WOO HOO!! I DID IT!

I was up at 5am (thanks, kitties) and we were out of ThePalace(OfLove) just after 6am for the trek to the other side of the harbour for the sun run. Before we headed out I comsumed the breakfast of champions: coffee, protein ball and anti-inflammatories.

view from the bedroom window

It was raining quite heavily for most of the way there, but fortunately cleared in time for the 7km (I think the earlier 10km peeps may have been a little damp).

dee why beach. sydney might be vapid and unaffordable, but holy!goodness! it is pretty

start line. there were 2,400+ entrants in the 7km

The course was pretty hilly and I was a little daunted. After the first km I settled into my (much faster than planned) stride and trucked along nicely until the 3.5km point – this was where my right knee started twinging (yep, that knee from two years ago). Hmmmmm … I slowed down a bit more and tried not to think about it.

At about 4.50km(ish)¹ I was feeling a little grim, we’d just completed a series of hilly hills and I was all “what the hell am I doing?” and “waaah, stupid knee, it’s not fair” when I saw a dollar coin on the ground and figured it was TheUniverse telling me to suck it up (princess). So I grabbed it and used it as motivation to be positive and keep at it.

At 5.20km(ish)¹ endorphins kicked in and I was feeling like queen of the world (queen of the world with a stabby knee).

I saw Don about 100m before the finish line, ran over and gave him a kiss (yes, I’m rolling my eyes at myself too) and trundled off to the finish line.

Apart from the knee (which, oh god) I ran all the way² (even the hills!), finished in less than 50min and in the top 36% of all females. I was worried about my cardio fitness after not running for almost a month, but it was pretty peachy, which I think is thanks to the newly discovered cycling.

I do love a fun run! It’s so great being out there running about with other people. I’m very glad I participated, though my right leg from the knee down is probably much less glad. I’m now icing and elevating.

manly beach. post-race

And now I face the long hard rehabbing road. I probably have to consider the possibility that I just can’t run anything over 5km, which would be a bit grim – but better than not being able to run at all!

My medal is coming with me to SML to remind me that there is definitely more to life than work and that I can do cool things through extremely hard work and persistence.

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¹ I made a mental note of the precise times, but of course have totally forgotten them.

² I walked to grab water at the water stations, I’m nowhere near co-ordinated enough to grab while running.