It feels so weird that this is now over. How will I define my life now?

Okay, it was a pretty great day. Up bright and early to pick up lee and head off to the station to catch the earlier train on the other line. There were heaps of green shirts around which was cool as well. The day was almost derailed early due to urination issues. By the time I arrived at the start I was busting to pee. With not much time due to the train issues, I had to check my clothing etc so when I joined the line I had not very much time left and the line was *long*. As I waited, one of the marshalls starts to call out that it is 5 mins to the start. With no line movement happening, and not wanting to miss the start, I went to the start area, thinking that I would cope somehow. After 20 minutes of aimlessly milling around at the start while announcers were saying stuff that I couldn’t hear, I figured I was nuts to even consider running with my legs crossed the way they were and I should stop being a baby and go and queue up. Which I did, felt enormous relief and when I rejoined the start group, I still had a heap of time before we crossed the line. Comparing the clock at the finish indicated that it took over 15 minutes to cross the start line.

With my stretching regime interrupted by jumping in and out of toilet queues, I predictably experienced some stiffness in my calves after a couple of k of pounding the road, so I stopped a couple of times briefly to stretch. I knew that it would be okay and go away though so I wasn’t stressed. It was all pretty tough going through the Domain Tunnel. The air was pretty oppressive and very hot. Much of the first 3-4K was spent dodging walkers as well, some of whom must have started quite a way further up towards the front of the pack.

The fresh breeze out of the tunnel was great. Running along the freeway was kind of bizarre, and I was most worried about dodging the road seams, which were whopping great metal plates slick from the rain with nasty little spaces in the middle to trip over. I kicked one of the damn things early on, jarring one of my toes which always complains a bit anyway, forcing me to release a number of fine expletives to vent my feelings on the matter.

By about the Bolte Bridge I was beginning to really settle into a good rhythm and enjoy myself. The trip down the other side of the bridge was great fun. The spectators and barrackers were very encouraging, as were the marshalls and volunteers. Even at my slow pace, the time just seemed to fly by, though that might have been because I was mesmerised by some of the more, ahem, unorthodox running styles on display from time to time. I walked through all of the drink stations (except for the last one). The last three or four km were pretty tough. As much as I was telling myself it was just a short jaunt around the block, I wasn’t having a bar of it.

Was great to cross the finish line. My goal for this had been to finish in under 2 hours which I fully expected to miss out on by a good couple of minutes. But amazingly enough nudge had 1:59:XX when I crossed the line. Actually don’t know what the time was because for some reason when I uploaded nudge’s data both the time and distance were substantially less than they had been at the finish. So who knows. A little peeved about the fact that the course seems to have been run short, which means that the under 2hours thing is probably not an accurate reflection of time for 15.2K.

Met up with some ausrunners and coolrunners after the event at Fed Square which was great fun. Put a few more faces to names. I was incredibly sore after this finished. Given an interupted last couple of weeks of training and a previous longest run of a very slow 12K, I shouldn’t be surprised. Couldn’t bring myself to ice bath but did sit myself in a cold water bath for half an hour, which was painful enough. I think that I really need to get a new pair of shoes, even though they don’t have that many kms on them. But it seems some fat chick has been running in them when I haven’t been looking and I guess they are getting towards the end of their life.

Yesterday all day felt immensely tired and incredibly hungry. Had a nanna nap in the afternoon and ended up having a second dinner later last night because couldn’t stop the tummy growling. All good stuff, just more of it than usual. Today the legs are a bit sore, so aiming to do a gentle cycle tonight and then an easy recovery run tomorrow or Wednesday depending how I feel.