11km Beach Run

4^th April 2011

Today I completed the 11km beach run. I started the day by getting up at 6:20am and getting dressed. I then stretched for about 20 mins before heading out to the bus to travel to Hardwicke Bay. On the way I kept hoping the bus would stop soon and I wouldn’t have to run as far as I thought I did but we just kept going and going. When we finally reached the beach we did some stretches and Dale kept trying to scare us by saying not to look around and all we’d hear was his footsteps as he passed us. We then started the race. There was a huge rush at the begging but I didn’t start off to fast as I was worried I would get too tired at the start and struggle later on. For the first 3km it was hard to get into a rhythm. Once I did though I started cruising. Harry Page was about 150m in front of me and my goal was to catch up to him.  Harry was catching up to Cameron Scheepers. I was really surprised for the first 5km as I wasn’t too tired. Out was a bit out of breath of course but I wasn’t struggling as much as I thought I would. I didn’t want to look behind me and see if there was anyone on my tail or if I was the last person because that could screw up my rhythm. I also didn’t want to look behind because if there was someone there it might make them think I was worried and find the energy to pass me. At about the 6km mark I was travelling at about 10m away from Cam and Harry and 6.5km I was running with them. My legs and feet were really starting to feel the pain now. Harry, Cam and I called us the 3 man wolf pack and kept motivating each other to keep moving and not stopping. If I was running by myself I probably would have given up the fight and walked or slowed down but I had worked so hard to catch up to these guys I didn’t want to fall behind. We all got more hope when we saw the track leading off from the 9.2km run. We kept travelling at a constant speed for ages. I was soooo tired now and my feet were dead sore. I was determined not to fall behind though as I had gone this far and wasn’t going to let all that hard work go to waste. I was really finding it hard to breathe now as well but kept moving and moving. Once I saw the track leading to Wambana I got really excited. I was only about 1 or 2km’s away now. Harry took off ahead and Cameron slowly kept in front of me along this track. Ned, Lachy and Daly were standing 200m from the entrance cheering us on which was nice. I kept going and going and was so relieved when I reached the shed. Paul told me my time and I scribbled it on the board before collapsing and drinking heaps of water. I was 2.10mins off my estimated time which annoyed me but I was glad that the run was a success and I had finished it without walking. If I had my time again and I could re-run it I would definitely push myself more on the last track and try to shave the 2.10mins off my final time and get under 1 hour 10mins!