I was still in a lot of pain after Wednesday night’s training. Stiffness and pain, and finding it a little hard to walk. A 6km run, therefore, wasn’t all that appealing at 7:30am on a Saturday morning. Yep! 7:30am. My weekends were over. And apparently if you want to have breakfast, you need to eat one hour before a run. So my Saturday mornings started way earlier than my weekday mornings. Challenge number one!
Luckily, we’re training in a beautiful part of Sydney. We start off from Kirribilli, right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and looking across to the Opera House. The warm up took about 5-10 mins - running in a circle, lifting knees, kicking bums and all that type of professional looking training.
Luckily, we’re training in a beautiful part of Sydney. We start off from Kirribilli, right under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, and looking across to the Opera House. The warm up took about 5-10 mins - running in a circle, lifting knees, kicking bums and all that type of professional looking training.
Our first run was laid out for us - across the harbour bridge, down alongside the Cahill Expressway and up Macquarie Street to Hyde Park (if you could make it). Sounded lovely. Until I realised I was struggling to even get up the hill to the Harbour Bridge steps. Tears welled again. And it didn’t help to have Dave in my ear telling me something about the balls of my feet. Don’t care! I just want to make it up this stupid hill... Once we made it up the steps onto the bridge, I realised I’d become one of those people I used to mock when driving over the bridge. Crazy people who go out running in the morning, just for the craic. I wondered if some of the passing drivers thought the same about us.
The Harbour Bridge, as pretty an icon as it may be, is a nightmare to run across. It’s sneakily sloping on each side and never-ending. The pains in my neck came back within minutes and I felt like lying down and crying within another 5 minutes. I hated running already. Everyone else seemed to be doing really well. That was another difficult thing. Being the back of the pack is horrible, any way you look at it. Swimming was so much easier because I wasn’t at the back of the pack. Being overtaken by everyone is really disheartening. To take my mind off it, I started looking out over the bridge at the boats on the harbour and the Opera House, and pointing out to Sarah that we’d be running past her place at Circular Quay where she could have still been sleeping if it weren’t for our craziness!
I’d love to say I ran 6km non-stop. I didn’t even make it across the Harbour Bridge without slowing down to a walk here and there. To look at the positive side - I didn’t completely stop moving! I didn’t make it to Hyde Park either. Luckily I was given permission to turn around at the hospital on Macquarie Street so I could run with the others on the way back. Running back on the Cahill Expressway is another nightmare. The hill that curves up to the Bridge is steeeep. Dave had left (zoomed ahead at gazelle speed) to go pick up his parents from the airport, so Sarah kept me company on the way back. We kept picking targets in the distance to aim for, and then extended the distance. At one target where we had agreed to stop, the coach popped along beside us telling us what a great job we were doing, so we couldn’t very well give up then!
Again this time, it proved that distraction is all I need. Sarah kept me entertained with stories of Tom Washington and Benjamin Nice, and then suddenly not laughing too much became my focus instead of the pains in my legs and my neck. I was so chuffed coming into the finish at Kirribilli, a downhill finish at that.
The Harbour Bridge, as pretty an icon as it may be, is a nightmare to run across. It’s sneakily sloping on each side and never-ending. The pains in my neck came back within minutes and I felt like lying down and crying within another 5 minutes. I hated running already. Everyone else seemed to be doing really well. That was another difficult thing. Being the back of the pack is horrible, any way you look at it. Swimming was so much easier because I wasn’t at the back of the pack. Being overtaken by everyone is really disheartening. To take my mind off it, I started looking out over the bridge at the boats on the harbour and the Opera House, and pointing out to Sarah that we’d be running past her place at Circular Quay where she could have still been sleeping if it weren’t for our craziness!
I’d love to say I ran 6km non-stop. I didn’t even make it across the Harbour Bridge without slowing down to a walk here and there. To look at the positive side - I didn’t completely stop moving! I didn’t make it to Hyde Park either. Luckily I was given permission to turn around at the hospital on Macquarie Street so I could run with the others on the way back. Running back on the Cahill Expressway is another nightmare. The hill that curves up to the Bridge is steeeep. Dave had left (zoomed ahead at gazelle speed) to go pick up his parents from the airport, so Sarah kept me company on the way back. We kept picking targets in the distance to aim for, and then extended the distance. At one target where we had agreed to stop, the coach popped along beside us telling us what a great job we were doing, so we couldn’t very well give up then!
Again this time, it proved that distraction is all I need. Sarah kept me entertained with stories of Tom Washington and Benjamin Nice, and then suddenly not laughing too much became my focus instead of the pains in my legs and my neck. I was so chuffed coming into the finish at Kirribilli, a downhill finish at that.
I had finished my first ever distance run :D
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| Second row, third from the left.. Not the best weather Sydney has seen! |
"Some of us are like wheelbarrows, only useful when pushed and easily upset"
Jack Herbert
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