Saturday, January 06, 2007

MOUNT COOTHA IS MY BIATCH! FINALLY!

Got up this morning feeling like poo, bloated, achy yuck. Met the gals and guys (*waves at Owen*) for the monthly mount cootha run and what do you know?

MOUNT COOTHA IS NOW MY BIATCH!


Funny really, after two years of mostly being a lot fitter than I am now, I have a go post-xmas-gluttony, feeling awful and had the best run I've had in ages.

I started off with Ronnie and we headed out to the botanical gardens which are on the way. I decided to fall in behind her and we chugged up the first hill. Then Ronnie asked me to go infront of her so off I went. I went really, really slowly just taking my time. Before you know it, I'm up at the yellow gates of doom where I usually conk out.

The yellow gates passed me by and I got to the TV towers. By that point, I realised that if I kept at it I might just make it the entire way, so I buckled down and set to. Didn't stop for water, didn't stop for a chat with the others who were getting water, just kept on.

Passed a beautiful white cockatoo, who was grazing on the grass on the side of the road. He eyed me up and down and it reminded me of one of the first times I tried to run it and came accross a flock of them.

Once I got up the major incline, I found I could speed up a bit which was great and settled into my normal pace. The sun was shining, all was very quiet and the smell of warmed eucalyptus wafted on the breeze. Found myself grinning and feeling fabulous.

Hit the cafe at the top and sailed past the gals again who were on a toilet stop (or would've been, if they hadn't been locked!) and carried on down the hill. I can't believe how good I felt the whole time... my legs were working but not wobbly and I could breath reasonably well. I kept misting up my sunnies, but that's bound to happen.

Got back to the regatta in 1:47, which is a PB of at least three minutes :) I think the secret to cracking it was just to go out MUCH slower on the first two hills. Once I did that, I could cope with the rest easily. Hurrah!

I'm still bouncing up and down - now I've finally managed to crack it, I'm wondering if I can do it quicker!

HURRAH!



4 comments:

Shane said...

That is great Hannah, what a perfect start to the year. Congratulations :-)

Wobbly man said...

WTG Hannah!! Of course you can do it quicker - just relax and let it happen baby!

Tesso said...

Great stuff Hannah!

You are definitely on to it, those first two hills are killers. In fact, that first one past the Botanical Gardens is just plain evil!

Sub 1:45 next time :-)

Ewen said...

Good stuff Hannah. The Pluviometer will be your BIATCH one day.