Run Melbourne Half



Yes people -- It IS still DARK!! (Before)



And after!! WOO!!



Well, a week later and I am STILL super excited!! After freaking out for the entire week before hand I was surprisingly calm on the morning of race day! Met a few friends at Flinders St Clocks at 6.15am... Yep -- AM people!! It was still DARK!! Haha!! Walked across the road to federation square and did the warm up, went to the toilet (because needing to pee while running is VERY unpleasant!), and found the start line. I did something differently this race and started at the back -- this was great because I felt like I was passing everyone; instead of everyone passing me!! LOL!



Still smiling - about half way through.



As per usual I went out too fast, the first 5 km were not too bad - but the second 5 km I KNEW I was running to fast -- I was DYING by the time 8-9km came around!! A little distressed at this given I still had another 12-13km to go!!! But I gave myself a talking to which went something like this, "It's ok Kel, just slow it down slightly -- because there is not a CHANCE you will be walking during this sucker -- even if it KILLS you, vomit or no vomit, just keep the legs turning over! You can do it!!" And I did!! WOO! Hehe..

21km in 1:59:19 ... YAY!!

Not so smiley towards the end.. LOL!

It was not until around the 16km mark that I realised that I was going to make it in around my 2 hr goal I had set for myself -- then, as I  got to 19km I realised I might actually be able to come in UNDER the 2 hr goal!! Boy did that make my little legs reach longer and turn over as fast as they could (which by then was not that fast!!) I was still able to sprint the last 100m too which I thought was alright!! LOL! Although, I have to say that last 1km went FOREVER!!!



I did manage to sprint to the
finish line though!! WOO!



Of course, being told I was not going to make it in 2 hours just topped off the day -- because I LOVE to prove people wrong!! Funny thing was, I did not even believe I was going to be able to do it! I thought 2:05 would have been good!! Haha!! Under 2 hours (even by seconds) was just awesome!! So excitement!! Had a look at the results and discovered that I am in the first half of my division -- even more excitement!! Most of the females who finished earlier started coming in around 1:45... The odd few were faster, but it seems that if I can knock 10-15min off my time I could consider myself "good" as opposed to "slightly better than average"... Perhaps I will go for this in the Melb Marathon in Oct... We will see. Not sure if I am willing to give up the weights!

SO EXCITEMENT!!!!

2 hrs worth of bumbag rubbing



2 hrs worth of heart rate monitor rubbing