Travelling Road Show

We are finally home so I will give a quick update.

29 June 2006

We arrived at the Gold Coast at 7.10am, yes we had a very early flight. After some breakfast we decided to head to the race expo and collect our race kits and do a bit of shopping. Very happy with the new purchases.

We then headed to our friends place in hilly Gaven. We set out for a 30minute easy run. However, the bloody hills were unbelievable I will never complain about a H5 STaR run again. Then relaxed in the sauna for a while.

30 June 2006

30 minutes easy again today. We decided to head into Surfers and run along the beach front. Felt pretty good. I had a goal of 1:47:?? in mind and I was confident I could pull it off even after last week's effort.

After the run we sat in mall in had coffee and did some "people watching". I spotted Deek so we gave him a wave, Blue Dog could not resist the urge to approach him and let him know what an inspiration he was and is.

1 July 2006

We headed into Surfers again for our easy run. We parked along the beach front and ran to the race expo just in time to hear some legends of running. It was very inspiring. Then ran back to the car discussing race plans, the weather, and how great life is.

Blue Dog and I took our hosts out for dinner as a thank you. They were going in the walk this year after they promised us last year they would get involved, so we were all very excited.

2 July 2006

Before the race I felt a mixture of feelings, excited, nervous, etc. I was really happy to see Deanne and Ali before their debut marathons and wished them well. I met up with Karin, Bec and Katie and we headed over the start together, us Striders women were fired up. Spotted Blue Dog in the que for the loo so I ran over and gave him a kiss and wished him well. We sqeezed into spot pretty close to the start. We chatting and laughing about everthing and nothing.

The start was very conjested, my first km was 5:24 and it took at least 2km to get a clear running passage. The first couple of k's were quicker than I had planned, but I kept telling myself to relax it's a half marathon not a 10k race. Even though I felt more relaxed the splits didn't differ too much, I felt pretty good and decided to hold on at that pace as long as I could. I started to suffer in the last 4ks with a stitch which progressively got worse in the 20k I actually pulled over and stopped for a couple of seconds, I then decided to keep running as best I could, I knew I had a PB so I just had to hang on.

Overall I am really happy with my run, particularly after Woodford to Glenbrook. Makes me wonder how I would have went if I had of entered the race fresher???

After getting through the finishing area, Karin and I headed over watcher the Marathon at the 26k mark (start). I was happy to see Blue Dog running along strong, he asked how I went and I just smiled and said "PB". We then met up with Tim and Bec and watched the finishers, which always gives me a buzz.

After Blue Dog and finished we watched the walkers and cheered our friends, Rhonda and Ian who had a ball. We all then went for drinks and dinner with the CR crowd.

3 July 2006

Rest day. BD and I met Tim and Bec at Dreamworld and had a great day. We went from ride to ride and shared some great laughs. BD and I then drove to Brisbane to have dinner with his brother. By the time we got back to Gaven we were both stuffed.

4 July 2006

I opted for another rest day. I was totally buggered, we both sat around and did some reading and then later flew home.