This weeks club run was the longest distance on the syllabus, the Charlie Jones 16km handicap.
Was I nervous? Absolutely.
The furthest I have run is currently 13km, doing 5:1 run-walk intervals.
While I was nervous, I wanted to still give it a go, but just go at a nice easy steady pace of 6:30 p/km.
Due to the distance, it was decided that we would have this event has a sealed handicap. Means we all start off at the same time (like you would in an actual race).
Keeping to the back, I set off slow. It’s so easy to just go, go, go. I knew however I would not be able to keep up. Slow and steady it would be.
After finding a rhythm I looked down at my watched and noticed that I forgot to reset it after the sub-juniors had their run.
Both Miles & Kayla decided they both wanted to run. Even though Miles was like “no I run”. It was very cute, and I’m very proud of both of them.
Super grateful to Tom for helping me out and looking after the kids while I was off running. Also, another thank you to the other kids there, they all entertained each other.
Having never run this distance before I decided to run with my hydration pack. It’s more designed for hiking and day trips than for running, but it did the job I wanted it to do. I ended up drinking over a 1 liter on the course.
Sure it was a dead weight, but if I didn’t have it I would have been severely dehydrated by the end of the course. I could have taken my water bottle and left it at the halfway point but I figured I thought the hydration pack was a better idea. I also surprised myself that I could actually run and take a sip of water with it.
At just 2k’s in I had nearly face-planted myself, tripping over something that was buried into the track.
My arms when one way and my legs went another. Laughing at myself, I was glad that I didn’t hurt myself. Just dusted myself off and kept going.
Another few km down, I caught up to another runner Phil. We were running at the same pace, so we kept at it all the way to the end. It was actually nice to chat with someone. We kept ourselves motivated and pushed ourselves on.
We did not see anyone else until about the 12-13 mark, and even then they were way off into the distance.
By the 14km, we had finally caught up with one of the veteran runners Gary. Gary is in his 70’s and he was plodding along, but he was doing it, how awesome is that. It was so good when we finally saw the 1km marker, it was also good to see the last 500m were all downhill.
Honestly, it felt like the entire course was all uphill.
Being one of the slower runners, meant the faster runners that had already finished would cheer you on at the end. Which was quite motivational.
All up the 16km took me 1h41 minutes. With the kid’s run included, I ran 17.5km in 1hr53mins.
Completing this tells me that I am on track and that I will be able to complete two of my goals.
- To finish a half marathon
- To run a half marathon
Based on my performance of this run, I have predicted that running a half marathon will take me about 2h15-20mins. I’ll be so happy if I can do that.
One year ago, I never thought that I would be running consistently and that I could run a half marathon. I’m not there yet, but I will get there.
Anything is possible if you put your mind to it.