I did it.....

On sunday I crossed the finish line of the Perth Chevron City to Surf after completing the half marathon! I am rapt that I completed the distance! Will I do it again - my word I will - in 7 weeks time at the Melbourne Marathon Festival (Half marathon again).

I have set myself some realistic goals for my next race and I can't wait to train to hopefully achieve what I have set for myself.

I feel like after only 5 months of consistent run training that running a half marathon is a HUGE achievement, and pair this with major knee surgery 20 months ago where the surgeon said I may never be able to run again, and I am on cloud nine right about now. If only on cloud nine there was a little less leg pain!

As soon as I have the professional photos I will upload some to my blog here so that you can see the pain and joy on my face!

If I can do it you can too...... I saw a post the other day and now I can't find it...... It said "it doesn't matter if you run 4 minute kilometres or 7 minute kilometres, its still a kilometre" - I wish I could find it again!

xxx

It's nearly time to run 13.1 miles

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Well all my runs are complete and I am in the final stages of race prep now ready to run my first half marathon on sunday!It's resting time, epsom soaks and carb loading time :-) This morning I soaked up the first bit of the atmosphere by attending the race expo! Mr 8 and Mr 3 are doing the 4km walk with Daddy! They are VERY excited.

I have had a couple of good runs this week, so I am focusing on that in the lead up to sunday. I am excited, but also quite nervous. I must make sure I pace myself well from the start and not race out too hard and then find I have to really slow down in the second half. There are some big hills in this race, but the hills I have had to train on at home have been much steeper than the hills in the race so I am feeling quietly confident about the hill aspects. In my training run of 21.1km, I finished in 2.11.06. I have set a realistic goal to finish in under 2.10.00, anything quicker than that is a bonus in my eyes!

I will try and post again before sunday! :-) xxx

It's taper week for me

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It's taper week here ready for my half marathon on sunday! This morning was a very easy paced 45 minute run. I felt like I was cheating heading home after such a short time on the road. I headed out early at 5.45am, it was great to see the sun start to come up and the beautiful colours in the sky!

Monday is a busy day in our house. We spend all day, 50km from home in 'town' - activities for both of the boys and I get to have some time catching up with a friend for a coffee or having a swim! Now though I am kicked out on the couch, the dog is asleep at my feet, both boys are sound asleep and I will finish this post, check university emails and unit page, have a read and make the most of an early night.

xxx

13.1 in 6 days time

Hi all,

yes once agin it has been a while since I stopped by here! Oops! I'd love to write more, but I seem to just run out of time. I know I have the same amount of time as everyone else, I just need to decide how I use it.

How do I use my time.......

I love the fact that a cherish the time I spend with our 3 year old! He will be in kindy next year so I am making the most of his last year at home before starting school. He doesn't go to day care at all - he is a very easy little man to have around and we do some pretty cool things together. I'm not even thinking about next year yet - I am going to miss him a lot!

I have started studying again - prior to having MR 8 I managed child care centres (my last centre had 180 children and approx. 45 staff). I have enrolled by distance education, to complete a Bachelor of Education (early childhood) with the University of Tasmania. I have started with one unit - so I can get a good start and also because I didn't want to compromise my time with Mr 3. So far so good - today I submitted my first assessment.

My running miles have really increased now, all with a good response from my dodgy knee. A week from today I am going to be running my first half marathon. I am racing in the Perth City to Surf run and I'm VERY excited. I've done a training run for the 13.1 miles (21.1km) and now I just want to race quicker than that run. I will then have a low key week post race and then I will get back into my training for my second half marathon in October in the Melbourne Running Festival.

All my training has gone so well until friday when I stumbled upon a VERY aggressive dog and an equally as abusive owner on the top of a one way up, one way down hill. I was very frightened and found the remaining 9km of that run rather difficult, but this run chick was not going to let someone else cut my run short! There is no place for people like this or dogs off lead who want to tear you to shreds!

I'm going to try really hard this week to give you an insight into my taper week leading up to the race on the weekend. Tomorrow mornings run is only 45minutes long - It will feel very odd!