Gold Coast Marathon: 4:42:50

Phew! What a huge weekend. Where to start?

Saturday

Headed over to Sam's house, where Rell and Tracey were meeting us. Couldn't believe how much stuff I brought, just for a weekend! It seems I've lost all ability to pack lightly these days! We picked up Jill en route and headed down to the Gold Coast together.

We booked a unit in Surfers which was lovely. Even better was the fact it had a Spa! Wasted no time in making use of that! CR Vegegirl (Lisa) was also sharing with us and came down later. We had lunch and then visited the expo and caught up with heaps of friendly faces.

My nerves weren't too bad although I had my moments of hyperventilating and squealing like a girl at marathon related things - the road I was going to run down, the km markers.... as you can imagine, I did quite a reasonable guinea pig impression at points during the expo! The girls did a great job of putting up with me!

On saturday night we had dinner with the CR gang at the SLSC and got to meet a few new faces, Lostboy and Mrs Lostboy among them. Also saw Phil K from our running club and Tanky with her boy. Lovely to see Jen and Davo again of course and Cirque who was in fine form for cheering the next day.

Headed off reasonably early and ended up hitting the hay at about 10pm.

Sunday: The Big Day!

Got up at 4am. Surprisingly, none of my usual late-for-race dreams during the night. Ate a tin of creamed rice for breakfast (thanks Sam!) and hopped on the bus, which stopped just around the corner from our hotel. The other girls were all running the half, which started earlier than the full and it seemed like two seconds before they were heading off. The atmosphere was starting to build and people were all starting to jump out of their skins in anticipation.

Watching the half marathoners take off was incredible - last year I was in the middle of it so I've never seen it from that perspective before... thousands of people all surging forwards, loud music pumping, people cheering - talk about explosive!

Bumped into Suzannah (also coached by Phil for her first big M) and confessed how terrified we were to each other, then headed to the start line. Managed to bump into Mr and Mrs Lostboy who were running around the same pace as me, as well as a couple of new CR faces, then off we went!

The Race

I had decided to run very conservatively during the first half, remembering Caboolture and how I felt there at 3:30. I think I was a bit scared of hitting the wall again, so I plodded along with my ipod going full blast... started with Like a Prayer by Madonna, then by the time I got to Surfers, I was onto one of my all time favourite songs for running Magic Carpet Ride by Steppenwolf. Perfect for cruisy running!

Hit the first turn around (13km) with Lenny (Are you gonna go my way?) and started to see familiar faces on the approach. Suzannah breezed by, as Did Schultzy, Angie and Kate and a whole myriad of others. I realised then that there was no way I was going to catch Angie. Secret training I reckon! Half wondered if I might get catch up a bit later on, but tried just to enjoy the music and the atmosphere.

Ate my first gel (have since decided that enervit products are really disgusting and I'm never using them again!) and looked around me at the people cheering and the other runners. I saw blind runners, amputee runners and transplant patients all crusing along and thought about how bloody lucky we all are to be able to run at all. There was a guy running in his marshall arts whites, complete with black belt. He was starting to look HOT - the temperature was rising by then.

In the air tonight by Phil Collins came on and then a couple of irish folk songs. Ran past our hotel and then headed back up towards the start. I got to about 16km without even feeling it. I knew I was well ahead of the 4:30 pacer but didn't dare look behind to see where they were. First half done in 2:09:39.

By the time I got back to the startline and passed the CR cheersquad yelling their lungs out (you fabulous, fabulous people!) I was starting to feel really tired. That was at about 27km I think. The cheering helped enormously, but it was then that I became intimately reacquainted with "The Wall" (enter shock horror music!)

I told myself there would be no walking until 30km and there wasn't but it was a fight. I had been drinking my water bottles of endura the whole way to there, to avoid walking through the drink stations. Perhaps that was a mistake, since in training, I stopped once every 10-20km for water and stretched. It works for me in the half because I don't have to stop at all, but it's twice the distance (d'oh!) and a very different beast, as I am learning.

My wall lasted until about 32km, where the 4:30 pace ground blitzed past me like they were on roller skates. The pacer asked me if I was okay, I grunted yes and off they went. I swear they were doing faster splits. Bugger it! LOL! I watched my 4:30 debut skate off into the distance and decided that I should drink more water. So every drink stop thereafter, I downed two cups of water and strode out. It did teach me the squash the paper cup trick though - so you learn something every day!

My legs and feet were starting to kill me by this point - the continual flat surface made the backs of my knees ache like hell. I actually found myself wishing for hills to try and alter my stride and move my body weight onto different muscles. It is the strangest sensation to want to kick your legs up really high but have nooo energy to do so. Reminded me of weights sessions a bit. I walked and ran a little bit.

At about 33km I started to feel better and resumed my shuffle. Felt slightly heartened to be with so many other people equally as buggered and shuffley. Saw Angie coming down the other side of turn looking good and Suzannah beating Schultzy! Go, girlfriend! Passed Mr and Mrs Lostboy along the way and walked through another drink stop. The kms seemed to be getting longer and looooonnngggeeerrr from there on out and I found myself wondering how one km could possibly be that far.

Giggled to myself as Macey Gray told me I try to say goodbye and I choke, try to walk away and I stumble... even though, on rereading it, it's not as funny as it seemed at the time! Blame dehydration ;) My emotions were all over the place and I found myself on the verge of tears on and off for the rest of the race. It took me by surprise actually - just how much this race cleans out your insides. It's a great big chunk of thinking time, that's for sure and I found myself facing some of the problems in my life and realising that if I could finish this race, I could do anything. More on those resolutions later!

At 39km, as I was starting to flag again, my mother and aunt scared the crap out of me by jumping out of the bushes with a camera! They started cheering and taking photographs of me... My mother has never really understood why I started running or why I love it so much. When I said I was training for the GCM I think she was more concerned I was going to hurt myself in the process than anything else. So, to see her there, jumping up and down and cheering for me and looking so proud of me just meant so much. I started crying again and the realisation dawned that the end was in sight!

The last three kms were definitely the longest as I shuffled my way towards the distant shape of the race precinct on the horizon. As I approached the home strait people started cheering for me left, right and centre. Phil K (uber fast triathlete and runner) from our running club was there yelling for me which was so lovely of him , then I saw the river city runners with Run67, Karisma, Tanky and others - then the sound of hooters and clappers and mayhem approached and I saw the giant CR cheersquad all bouncing around for me.... by this point, I'd passed the tearful stage and just couldn't stop grinning. Jen_Runs jumped onto the road and ran me in towards the finishing chute and everyone started chanting my name!!! Everyone else around started looking at all the noise and probably wondered what on earth was going on! By that point, I was incapable of coherent speech (sorry Jen!) and just grinned and laughed and rode the high.

I ran down the finishing chute which seemed to be a mile long in its own right and Phil (coach) who was commentating, saw me coming and announced me to the crowd with a big round of applause and more cheering. It was like every single emotion it's possible to have, all at once.

Crossed the line and almost fell over when I stopped moving - big case of jelly legs! After a brief sit down and lots of water, I was fine. Wandered out of the enclosure to find the girls all cheering and happy for me. All of them did great times in the half and we compared finishing tshirts and gossiped. It was all I could do to find a patch of grass and fall in a heap. After a while, found I could eat, so had a ham and salad wrap and watched people I knew pass by for gossip. I was really hoping the cheersquad crew would wander by, but I just didn't have the energy to go and find them! Dammit!

Eventually, we decided to head off for a shower, since we all felt disgusting. Me particularly! Tracey was staying another night so we went to her hotel (Gold coast international!) and used their spa and showers. Naughty us! I know you shouldn't get into hot water straight after a race but it felt soooo good I couldn't help it. I felt tons better afterwards anyway.

I was going to come to the after race drinks but I didn't know I was going to feel quite so absolutely buggered... so instead I sent a round of text messages, spoke to the lovely Tess who rang up to see how I was going and then headed home. Crawled into bed for a few hours, got up to eat and take painkillers and then went back. I couldn't believe how much my body hurt - I'm used to post-race pain on moving, but hurting while staying absolutely still was a new one to me!

Thankfully I feel heaps better today and am going to the gym for a gentle stretch and possibly a steam. Am still drinking tons of water, too.

Congratulations to everyone who ran this weekend... was so much fun! Can't wait for next year! Hmmm, next year... 4:15? *L*