Those of you who know me, know that I am not exactly a morning person. So you have to question why I would willingly get up early on a Sunday morning. Well this morning it was in support of a great cause, a fundraising running event for MS. It was also was a great chance to catch up with my cousin and his family: they decided as a family to do the 5km walk, which I think is terrific.
The run started at 9am and the walk started at 10.30 am so all things going well I decided to run the 10km and then do the 5km walk with my cousin and his family. The gun went off and we started, it took a little while to get through the slower runners in front! But then the path cleared up and I was able to set my own pace, targetting runners ahead and overtaking them. I finished the first lap and discovered that the course was exactly one lap so the distance would be just over 9km! About a quarter of the way through my second lap I noticed a male runner who was drafting me, I kept my pace but couldn't shake him for the rest of the lap. Just as we were coming to last 1km he passed me and was only a little ahead. As we came up to the last 20m from the finish line I decided that I would not be beaten and I sprinted past him across the finish line - it felt great!
So what did I take away from this running event 1) I am very fortunate that I am fit and healthy enough to run 10km when I feel like it, many people with chronic disease, like MS find it difficult just to do normal everyday activities 2) I really do enjoy the challenge of trying to catch the people running ahead of me 3) 10km is a really nice distance to run, you can run hard and you are able to stop running before it hurts too much 4) it is great to be able to share a running event with family - I hope we can do more together 5) it was interesting to see the number of people who stopped to walk in the first 3-4km - pacing is so important when you run, that is, running at just the right speed that you have energy to run the entire race - with just a little bit left over for the racing line sprint!
I have set a personal challenge to run a marathon in every continent (and possibly throw in a couple extra here and there). To date I have successfully completed marathons in four continents, Australia, Antarctica, North America and Africa plus the North Pole. I am now making plans for the 2013 marathon, watch this space for details about where it will be!!!
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