As stated in a few posts back I like to have my pre-race routine and get a little panicky if I cannot stick to it.
This is often trickier when you are away from home and even harder when other people are cooking for you and providing food.
We were staying at my grandparents in laws and this is one reason that I didn't go into the run with any expectations or goals, that and the fact I hadn't trained!
We woke on the morning still a little sure whether we'd go ahead with it. Registration was on the day so we had nothing tying us in. We managed to get out of bed through and after a bowl of Nurti grain (not my usual "breakfast of champions" porridge) headed to the start.
Registration was quick, we had grabbed an old banana from the house but it was a bit too mushy for my liking.
We were told to self seed ourselves:
Group one were the elite who were hoping to be in with a chance of being king and queen of the mountain.
Group two were the under 17s who were hoping to win prince or princess of the mountain.
Group three, which we put ourselves in, was people who knew they wouldn't win but where hoping to run most the way.
Group four were the back of the packers.
Michael Clease and I started together. It was straight into the hills! It wasn't long until Michael Clease headed off in front of me.
It really was one big hill! I thought there might be a few flats between hills and maybe even a little down hill but no, just one consistent long hill.
After about 10minutes I realised I was going to have to do some walking, I started doing a few minutes walking and a few running, most the people around me where in a similar position and after a while I got into a bit of a "race" with a guy in Vibrams. He'd run past me as I walked and then he's have to slow right down while I walked and ran past.
Thankfully the end 500m was flat and I was able to run into the finish. I finished in 42:44 and Michael Clease in 40:29. Somehow I managed to finish 6th in my age group out of 38!!!
With a bit of training I probably could have come 3rd in my age group but the winning female did it in 30mins so I'm not sure I could beat her!
 |
| View from the top, taken from Wikipedia |
They had suggested at the beginning that some people might like to run back down the road but that sounded a bit boring to us.
After a while of hanging out and checking out the view we saw some people walking down what looked like a track.
We decided to go for it and spent a fun 20mins scurrying down a slopes, stairs and rocky paths. I figured it would be good training for the upcoming Fitzroy Falls Marathon.
