Run 1:55:24 [3] 16.32 km (7:04 / km) +506m 6:07 / km
shoes: La sportiva
Happy to finish ... was about all I had to say about the day, but looking at the previous run I see some value in writing a bit more.
I entered this as Aoife was invited to a friend's birthday party in Sydney for Saturday, so we were up. I've been saying for 8 years "I need to do the NOSH again, when I'm fit." I finally decided that is never going to happen so just go and enjoy it!
I was a bit scared starting today - my hip has been annoying for a couple of weeks, I am still feeling very slow and tired too so not in a good frame of mind to start. Was half wishing for a good old Sydney downpour to give me an excuse not to run but the day dawned beautifully.
Paula somehow convinced me to start near the front with her, and had visions of us jogging along together. Oh dear, she needs an education in slow as I could not keep up immediately. I felt OK running but was getting passed by anyone and everyone. Was OK going up the first steep bit, but coming down was a very annoying stop start process. It got more annoying at the bottom when everyone just ran past me on the smooth section. I got into a rhythm where I thought that I'd need to pull out at some stage with my hip hurting. I was thinking so hard about that, that I managed to twist my ankle. A dumb thing to do on single track where trying to walk it off just held people up. So a I had to kind of jog, then stand in the bushes every couple of metres. Finally got a bit of a gap and got moving again and magic - hip all good now. Crazy! Anyway much of the rest was a slog, but I knew I'd make the distance. Much tougher course than my previous time in 2010. The bush track we missed that time was beautiful at the start (I've never run there before!) and rugged at the end. I was almost staggering by the 14.5km mark. Stiffened up on a short section along the road and the fire trail was not good either. But then suddenly the final bit of single track and I passed the 4 people in front of me and made it to the end.
As I said, happy to finish and also happy to have done it :)