Great Ocean Road Marathon

What a weekend! I've decided that races are the perfect excuse for a weekend away! 
Friday night Ronnie and I headed down to Anglesea for the Great Ocean Road Marathon where I would be running the 23km half marathon course.

We spent the Friday night relaxing, went out for dinner and had an early night ready for the rest of the weekend ahead. We were up early Saturday morning and Ronnie joined me for my easy 30 min run around Anglesea, nothing better than running by the beach!
After a delicious brekky at an awesome retro cafe (Red Till in Anglesea, definitely worth a visit!) and lunch in Torquay, we decided to head into Apollo Bay along the Great Ocean Road to meet up with some of the running crew. Mel participated in the 6km race earlier that day and one of our members, Kelly, was participating in the 14km race so we'd be there just in time to see her finish. It also gave me an opportunity to see the course I'd be running the next day.

I've never driven the entire length of a course prior to a race and I don't think I'll do it again! The marathon course is actually 45km's and starts from Lorne and finishes in Apollo Bay - respect to anyone who takes that on for their first marathon, the first 25km's are some pretty hardcore rolling hills and not to mention the extra 3 km's added to the standard marathon distance.
The half marathon starts from Kennett River, finishing in Apollo Bay with two fairly big hills at the start. The drive along the course left me feeling very nervous as the hills seemed bigger and longer than I'd anticipated as well as the distance feeling very....well, long! Suffice to say I was pretty much shitting myself that afternoon and I wasn't too much fun to be around!
I tried to calm my nerves (and my calves) with a quick dip of my legs in the surf before heading out to dinner with the running crew.

I didn't sleep well that night at all, I honestly think it was the most nervous I'd been before a race, but by the time morning came, I was ready to get it over and done with! Ronnie dropped us off at the start line about 7am, which gave us plenty of time to line up for the toilets and warm up, with the race to start at 8am. Lisa and I decided to try and stick together for the run, she was feeling pretty nervous as well so it would be good to have each other there. We promised that if either of us was struggling at any time, the other would go ahead.

And so we were off! There was about 200m of flat course before the first incline began and by the time we'd reached the top and started on the decline, I was feeling more confident, that wasn't so bad! We started the climb up the second hill, which I knew from the drive the day earlier was the longest, and I was surprised once we'd made it to the top - those two big hills weren't so bad after all!
The rest of the course was undulating with spectacular views and a cool sea breeze which provided some relief to the (unusual for May) very mild and humid conditions.

At the 18km mark, Lisa told me to go on ahead as she wasn't feeling the best. It was a hard decision for me but we'd both made to promise to run our own race so I went on ahead. I crossed the 21.1km mark at 1:51.33 - approx. 5.18 min per km pace which I'm actually pretty happy with considering the course and that I'd planned to use this as a training run. It was then abit of a struggle into the unknown for those last 2km's, pace dropped dramatically and I was close to being physically spent, my glutes and legs were sore and I remember wondering how I could possible run another 19km's on top of this is 7 weeks time!

I heard Mel yelling at me with about 500m to go and saw her, Ronnie and the crew all cheering as I ran past. I somehow managed to sprint to the finish line and finished the entire 23km course in 2:05.01 - 5 minutes under the time I'd initially allowed for myself. 

Despite all my nerves, I'm so glad I did this run, I have no doubt it's made me a better runner and I will benefit from it on marathon day. I pulled up pretty well, just general soreness so decided to rest on Monday night and will make up the session later this week. Legs are feeling pretty good now and ready for our track session tonight.

So now starts what I guess would be the hardest part of my training, 4 big weeks building up to my longest run on 14th June (hoping to hit 32km's) with 3 weeks to taper before the big day! Bring it on!

In other news, the new Mizuno's are feeling great, I wore them for all my shorter sessions last week and might transition them over for my long run this weekend. Also doing some experimenting this week on my long run, testing out some gels and a hydration pack so will see how I go with those! And yay - excited that we have finally got a cleaner who will be cleaning our house once a fortnight starting this Friday. One less thing for me to worry about, woo hoo!

Bec xx