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.
