It was an early start for me. I was rostered to get the post-run drinks prepared for the Terrigal Trotters run and had volunteered to register the morning’s athletes, while Kev was away. This meant that I could not warm up for the run and had to leave a couple of minutes after most of the runners. However, I hadn’t been looking for a hard run so happily started slowly and then gradually worked my way through the slower runners, chatting as I passed, never pushing the pace. There was one very steep hill, but rather than trying to run up it as I would normally have, I walked with my fellow athletes.
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| Finishing the UK Three Peaks Race in 2004 |
We left late morning for the five-hour drive up to South West Rocks where we were sharing an apartment with Jo, Graham and Eric for the race weekend. Sharon was originally going to run the marathon, but sustained two stress fractures in her lower left leg a month ago, and had to withdraw. I had entered the Half Marathon, just for something to do, but decided two days ago that my recovery from the hike that finished two weeks ago wasn’t sufficient to allow me to run fast safely. Instead, I reasoned that an easy 42.2km was less likely to result in injury and was more in keeping with my recovery program of long slow runs every three or four days. We arrived at race headquarters in time for me to change my race and I paid the extra fee and “upgraded” to the marathon for tomorrow.
