I joined a group of fabulous Run With Life crew members who participated in the 10km, half marathon and full marathon.
As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been training pretty hard over the last couple of months to improve my pace and was hoping to beat my previous personal best of 55 mins 18 secs by 5 minutes.
My sister Mel decided to do her first full Marathon (42km's!!) this year so the two of us decided to stay in a hotel room the night before the race.
We headed out for dinner on Saturday night so Mel could continue to carb load for the marathon. I wouldn't usually need carbs the night before a 10km race but I had half a bowl of rice also for extra energy because I wanted this PB so badly!
We had an earlyish night (I struggled to sleep as I was nervous for Mel and also for myself!) and woke up about 5am to eat. Mel had her last meal of oats and a banana and I had a banana and protein shake. We got ready and headed to the start line at about 6.30am, the marathon was due to start at 7am and the 10km at 7.30am.
I then said goodbye to Mel, wished her luck and told her I'd see her in 3 and a half hours.
I headed into the MCG to drop off my bag, met up with one of our running crew members and we headed over to the start line together. Then we were off! It was a pretty slow start getting through the congestion of all the other runners as it is with most fun runs but in the end, I don't think I've ever run 10km's like it before! I felt pretty amazing for the majority of the race and while I was keeping a pretty close eye on my pace the entire time, I really enjoyed myself. I started to get pretty excited by the 7km mark because I knew I was going to get pretty close to my goal time.
So in the end I got an official time of 50 mins 53 secs. I am incredibly happy with that time, up to the night before and even during the race I didn't know if I would be able to do it. I'm also pretty certain I could have shaved 20-30 secs off that time if it wasn't so slow to start. So first goal of the challenge can be ticked off!
Running towards the finish line in the MCG
Stoked with my time!!
Then it was time for some breakfast, meet up with my parents, brother and the other crew members to wait for our half marathoners and Mel to finish.
My brother and I managed to catch some photos of Mel running her last kilometre just outside the MCG and I cheered her on at the top of my lungs!
Mel ended up finishing the full 42km's of the Melbourne Marathon is 3 hours and 29 minutes, truly amazing. I have never been more proud of my little sister!
What a champion!
Mel and I after she completed the Marathon
A few members of our running crew post race in our CPEC tops
Congratulations to all our Run With Life crew members who all ran amazing times in the respective races, it was such a fun day and I'm truly thankful to have a great group of people to share my running experiences with.
I'm now planning my next running goals, I want to run my first half marathon in the next 12 months and am hoping to do the Gold Coast Half Marathon in July next year. In the meantime, I've registered for City2Sea in November and will do Run for the Kids again next year (both 14km courses). Can't wait!
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