Benny had built a couple of recovery weeks into my program, which I have really been looking forward to. I have been working in blocks of 3+1, 3 harder weeks then a recovery week. But I had 5 weeks for a total of 520kms, so it has been good to refresh a bit over the last few weeks by doing some “lower” km’s. Lower now means 80km and 60km for the past 2 weeks! Weird cause that used to be massive before this craziness started last August.
So last weekend we had a little family holiday where Bel and I had the pleasure of attending Miriam and Mark’s wedding on the Sunshine Coast. Miriam has been Bel’s friends for about 8 years or so, she was at our wedding sitting on the “Sizzler” Table. I mostly spent the 4 days in the pool with the boys, which was great!
The wedding was absolutely beautiful – the rain held off and as Miriam made her way down the stairs and onto the beach, everyone close to us commented on how beautiful she looked. It was a really beautiful wedding, and at the reception the happy couple had a book with photos from their childhood etc. There was a photo from 2004 when Bel and Miriam were hitting the clubs for a night out, I couldn’t believe how much weight Miriam had lost!
When I asked Miriam proudly said she had lost about 30kg, and then she said “I’m a runner just like you”! Wow! I never knew Miriam was a runner! She said she had been doing mainly 3km treadmill runs and was trying to get her 3km time down. What an inspiration. I love it!
I love hearing stories like that, it reaffirms my view that nearly all of us are runners and if we put our minds to it, can enjoy running and all the positiveness it brings to your life.
I’ve spent the past 3 years trying to convince Bel to run a little bit on her afternoon walks. She walks 4-5 times a week and I’ve been trying to convince her to run a little bit, just a couple of minutes at a time then maybe sign up for a race. So far she has refused and given me a long list of reasons why she can’t, it is one of my goals for the remainder of the year to get her to toe the start line at a race somewhere! All of us runners know she will love that finish line and be hooked for life once she crosses it.
As I scheme up a plan to get Miriam and Bel to register for a race it got me thinking about first races. Last year we had a lot of “race virgins” at the Spring Classic, there were heaps of people (mainly ladies) who had signed up for their first 5km race. They had never seen a race bib before, didn’t know what pace runners were or had ever used an electronic timing chip. From the feedback we received it was an awesome experience for them, a really important achievement, it gave them immense personal satisfaction. I wish you could bottle that feeling you get when you finish a race.
I remember my first race, it was the River Run Half Marathon in 2009, my second race ever was a Marathon at Gold Coast. Weird now when I think about it, that I had never even done a 5km before that! I knew nothing about pacing, fuel or aid station etiquette. I believe you should race often, even if its not for a PB, just to enjoy being out in a race with other runners - oh and enjoy the finish line :)
This year’s Spring Classic will be bigger and better (lock in September 16th at CQUni Rockhampton) – I think this will be a great place for Miriam to test her treadmill legs and maybe, just maybe I can get Bel to run her first race!
Quickly in other news, my sister Mon and my cousin Cath have been tearing it up at the Brisbane Road Runners over the weekend. It’s so great to get their race reports about new 10km PBs! Keep up the great work ladies J
Oh and YES I was made to get a “real” haircut for the wedding!
Run Hard
Pex
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