10km Melbourne Marathon 2013

I'm happy to have completed the 10km MM last Sunday (13/10/13).

Having had quite a few little niggling injuries in the lead up to this race my training had been almost non existent for several weeks. Sore ankle, sore shins, sore knees, sore hips, sore back, sore shoulders, sore neck.

Despite feeling like an 80 year old woman at times, I didn't let those little voices running through my head telling me to give up or pull out of the race get to me. I signed up for this thing, so I was going to do it. It didn't matter if I had to crawl across the finish line, I was going to finish. Confidence. CONFIDENCE.

The weather conditions were perfect on the morning of the race albeit a little early for a 7.30am start. Cool, light breeze and a little sun.

I'm not going to lie, I struggled through the entire 10kms of the track. Around the 3km mark I'm not quite sure what happened but my legs just stopped running. I walked for about 500 meters and reached the drink station. After a good talking to myself and a quick drink I proceeded to run (read shuffle) to the finish line.

Plenty of times I wanted to stop. But I didn't. Every day I'm shuffling.

I pushed all those thoughts out of my head. I concentrated on positive things. Our beautiful city Melbourne, it really is a lovely course to run on. Smiled at the spectators yelling out positive comments as I went past. Waved to the tram driver who gave me a 'ding ding'. I thought about my family and friends, even though they weren't there in person, I knew they were thinking about me from the warmth of their beds which kept spurring me on. I thought about my teenage self and wish that I could have told her what she was doing now. Tell her that she CAN do anything she sets her mind to. I kept picturing the finish line.

It seemed to take a bloody long time, but I eventually got to the finish line. I had nothing left in the tank. Nothing left to pull out a last minute sprint to the finish. Nothing. I shuffled across the line in 1 hour 10 minutes and 24 seconds, managing only a smile for the camera.

5km Run Melbourne 2013

After having an 18 month break from running, I've decided to give it another crack and start off in the 5km Run Melbourne 2013.

I joined in on the 12 week training sessions in the lead up to the Run Melbourne at Fed Square to help get me up to speed and back in shape for race day. The sessions were so great, and whilst I found myself struggling to keep up with the beginners group for the most part of the sessions, by the final week I really had improved in speed, endurance and general cardiovascular fitness.

I was very happy with my time of 32mins 45seconds for the 5km. I feel I may have even gone slightly faster but there were a couple of tight bottle necks on the course that really slowed me down, in addition there were many walkers on the field that I spent the entire course weaving around. Hence, it was difficult to get a stride going and find my robot legs. The race however felt like it was over before it even started as I seemed to reach the finish line in no time. All the 7kms sessions I had clocked up at the training sessions really made a big difference, so 5kms felt relatively short in comparison.

Next goal is the 2013, 10km Melbourne Marathon. It's just under 12 weeks away and I've already upped my training levels and am looking forward to not only completing the race, but hopefully improving my time too. Best time to date is just over an hour and 5 mins, so perhaps somewhere between an hour and an hour 5 would be great.

Very determined so hopefully I stay injury free and continue with forward momentum!