Friday, June 1, 2012

Fortnightly Fitness Fridays - I ran for a reason

Last Sunday I ran the 14km Run for a Reason race in Perth. This is the third year that the race has been held, and it provides Perth with a second fun run option outside of the City to Surf in August.

This was the first time I have run this course, and only the second time I have run any formal running event. The first was the 2009 City to Surf, a 12km course, which was about 18 months after I got into running. In early 2008, I had plenty of stamina for low and moderate intensity exercise, but couldn't have run even 2km.

The City to Surf race was the best run of my life. I ran faster than I had been running in training (averaging about 11.4km / hour), I loved the atmosphere and the thrill of running on roads that were closed for the event, and the 63 minutes of running time just flew by.

I don't know how it ended up being 2.5 years from that race to this one (injuries had something to do with it, but not all), but  I'm glad to have finally done a second formal run.

Despite that, if the City to Surf face was my best run ever, it has to be said that this may have been one of my worst. After getting up at 6am and leaving for the train station at 6.30am, my plans to arrive in good time were thwarted by a lack of shuttle buses from the city train station to the start of the race (about a 5 minute bus ride). There were thousands of people queuing for buses and no where near enough to get us all shuttled across in a timely manner.

By the time I got to the starting grounds, it was 7.45am and the race started at 8am. I still needed to brave the bathroom queues and throw my bag at the bag collection area, and it ended up being 8.01am as I came out of the toilets. The first running group was just heading off, and I was meant to be in the second group.


Suffice to say, by the time I made it across the starting line, I was pretty frazzled. In fact, my anxiety system was firing at full speed. The plan to stagger the start by speed groups also fell apart, as many people were in the same position as me and hadn't made the start line for their allocated group. Conversely, a number of walkers seemed to have set off with the first, 'fastest' group, so my first few kilometers were spent trying to overtake walkers whilst being overtaken by faster runners trying to get out to the front.

I ran the first 2 kilometers at an average of 12km / hour, which is about 2 km / hour faster than the speed I was aiming to average for the full race. I knew I was going out too fast but it wasn't until 10 minutes in that I managed to moderate that down.

Indeed, after the stressful start, it took me until the 8km mark to settle into a steady pace and actually feel at home with the running and my breathing. I had expected the first half of the race to be easy and the second half more challenging, but it was definitely the other way around.

I'm in this picture, but so are about a hundred other people...

I also found that my usual strategy of running on an empty stomach, something resulting from all of my exercise being done first thing in the morning, didn't generalise so well to the slightly longer run with the travel time before hand. I felt quite nauseous in the last 2 kilometers, and I think that can be blamed on lack of fuel. Lesson learnt: if I want to run more than 10 - 12km, I need to eat, not just drink, first!

Despite these challenges, the run could also be called one of the best in my life. I have never run 14km before, in race form or otherwise, with my longest previous race being 13km. The atmosphere was great, and the route was a good one. Cheerleaders and music along the course were pretty fun too. Most importantly, I did run it, despite it being hard. I'm pretty proud of that.


In the end, I even hit the time I was hoping for, averaging 10.12 km / hour to finish in 1 hour and 23 minutes (plus 8 seconds, if we're being specific). Clearly I ran some kilometers pretty slowly, given the speedy start!

The rest of Sunday was spent in a semi-exhausted state, eating a whole batch (!) of pikelets, and reading in the sunshine. By Tuesday I was pondering when I could next run a race, and I'm already thinking alone the lines of "Just another 7km and you could run a half marathon!".

These pikelets, with yoghurt and thawed frozen strawberries.
Picture many more pikelets over the course of the day.

If you're a runner, do you run races regularly or are you like me and pretty inconsistent? What would be your best and worst runs?

16 comments:

  1. Congratulations on completing your run for a worthy cause.

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  2. Congratulations lady! Woot woot!

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  3. Wow, congratulations Kari! That is definitely something to be proud of. I'm always in awe of people that can run large distances. I've tried to get into running or I should really say very slow jogging but I must have a terrible style as I always end up with shin splints. I stick to walking these days.

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    1. I always used to be the same - except with my knees. I still do have troubles with them, but finding a good sports physio helped. Mind you, I do still get headaches after long runs, so perhaps sticking with walking may be wise all up!

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  4. I curtsey before your awesomeness in the running department. How I'd love to get off my bum and do something exciting like this. I know, one step and all that. :) You're an inspiration.

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    1. Aw, thanks Maureen - it really is one step at a time in the end, but sometimes that first step can be quite daunting!

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  5. races seem quite an interesting aspect of running - it takes you out of the lone jogger mode and into a crowd of people who are all striving towards something similar - must be quite a change - must take you out of your comfort zone when you are not used to races - congrats on doing the race and good luck with doing more

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    1. Thanks Johanna, and you're so right about the change in experience during races. I wouldn't want it all the time, but the increased energy that seems to come from running with others does make for an exciting experience at the time.

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  6. Congratulations. That's a huge achievement. What a shame you had such a stressful start to the race. I do ocean swims (not very often as I'm picky about the conditions) but when I do I don't like to enter the water stressed as it makes me breathless and like you say, it's hard to settle into a comfortable rhythm. So well done. Great result and you must have felt so thrilled with yourself when it was all over xx

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    1. I think the thought of how good it would feel to finish was what pulled me through the last 2 km actually :P I'm glad I'm not the only one to need a smooth start in order to get going well - I imagine with swimming it would be even harder.

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  7. Congrats Kari! So proud of you! I would have probably been right there with ya on the anxiety part. You're awesome!
    I used to could start my workouts on an empty stomach, but not anymore. Whew! I just hurt if I don't have something in my tummy.
    Have a great day!! Ur, ahhh night I mean. What time is it there??? :)

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    1. Haha, I have no idea about the time differences, other than that I think we're about a day and a half ahead? It's all too confusing :P

      Also - thanks! And I think I'll be following your lead on the food side of things.

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  8. so first, CONGRATS on an awesome run! not only ur longest but ur fastest...so i hope u can take that as a HUGE sign that u're capable of much more than u imagine, my dear. :) and like u said u definitely got forced into a speedier start which caused some not so fun feeling miles later, so had that not happened i bet u'd even gone faster. not that u need to think about that, because u should totally suck up the awesomeness of a PR and great run before contemplating the next. :P i'm sooo proud of u...and also proud how great u got ur grub on after...run hard, eat hard baby! ;) yum!

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    1. Thank you Cait! This wasn't actually my fastest speed, but I guess it has become my fastest for this distance, given I've never hit 14km before :) I'm definitely keen to go further and harder in the future now!

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