It wasn't actually as bad as I was anticipating, I wasn't particularly puffed at the end of the run, although my legs were killing me so I couldn't run as fast as I would have liked. I've had hip problems recently and it started to show only a few kilometres into the run. I'm an old man... Also it was really congested and I constantly had to slow down until there was an opening to run past. Fitzy and I started together and ran the first 2km in 00:11:30, which is 00:01:30 off the pace I'd normally run. I reckon if I could have just run the course without anyone in my way, and my legs weren't giving me grief, I would have been close to 01:10:00 which was my original goal. So considering the circumstances, I'm happy with my time.
The run itself was great, the weather was beautiful and the view from the Bolte was amazing. The run through the Docklands and along Southbank was really nice too. It was cool running in the middle of the street, quite novel, something you can't do very often. Once a year I guess. 'Eye of the Tiger' was playing as we came into the Docklands, and despite the fact there were Nike posters everywhere which for some reason bothered me, it was actually seriously motivating!
So now that I'm getting fit, I figure should keep this up. I'm doing the Puffing Billy run in a couple of weeks, and I want to do the half marathon in the Melbourne Marathon in October. I picked up a brochure for "Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team" after the race that had a heap of upcoming fun runs on it - http://au.srichinmoyraces.org/
I’m considering doing 1 fun run a month from now until we depart in March. There’s one on 29 May – see http://au.srichinmoyraces.org/events/melbourne
I think you boys should get on board. Otherwise you're going to be so far behind you won't even be able to see the spray from my paddle, let alone eat it. Except maybe Stevo.
And just remember, in the great words of the running sage Sri Chinmoy; “Life is velocity. Therefore I want to run fast, very fast.”
