Melbourne Half Report (be warned: long!!)

This is to prove that I’m slow but I put in. Eeeeeeewwwww sweatyanyuck as Noddie says

**late edit** OFFICIAL TIME 2.30.45 - THAT'S A PB!! (*does happy dance*)
Splits: please remember Jeanne that these are kilometers and NOT miles.
6.20 – less than a km, as I clocked it on the first km sign which was for the marathoners
6.31
7.41 – hilly. Cold.
7.00
6.57
15.42 – this 2km included a very swift pit stop – isn’t hydration tricky?
7.00
7.09
7.11
7.20
7.11
7.14
7.28 – dunno what happened here
6.56
7.05
7.10
6.59
7.19
6.58
7.30 – This was 1.1km, but even so, I wanted to crank it up an extra gear, which just wasn’t there. I even walked a bit. Stupid cold. Oh well.
I was really pleased by the (for me) evenness of these splits. I wanted to go faster in the last 4km along St Kilda road, but every time I tried to increase the tempo my overall energy levels responded with a “well, we can do that for about 3 minutes and then you’ll have to walk the rest of the way. You choose”.
Overall, what a wonderful day! I struggled with the stairs at work a bit today, and my cold has come back to haunt me, but I could care less. As you know, I was agonising over whether to run or not and what decided me was the memory of the buzz of the whole day.
And it was all there again. The nervous chatter on the bus (and the Arts Centre toilets - the flashest pre-race loos I’ve ever seen LOL). The slap slap slap of 4000 runners’ feet setting off on their own journeys, but all with the same dream. The people I talked to as I ran – and this year was able to help and encourage a little bit, as I was helped and encouraged so much last year - in particular Trevor the triathlete (no, really) who ran with me the whole 5km stretch from Brighton to St Kilda, which is flat and exposed and broke my heart last year so I was a bit scared of it – and then fell back!! I was faster than someone!!! I’m so shallow...
The coolrunning cheersquads, which made this little back o’the packer feel like a ROCK STAR - YOU GUYS ARE WONDERFUL!!!

The tailwind. The amazingly-much–smaller–than–last-year Fitzroy St hill. Running along St Kilda Road with a woman who’d survived breast cancer and decided to do something crazy like run 21.1km to celebrate. I’m so sorry I had to leave you behind - I hope the anguish in your eyes was turned to happiness at the finish.
Spotting the Spousal Unit waving from the crowd as I ran up the chute (on Bathurst Sunday – what a sacrifice…Everything.
It was better than last year because I understand more about what it means and what it takes to run 20+km now. I loved feeling as though I knew what I was doing. I got to cheer in the marathoners, which was a blast! I loved the way the crowd tried to lift the runners who were faltering at the end of their long road, and how so many runners had their kids running with them to share their proudest moment (I’m tearing up writing this). And I loved catching up with so many Cool Runners at Transport afterwards and sharing the boring shoes/hydration/horror story/no-you-were-great-no-you-were-great camaraderie which is such a big part of what I love about running.
But really I love it because runners dream big. And they go after it as hard as they can. And that’s how I want to live.
And I'm still wearing my medal.