This past Sunday I made the journey to Sydney for the Sydney Harbour Half Marathon.
Stepping off of a plane from the United States on Friday at 6.15am I was feeling the effects on my body of the long journey and I had 48 hours until start line.
After a day and a half of resting, I landed at Star City at Pyrmont on Saturday afternoon, and had a lazy afternoon before heading to bed around 6.30pm Yes, I really needed the sleep.
With an early rise on Sunday morning, I headed out just before 5am, walking down through the Casino - Woman & Men still in party mode, down past the Pyrmont Bridge Hotel the place was still pumping at 5am.....
As I walked over the Pyrmont Bridge, no less than 10 people wished me good luck for the Marathon - some in worse shape than others at 5am, but it is a great reminder for what a truly great country we live in.
Making it across to North Sydney, Milsons Point, I was in time to watch the amazing Sunrise over Sydney with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge in the background - this really is the best start I have ever had to a day at 5am.
Before I knew it 6.20am had come around and it was time to run, I started out with a couple of decent pace, the run up to and over the Sydney Harbour Bridge is nothing less than a amazing event, I was feeling relatively confident, I set my new Garmin GPS watch to a 7:35 pace and by mile 2 I was 1m 30s ahead of target, by about mile 4/5 things started to go wrong, my right ITB was feeling the heat, possibly the couple of hills that I ran up and down in the first couple of mile, in any case I pushed through and had a quick stop for some voltarin (hmmm Ive been waiting for this to come back).
Slowed a little (well okay a lot) I just kept on pushing, thinking about how many people in life push through the daily challenges that they have been placed in with circumstances completely out of there control, weather that be an illness, disability or "other" forces - the inspiration was how people pull through in such adversity.
Coming past drink stations I still haven't mastered an ability to drink and run, so at this point knowing any reasonable time was less likely to be achieved I stopped at a couple of stations and consumed the fluids on offer.
I had bursts of inspiration that seen my heart rate chart and pace chart, go up and down, mostly thinking about the above...... (Check out the Garmin Map Link from my GPS watch plotting the stats and route along Sydney Harbour)
The lesson this week is, when we are faced with a minor setback, a little pain or a lot, we should never give up, Steve made a really good point to me yesterday over a coffee, Looking at the heart rate chart and the pace chart, I had the ability to give more a fact, I allowed the circumstances and my mind to take control, next time I run, I must be prepared to push through consistently - it will be hard work but most things in life are, very rarely are we prepared for when someone or circumstance will surprise us.
This week, I look to firm up a new training plan, almost like cramming for an Exam at last minute, with 5 weeks out from Washington DC, I will be hitting it hard daily, perhaps not the things I like (swimming, cycling etc) but I will do what is necessary and more to be successful on 25th October 2009.
I will be running next at the Melbourne Half Marathon on Oct. 11 2009 and am keen to see if the work I put in over the next two and a bit weeks will show results.
I am also very happy to give the finish line donation to the Starlight Foundation this week, I have added it to the Fundraising website for Washington.
Cheers
Jeff
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