iceblocks and I would be able to feel my feet again. The cold air made my teeth, nose and ears ache ... then, at about 4km I finally started to feel good again. A major factor in this was getting to watch the sunrise, over the beach, while running with several thousand other people who didn't think it at all strange to be up so early to put your body through a wee bit of pain.

After the 4km marker it all fell into place. Legs felt good, head was in a great positive space, cheered people on (the front pack who were running back past us) and just really enjoyed it all. I took the first 10km really easy and only marginally stepped it up for the next 11km. Was aiming to finish in 2 hours and finished in 1hr 59min and 59secs, which made me laugh because it speaks volumes about my obsession with organisation and being on time. I was so happy with the whole day because, aside from being cold, at no point during the run did I want to stop or feel like I needed to stop. I had a gel at about the 1hr15min mark because I was feeling a bit sans-energy and needed a little pick up. Worked a treat!

Once I finished I hung around to wait for some of my friends to finish and then joined the huge crowds going through the finishing gates. Hung around and watched our super-coach run past us at the 32km or so mark of his first marathon. The poor guy was doing it tough. He'd not followed his own careful and good advice and had gone out too hard and blown up at about 26km. He was aiming to run 5min40sec kms and had run 5min10km for the first 21km because he felt so good. As he ran past us he said "I'm in so much pain" and one of the girls ran with him for a km or so to try and perk him up. He was just in a world of hurt. His GF and one of the girls joined him and walked with him for the next 9km and then he ran the last km home. Awesome effort. The rest of us were about 400m from the finish line and cheered on all the marathoners. It was inspiring, all the looks of joy, pain, pride etc. It was also sobering. I really want to run a marathon, but I realised that I really cannot go into it half-done, I will need to commit seriously for at least four months to serious training, no nights out, no uncontrolled eating etc. And even then, it will still hurt like a mo-fo.

Anyway, we saw our coach coming down the road with the two girls on either side of him and the look on his face just broke my heart. We cheered him as he ran past us then sprinted to the grandstand at the finish line to cheer him over it. Ahhh, it was inspiring because he'd wanted to quit and just go home but he didn't! Determination personified. We were sooo proud of him.

We went and found 'lunch' at about 2pm or so and then headed back to our hotel to sit around, have showers, and sit around some more. Met the rest of CanToo at a pub/club thing for a few drinks and ... yeah, that's where it all went pear shaped. Although had the BEST freakin' night I've had for ages. We had (quite) afew drinks there, we had some dinner at about 8pm and then watched the band that was there. One of the guy in our group was HILARIOUSLY drunk, dancing around and getting the entire club on the dancefloor. Eventually we were all dancing away and when the club closed at 10pm we headed to another club for some MORE dancing. Whoo hoo. Soooo much fun, the place was full of runners. Drinking, dancing, laughing. There was a fantastic rock cover band on who kept us all on the dancefloor. Man, we were sooo drunk too. Got home at about 1.30am and had to be at the airport at 5am. Got a taxi at 4.30am and ... I was still totally drunk when I woke up. Not that I'd drunk so much though, but since I don't seem to drink much these days it really affects me.

Got to the airport and onto the plane without incident, got a lift home with a friend and was home by 8.30am. Ahhh, felt great but man I was shattered. Really only managed to sleep all day and do some cooking and cleaning. Today is a new day though. Woke up feeling great and going to get all my washing sorted and then head off for a walk. Really want to go to the gym, but think that might be a tiny bit too ambitious. We'll see though, might be good to just sit on the bike and get my legs moving.