Well, I woke up feeling pretty dehydrated from the bike ride the day before, and feeling silly that I hadn't even mustered up the energy to make dinner or a snack before bed. I thought I would fix this with Sis energy mixed with chia seeds and a bowl of porridge... Unfortunately the milk had gone south so had to go out to get some more. Being outside at 8 o'clock when it was already so hot made me realise that it was gonna be a toughie! Didn't want to make the heat worse with hot porridge so had oats with some cold milk and dried fruit instead.
We left home at 8:45- race registration was between 8:45 and 9:45 for a 10:30 start. I had registered online before but never got around to sending my cheque off. Anyhow, if I do this race again I'll just enter on the day- was only a tender and no bother, though David pointed out there were no emergency contact details on the back, which was a cause for concern. Given the heat and my exhaustion from the day before, this was another reason to take this one really easy. I thought sub 2 hours for a 12.2 mile race was realistic, so that meant just under 10 minute miles. Clearly, not having lived in Australia for 3 years, I have forgotten how tough running on sand is.
The race started right on time, on the sand. I had positioned myself toward the back of the field, so I wasn't tempted to go off too fast. There were about 3/4 mile on the sand before going onto a narrow footpath where everybody had stopped to walk! Craziness! I was frustrated at being forced to stop so early in the race, and as a result went off too fast for miles 2 and 3, before arriving at the first drinks station- the heat was already having an effect, and I took a couple of cups here. I really think that I need to get a light coloured cap, as the visor protected my face, but didn't keep the sun off my dark hair.
The next section was plodding along the sea wall, and most of the middle part of the race was like this- the path was very narrow and surrounded by very tall grass. This could be irritating if you caught up to a slower runner, as you were stuck behind them for a long time, but equally, if somebody caught up to you, you felt you had to push it so as not to slow their race down. At the next drinks station at 4.5 miles, bumped into Paula, one of my Parkrun buddies. I was really in a bad way at this point and the sun was getting really strong, with little relief from the wind and no shelter. We ran together for a long section, i figured it was good luck to run with someone named Paula, up to around 8 miles, then she got ahead, I had to walk to calm my breathing down, but I kept her in my sights. The plan had been to take it easy until 9 miles, when I would start picking off runners to overtake, relying on my endurance, and them having gone off too fast. At 9 miles we were back on the beach with a very strong headwind! Argh! No overtaking for me then! I could spot Paula ahead and she was still running! Wow! I found that the speed that I could run wasn't much different to the speed that I could walk, so I got down to the sea edge for some firmer ground and commenced power walking. After I'd got my breath back, I could start running again, but wow, this was really really tough! Much harder than the pub 2 pub run I did in Sydney in 2009! That involved beach running, heat and serious hills, but the beach running was only the first 800m- the rest was road, so I could actually run.
We got back on some concrete and another drinks station at mile 10, I had finally caught back up with Paula again, and I was in my catching bibs mode, so after only 1 cup of water, I started running again- figuring I could put in more speed on the solid ground before softer ground sapped my low energy leg muscles. I passed a chap in a purple shirt, he asked how was I still running, I told him coz I stopped to walk so much in the middle! I had an Ipswich triathlon chap ahead of me, far in the distance- he had actually parked next to me. I thought I could catch up to him, but it was a long shot, only 1.5 miles to go, and almost all of that on beach. I decided counting down from 300 would keep me running, and for the most part, it did, but there were some really soft sandy bits that brought me to a walk. I kept getting closer to Ipswich triathlon man, and kept him in my sights, when we came off the beach and onto the road, clearly, like me, he had more road speed and I lost him around the final corner, but luckily, Gareth, another Parkrun buddy started yelling and cheering me on, and that gave me the boost I needed for a sprint finish!
My finish time was 2:13:52
I saw Paula's husband at the end as well, and told him I had been running with her most of the way, she was only a couple of minutes behind, just enough time for me to get my energy back and start cheering her!
I think on a cooler day this race would have been absolutely perfect. The marshals were great, and it was a really well organised race. I love that I could drive from home in the morning and didn't even have to wake up that early, and I didn't realise I had a beach that's only 15 minutes drive from home! The club has a 5 mile race later in the season. I wasn't planning on doing it, but I think I'll add it to my schedule now. Obviously they can't control the weather, and the narrow footpaths were a bit annoying in the early stages, but that's part of off road running. Would recommend this to anyone who perhaps hadn't done cross country before but an experienced long distance road runner. Certainly wasn't as hard as the other off road races I've done this year- Orion 15 and Karrimor great trail challenge, as it was almost completely flat, but the heat and wind made it really tough.
Splits:
Mile 1: 11:06 - that annoying stop
Mile 2: 8:57
Mile 3: 9:34
Mile 4: 10:03
Mile 5: 12:24
Mile 6: 10:34
Mile 7: 11:04
Mile 8: 10:48
Mile 9: 13:11 - just so windy!
Mile 10: 11:22
Mile 11: 10:24
Mile 12: 12:13
Last .26 @ 10:58, but I didn't switch the garmin off for over a minute so probably more like 8:30
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