52 New Things: 24 - Run 25km and complete my club's "Road Running Championship" series
Third leg down and I'll be getting a nice medal at the club awards dinner later in the year. (For completing the series, not for winning anything! This is the only chance slow people like me have to get a medal.)
Today's 25km was the furthest I've ever run, and the longest at 2 hours 36 minutes (6.25min/km pace). It was a mostly flat course along the Swan River from Burswood, over the railway bridge parallel to the Windan Bridge, along the river through Maylands, under the Garratt Road Bridge and into Bayswater before turning around and repeating in reverse!
I wasn't sure during the week if doing the run was a good idea - my left foot felt bruised and my right hip hurt some, maybe from compensating for my foot. My sister gave me a massage last night that mostly consisted of poking and prodding me in the behind and had me do some stretches, which seemed to help my hip a lot. Happily, my foot also felt fine this morning. I obviously need to incorporate more stretching and perhaps massage into my training.
The first 500m felt great. If you're reasonably fit and you go slowly enough, running is no trouble at all and it was a beautiful still sunny cool morning in one of the city's more picturesque locations. I checked my speed at every 2.5km marker and made sure I wasn't going any faster than 6 minute kms plus a little.
The next 12km to the turn-around felt pretty good and I was smiling at and saying hello to people coming the other way. That's a very busy path on a Sunday morning, with people out riding bikes, walking dogs, flying kites and model planes and herding children. There's plenty to look at and I was especially interested in the revegetation that's been done along the river.
For the first time ever, I'd taken some food with me: seven little soft jube candies that I carried in a plastic bag in my pocket. (I know it's not a good idea to try something new during your event, but I hadn't got around to buying the candy before.) I ended up eating four of them and it added a bit of interest to the proceedings. Every so often I'd take out the bag, select a flavour and colour, and nibble away in tiny bites as I went. I couldn't tell if they made any difference, but possibly they gave me a bit more energy and in any case they were fun to eat. I considered buying some of those specialist gels, but couldn't bring myself to pay $6 for a small packet of sugary sludge. If I work up to longer distances, maybe I'll have to give them a try, or at least carry some normal foodstuff that has some salt as well as sugar.
At 15km, I thought, 10kms more is a long way to go, but on the other hand I've run 10km many times and it's not that big a deal. I was running behind three men in their 50s, two with what I'd call seriously non-athletic conformation that keeps them from being very fast, and another who makes running look easy, but for whatever reason doesn't exert himself too much. I amused myself watching his legs and footfalls for several kms - it's nice to watch anyone make something look effortless. I told him afterwards how good he looked and he seemed very pleased!
I'd been focusing on my time in 2 1/2 km (approx 15 minute) segments and not paying much attention to the cumulative total, and I was amazed when I looked at my watch approaching the 17.5km mark and it said 1 hour 44. Had I really been running for an hour and 44 minutes already? The time goes slowly at first, but it builds up impressively.
At 20km my legs were starting to hurt, and at 21km (the furthest distance I'd done before) they were sore enough I decided to slow down quite a bit. (That isn't very sore, it's just that I have a low tolerance for pain when doing recreational activities or anything else!) But it wasn't far by then, so I just kept moving along, alternating between landing on the balls of my feet only, which I usually find easier though slower, and the first 2/3 of my feet. It was a little discouraging that neither method afforded any relief by that stage, but you can't expect anything to be easy if it's your first time. I was going slowly enough by then that I didn't need to breathe very hard, so I was fairly comfortable except for my legs, which are a rather important part of the running experience. I was out of energy to smile at anybody, but I was reminding myself that I should be enjoying the moment, since this was the reason I'd trained (albeit lightly) for the last 2 1/2 months. It does make you feel alive, to be out there moving along.
And then it was done! I think I beat about five people home, too. I'll be very interested to see how I feel tomorrow and Tuesday - I expect pretty stiff and sore! If I pull up well, the Perth Half Marathon (21.1km) is next Sunday and they have nice finishers' medals, so I might enter that and just do it slowly as a training run. Otherwise, next up is the Marathon Club's "King of the Mountain" run from Helena Valley to Mundaring in July, then the very hilly City to Surf half marathon at the end of August, then the Fremantle half marathon in September. The trick now is not to stop, like always seems to happen. I figure if I have an interesting calendar of events in front of me, I might keep going. I really like the way I feel and look when I can do these distances.
Today's 25km was the furthest I've ever run, and the longest at 2 hours 36 minutes (6.25min/km pace). It was a mostly flat course along the Swan River from Burswood, over the railway bridge parallel to the Windan Bridge, along the river through Maylands, under the Garratt Road Bridge and into Bayswater before turning around and repeating in reverse!
I wasn't sure during the week if doing the run was a good idea - my left foot felt bruised and my right hip hurt some, maybe from compensating for my foot. My sister gave me a massage last night that mostly consisted of poking and prodding me in the behind and had me do some stretches, which seemed to help my hip a lot. Happily, my foot also felt fine this morning. I obviously need to incorporate more stretching and perhaps massage into my training.
The first 500m felt great. If you're reasonably fit and you go slowly enough, running is no trouble at all and it was a beautiful still sunny cool morning in one of the city's more picturesque locations. I checked my speed at every 2.5km marker and made sure I wasn't going any faster than 6 minute kms plus a little.
The next 12km to the turn-around felt pretty good and I was smiling at and saying hello to people coming the other way. That's a very busy path on a Sunday morning, with people out riding bikes, walking dogs, flying kites and model planes and herding children. There's plenty to look at and I was especially interested in the revegetation that's been done along the river.
For the first time ever, I'd taken some food with me: seven little soft jube candies that I carried in a plastic bag in my pocket. (I know it's not a good idea to try something new during your event, but I hadn't got around to buying the candy before.) I ended up eating four of them and it added a bit of interest to the proceedings. Every so often I'd take out the bag, select a flavour and colour, and nibble away in tiny bites as I went. I couldn't tell if they made any difference, but possibly they gave me a bit more energy and in any case they were fun to eat. I considered buying some of those specialist gels, but couldn't bring myself to pay $6 for a small packet of sugary sludge. If I work up to longer distances, maybe I'll have to give them a try, or at least carry some normal foodstuff that has some salt as well as sugar.
At 15km, I thought, 10kms more is a long way to go, but on the other hand I've run 10km many times and it's not that big a deal. I was running behind three men in their 50s, two with what I'd call seriously non-athletic conformation that keeps them from being very fast, and another who makes running look easy, but for whatever reason doesn't exert himself too much. I amused myself watching his legs and footfalls for several kms - it's nice to watch anyone make something look effortless. I told him afterwards how good he looked and he seemed very pleased!
I'd been focusing on my time in 2 1/2 km (approx 15 minute) segments and not paying much attention to the cumulative total, and I was amazed when I looked at my watch approaching the 17.5km mark and it said 1 hour 44. Had I really been running for an hour and 44 minutes already? The time goes slowly at first, but it builds up impressively.
At 20km my legs were starting to hurt, and at 21km (the furthest distance I'd done before) they were sore enough I decided to slow down quite a bit. (That isn't very sore, it's just that I have a low tolerance for pain when doing recreational activities or anything else!) But it wasn't far by then, so I just kept moving along, alternating between landing on the balls of my feet only, which I usually find easier though slower, and the first 2/3 of my feet. It was a little discouraging that neither method afforded any relief by that stage, but you can't expect anything to be easy if it's your first time. I was going slowly enough by then that I didn't need to breathe very hard, so I was fairly comfortable except for my legs, which are a rather important part of the running experience. I was out of energy to smile at anybody, but I was reminding myself that I should be enjoying the moment, since this was the reason I'd trained (albeit lightly) for the last 2 1/2 months. It does make you feel alive, to be out there moving along.
And then it was done! I think I beat about five people home, too. I'll be very interested to see how I feel tomorrow and Tuesday - I expect pretty stiff and sore! If I pull up well, the Perth Half Marathon (21.1km) is next Sunday and they have nice finishers' medals, so I might enter that and just do it slowly as a training run. Otherwise, next up is the Marathon Club's "King of the Mountain" run from Helena Valley to Mundaring in July, then the very hilly City to Surf half marathon at the end of August, then the Fremantle half marathon in September. The trick now is not to stop, like always seems to happen. I figure if I have an interesting calendar of events in front of me, I might keep going. I really like the way I feel and look when I can do these distances.