A
Arpy
Hi Guys
Well I completed the race in not so record time (67 mins) but a time good enough to give me a training goal / benchmark to beat next year.
I arrived, along with 24,999 others, in the middle of the city to be greeted with pouring rain and a cold windy start (Perth is known as the "windy city"). The start was somewhat congested given that me and 24,999 other characters all had to cram into the main street and work our way up a steep hill before settling into our own rhythm to run / stumble / jog /walk our way towards the coast. A few really heavy downpours kept the body temperature down and you soon came to know and love the feel of squelchy shoes as we pounded towards the finish.
Unfortunately my starting position was well towards the back which meant it took 5 minutes before we even started to run and we had to continually try and weave between the multitudes of walkers who decided that starting up towards the front was a good idea. Still they say if you run in a zig zag pattern you dont get hit by the rain.....
The middle section at around 7km mark had me slowing a bit with the legs beginning to feel heavy so I spied a really nice looking young thing about 25m in front of me and decided that I would follow / try and keep up with her....well hey you've got to have something better than the sound of squelchy shoes pounding on a bitumen road and a few people on the side of the road being attended to by first aid volunteers to keep you motivated! Although this might be regarded as perverted it kept my mind off saying "Give it up ol' son and walk".
By the 9km mark the training for all the cycling kicked in and I seemed to get my second wind. Although the speed wasnt there the endurance was and with a couple of remnant sand dunes making up the hills in the last 3km people began falling by the wayside and walking. Admittedly I did a 1 minute walk period to stretch the legs out a bit and gain a bit of breath back before the downhill run towards the nirvana of the finish.
With the crowd cheering (jeering???) on the side of the road en masse everyone seemed to pick up the pace in the last 2km and the final stretch towards the finish line had a fair percentage of people finding energy reserves they didnt know they had - me included. Either way the last 3km seemed to pass by quite quickly and relatively easily - the operative word being RELATIVELY.
Unfortunately at this point when you started to think the last 2km was going to be not too bad the real flash / fast / superfit characters were running back%2!! Nothing like having a fair old crack at deflating your ego. Still, with the pretty young thing still in sight, nothing was going to stop me from making the finish line.
As we crossed fom the road into the park the little voice inside the head was saying " Home stretch now mate".... But the organisers had one little twist to test your mettle just before the end. The sponsor marquees backed onto the track as you had to do a lap of the oval before crossing the finsh line. Every single one of those marquees had someone cooking up a storm on a BBQ with cooking smells wafting directly into your line - the last thing you want to breathe in in your final run to the finish. The other unfortunate thing with the marquees was it obscured the finish line so you were running around the outside of this oval thinking "where is this bl....y finish line?". Finally the finish line came into sight and a final burst of speed (well it felt like a burst of speed even though it probably didnt look like a burst of speed - more like a stagger) saw me cross the line in the time of 67 minutes....just behind a couple of blokes dressed up in clown costumes!!!!
And what of the pretty young thing I hear you ask? As it happened we entered the park about the same time even though I had lost her in the crowd sometime earlier. Per chance we ended up running side by side for a little while and I finally determined that the tattoo which captured my focus earlier appeared to be of Thai origin. See - I told you I was focussed on her....alas my dazzling burst of speed at the end was too much for her and I left her behind - a sacrifical lamb / pacemaker in my quest for a personal best (the fact that I have never run it before guaranteeing my boast of personal best).
In a state of euphoria driven by adrenalin I confidently strode (read : staggered and hobbled with painfully sore legs) towards our meeting point with the rest of the people from my work who participated. Knowing we had the luxury of having a couple of physios on hand to give us a leg massage a satisfied smile crossed my lips. Little did I know that my idea of a soothing leg massage and their idea of a leg massage was poles apart. Lets just say they were energetic in ensuring any cramps and lactic acid were driven from the muscles - OUCH. The aforementioned satisfied smile was replaced with a grimace of pain beyond any facial expression during the run. They tell me though its good for you....
Despite the cold, rain, wind, soreness it was a great run and I'll be back next year to attempt to crack the hour timeframe. Just need to find myself another pretty young thing to chase....
Regards
Russell
Well I completed the race in not so record time (67 mins) but a time good enough to give me a training goal / benchmark to beat next year.
I arrived, along with 24,999 others, in the middle of the city to be greeted with pouring rain and a cold windy start (Perth is known as the "windy city"). The start was somewhat congested given that me and 24,999 other characters all had to cram into the main street and work our way up a steep hill before settling into our own rhythm to run / stumble / jog /walk our way towards the coast. A few really heavy downpours kept the body temperature down and you soon came to know and love the feel of squelchy shoes as we pounded towards the finish.
Unfortunately my starting position was well towards the back which meant it took 5 minutes before we even started to run and we had to continually try and weave between the multitudes of walkers who decided that starting up towards the front was a good idea. Still they say if you run in a zig zag pattern you dont get hit by the rain.....
The middle section at around 7km mark had me slowing a bit with the legs beginning to feel heavy so I spied a really nice looking young thing about 25m in front of me and decided that I would follow / try and keep up with her....well hey you've got to have something better than the sound of squelchy shoes pounding on a bitumen road and a few people on the side of the road being attended to by first aid volunteers to keep you motivated! Although this might be regarded as perverted it kept my mind off saying "Give it up ol' son and walk".
By the 9km mark the training for all the cycling kicked in and I seemed to get my second wind. Although the speed wasnt there the endurance was and with a couple of remnant sand dunes making up the hills in the last 3km people began falling by the wayside and walking. Admittedly I did a 1 minute walk period to stretch the legs out a bit and gain a bit of breath back before the downhill run towards the nirvana of the finish.
With the crowd cheering (jeering???) on the side of the road en masse everyone seemed to pick up the pace in the last 2km and the final stretch towards the finish line had a fair percentage of people finding energy reserves they didnt know they had - me included. Either way the last 3km seemed to pass by quite quickly and relatively easily - the operative word being RELATIVELY.
Unfortunately at this point when you started to think the last 2km was going to be not too bad the real flash / fast / superfit characters were running back%2!! Nothing like having a fair old crack at deflating your ego. Still, with the pretty young thing still in sight, nothing was going to stop me from making the finish line.
As we crossed fom the road into the park the little voice inside the head was saying " Home stretch now mate".... But the organisers had one little twist to test your mettle just before the end. The sponsor marquees backed onto the track as you had to do a lap of the oval before crossing the finsh line. Every single one of those marquees had someone cooking up a storm on a BBQ with cooking smells wafting directly into your line - the last thing you want to breathe in in your final run to the finish. The other unfortunate thing with the marquees was it obscured the finish line so you were running around the outside of this oval thinking "where is this bl....y finish line?". Finally the finish line came into sight and a final burst of speed (well it felt like a burst of speed even though it probably didnt look like a burst of speed - more like a stagger) saw me cross the line in the time of 67 minutes....just behind a couple of blokes dressed up in clown costumes!!!!
And what of the pretty young thing I hear you ask? As it happened we entered the park about the same time even though I had lost her in the crowd sometime earlier. Per chance we ended up running side by side for a little while and I finally determined that the tattoo which captured my focus earlier appeared to be of Thai origin. See - I told you I was focussed on her....alas my dazzling burst of speed at the end was too much for her and I left her behind - a sacrifical lamb / pacemaker in my quest for a personal best (the fact that I have never run it before guaranteeing my boast of personal best).
In a state of euphoria driven by adrenalin I confidently strode (read : staggered and hobbled with painfully sore legs) towards our meeting point with the rest of the people from my work who participated. Knowing we had the luxury of having a couple of physios on hand to give us a leg massage a satisfied smile crossed my lips. Little did I know that my idea of a soothing leg massage and their idea of a leg massage was poles apart. Lets just say they were energetic in ensuring any cramps and lactic acid were driven from the muscles - OUCH. The aforementioned satisfied smile was replaced with a grimace of pain beyond any facial expression during the run. They tell me though its good for you....
Despite the cold, rain, wind, soreness it was a great run and I'll be back next year to attempt to crack the hour timeframe. Just need to find myself another pretty young thing to chase....
Regards
Russell
