In the long run…

I hate running.

At least that is what I have said for the majority of my life.

I have posted before that I have enjoyed my local parkrun event, and that still remains the case.  When I put  down the goals at the start of the year, I wanted to run 5km’s under 24 mins by June 30 and under 23 mins by the end of the year.  Thankfully I got to tick the first of these off the list, and will chase down the 2nd goal after a certain running event is out of the way, but more of that below.

Through parkrun, I saw a local running group called daily runner, run by husband and wife team Werner and Ash.  I had a chat with Werner and felt I wouldn’t be too ostracised by my homage to Cliff Young running style.  Just like the parkrun crew, and dare I say, even more so, the group is such a supportive group of people, where we are all at different levels of fitness, style and goals but everyone feels great by the encouragement.

As a side note, Werner and Ash were awesome sports when I got a challenge from my photo mentor course (which I am soon to finish after 6 months), to put a call out and produce quality shot(s) and hand them over to someone.  I spoke with them and they were keen and were great during the session.  I went out to QE2 and captured some background plates, and then super-imposed the studio shots of them in front of the backgrounds.  The main shot is seen below. (mental note: Still owe A&W some more processed shots)

Werner showing his presence in front of QE2

A couple of people at the running group were running the Gold Coast marathon or the half, and my mind was ticking over, wow, this is something I would really like to tick off the uber list, but it is a far cry from where I am currently with my ability.  After chatting with a few of the crew, I made my mind up, and immediately went for moral support with Gilly on whether he would join me.  “Do you know how far a half marathon is?” then a no chance or words to that effect…  Hmmm  I can’t run on my own and need motivation….  Thankfully Daily Runner and  mixed tapes / playlists got me through…

I also have an ex-brother-in-law who has done a half a dozen marathon and was very helpful in my weekly increase of distance advice, and the pace that I should be trying to run.  I did start out hoping to just finish, which is still the #1 goal, and a pace of 7min/k. I have brought this down to 6min / k and I have a cheeky eye on beating 2 hours for the just over 21 km event.

I have done the preparation runs and feel confident I have put in the work for this one.  Then along comes a head cold, that has been with me for 3 weeks now, but I am hopeful it peaked last Friday with it dropping to my chest. (I have had respiratory type stuff all my life, so this is usually a sign I am on the mend, fingers crossed.) All that is left now is making of the all important playlist, and as soon as I can prise a holidaying Tegan away from our mac that has all our music, I will get to it.

Mickey conjuring some magic for my race, and reminding me of fun times at Disneyland

Hopefully I will have good news that I finished, and just maybe, cracked the 2 hour mark.  Wish me luck!  My family doesn’t seem that keen on joining me, with a 3:00 get up and head off at 4:00 this Sunday.

I still don’t enjoy running, but I love the feeling I get when I stop!  Thanks Eloise from the DR crew for that quote!

Song of the day is one the will definitely be on the the playlist: Jelly legs by Children collide, besides being a rockin’ good song, it is apt given how the legs will probably be feeling…