2:49:47! I did it!

2:49:47. Ninth woman overall. 

Yes friends, you read that heading correctly.

2:49:47 in the Melbourne Marathon. 

A new marathon PB. More importantly, proof positive that I have conquered high hamstring tendinopathy and I am back and running stronger than ever.

At the end of last year I was told there was a chance I would never race competitively again. This ripped my heart out - not only did I love to run, but I had lots more I wanted to achieve with my running. The ensuing months of treatment and rehab and false starts and set backs are documented a little in this blog, although I refrained from posting about the really, really dark times.

Always, always at the back of my mind was Melbourne Marathon. My big goal for the year and, as the months progressed and recovery took far longer than I wanted, my ONLY goal for the year. I just couldn't write this entire year off - I needed something good to come out of it.

Crossing the finish line on the MCG on Sunday and seeing 2:49 on the clock was the most wonderful reward for all the work and patience and perseverance and the many, many tears that were shed whilst trying to get back to running.

Personal drinks ready to go. 

I can't even begin to express how utterly grateful I am to everyone who had a role in my recovery since last November. Without my wonderful husband Andrew, my family, friends, coach (Sean Williams), physio (Brent Kirkbride), doctor (Donald Kuah), massage therapist (Michael Viera - Complete Body Dymamics) and Mizuno I couldn't have done it. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

I know I'm going on as if I've won a gold medal at the Olympics or something, but I really need to express how much I appreciate everyone who has supported me. I love to run and, as much as I freak out before a race, I love to challenge myself by racing. I am so incredibly grateful and happy to be back at it again - and to be racing better than I ever have been before.

Wooooohooooo! Seriously! WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO! I'm sorry I can't be more eloquent - if you picture me running around madly waving my hands above my head you may have an inkling of how I'm feeling. 2:49:47!! YEAH!

The race went well. I wore the Mizuno Ronin - the first time I've worn them for the full marathon distance and they felt fantastic. No blisters, no bleeding and I still have all ten toenails. Excellent.

Early morning at the 'G'.

The weather wasn't as bad as I feared, although there was some wind and it started to rain a bit near the end. By about 9k I hooked up with two other women (Aarthi Venkatesan and Fleur Flanery) and we started to work together to maintain a pace of about 3:59/k. We were soon joined by some other women and a few men and our pack ran together quite strongly until that dreaded turnaround point near St Kilda Esplanade (25k). Not too long after that (I'm not sure where) we started to fall apart. Laura James and Hannah Flannery took off like they had jet-packs on - they both ran such strong, smart races and made it look so easy - while a few women fell behind me. I had a couple of bad stages but managed to hold a reasonable pace together until the 37k mark, where a hill and fading legs caused me to go from a 4:01km (@36k) to a 4:19km. Ouch. From there I had a couple of other bad splits which caused the anxiety levels to spike a little because I knew I'd be close to blowing the sub-2:50 time.

The last few seconds of the race, as I ran towards the finish and knew I was about scrape in under 2:50, were magic. A mix of utter relief and complete joy. The worst year suddenly became the best year, thanks to that little 42.2 kilometre run through Melbourne.

So happy. So grateful. So blessed.

Blackmores Sydney Half Marathon - I'm back!

I wrote the first part of this post the day after the Blackmores Sydney Half Marathon. I had every intention of finishing it the next day but life, work and worries about the looming Melbourne Marathon got in the way. 

So, here it is now. The Blackmores Sydney Half Marathon race wrap up.

After a nightmare year, it is with enormous pleasure (and relief) that I can say I have finally run another PB.

I raced the Blackmores Sydney Half Marathon on 22 September - but kept it very low key because I was feeling pretty nervous about it. I knew this race would give me a good indication of what sort of condition I am in for Melbourne Marathon (three weeks after the half) and I was concerned that if the race didn't go well I'd blow any sort of confidence I had to smithereens.

Luckily, it was a good day.

I finished fourth woman in 81:28 - a PB by one minute and ten seconds. And it was a 'good' race. I felt in control the whole time, I settled down almost instantly and got myself into what felt like a pretty good rhythm. I hung off the back of the 80 minute pace group for a while - which wasn't an intended plan but once the race was underway and the group was there I thought it would be nice to keep them in sight. I lost them a bit every time I grabbed a drink but would catch up again until the rope snapped around the half way mark and I wasn't confident enough to try and chase them down - I was worrying about blowing up towards the end so I kept to my own pace.

To be honest, I couldn't tell if the course was easy or difficult. There were a few ups and downs and a fair bit of twisting and turning, especially in the second half, but I never got to a stage where I started to think, 'Shit, this is awful, I just want it to end.' I was in fifth place up until around 16k when I snuck into fourth. The position very honestly wasn't important to me - I just wanted to see if I could run a decent time and compare my form to where I was this time last year.

The worst thing about the race was probably the super-early race start - with the gun going off at 6:15am I was up to eat breakfast at 3:15am. My husband had gone out in the city the night before (while I stayed in at the Grace Hotel and went to sleep), so he was certainly a little worse for wear as we walked from the CBD, over the Harbour Bridge and to the start at Milsons Point. Actually, at one point he said, "It's just lucky I'm still drunk." Hmmmmm. I think he was half joking.

In all, it was a good race and it showed me I'm certainly much stronger and in decent form for Melbourne, which is now only four days away. From what I can figure out I think I will be close to hitting my goal time but it certainly won't be a given. I will have to really fight for it - and hope the conditions are absolutely perfect. I am hoping the extra strength I have gained through the months and months of exercises and rehab I've done to get over the high hamstring tendinopathy will mean I will be stronger through the second half of the marathon and maybe avoid slowing down as much as I did last year.

Big thanks to my coach, Sean Williams, whose program and advice has been invaluable in getting me back racing. Also thanks to the eternal pessimist (!) but best physio in the world, Brent Kirkbride, who was responsible for putting me back together when I was broken.

I'll post one more time over the next couple of days. Taper is in full swing right now and I am about to explode!

First post-injury win - Sutherland Half Marathon

Again, it's been some time between posts. The good news is things have been going really well. For the first time I'm beginning to think I've conquered this high hamstring tendinopathy. Seeing as though I was told in no uncertain terms that there was a chance I wouldn't get over it, I'm very happy with how everything has been going.

My best piece of news is that I've finally won a race again - my first win since being injured. My coach put the Sutherland Half Marathon on my program - a tough little off road race. I knew it wasn't going to be a fast day so I thought that if the pace was right I'd try to stick with the front girls and hopefully outlast them.

The start of the Sutherland Half Marathon.

Surprisingly, the plan actually worked. There was a group of four women early on which dropped to three, then to two by the turn around point (a little over half way). I thought I'd try and put a bit of a gap between myself and the other female, which I managed to do. I'm not actually sure how much space I put between us, but after I while I couldn't hear her anymore so I relaxed a bit and kept the pace comfortable.

Now, at this point, let me point out one thing. The woman in second place was Laura James - who is a much faster runner than I am. My advantage came from the fact that Laura had already run, and won, the 10k race earlier that day.

Getting closer to the end of the half I considered speeding things up a bit, but given that the terrain wasn't great, and I tend to be pretty uncoordinated, I thought it'd be safer to stay at the pace I was at. With 4k to go Laura pulled up along side me - 'Oops', I thought, 'I should've run a bit faster!' Luckily I had some fuel in the tank and managed to put a gap between us again. I won, but I really do want to say what an awesome effort Laura put in. Winning the 10k then coming second in the half mara after it - she's such a strong runner.

The time was nothing to be proud of - even for a tough course - 87:29. Having said that, I made a conscious decision to race for the win, not for a time, and that's what I did. I raced the race I was given and, thankfully, it went my way.

After the horrible year I've had it was really nice to finally achieve something. Although, I guess it should be said that recovering from the injury was a pretty big achievement in itself.

Thanks to Sutherland District Athletics Club for putting on a great event. I got to speak to a few people from the club and they were all really friendly and enthusiastic about running. I love this sport.

Since the half mara training has been solid - up until last week when something weird happened to my ankle/foot. After the Sutherland Half my ankles felt a bit stiff - I just put it down to racing off road, but it was enough for me to comment to my husband on. Then I got a pain on the medial side of my left arch, which was a bit worse after being on the dance floor at the Pink concert wearing Converse boots. After a couple of days, that arch pain moved and I started getting a pain up in my ankle joint. It was also a bit swollen, tender to touch and felt hot. I iced it, put some anti-inflam gel on but nothing helped and I ended up skipping a couple of runs, including a 35k long run (I did 12k and called it quits) because I was worried about doing damage. Out came the anatomy diagrams so I could try and figure out what  on earth was wrong, but that whole area was just far too confusing so I booked in to see Brent (physio). Better to get straight on to addressing whatever it was.

I saw Brent after work on Friday and whatever manipulation stuff he did seemed to help a lot. He said I probably did something at the Sutherland Half (likely, given that I nearly tripped over a handful of times). His advice was to watch it, ice after running, use anti-inflams if I needed it and don't run off road on uneven surfaces. After physio I gave it another day to settle down, and had a couple of anti-inflam tablets, and by Sunday it was much, much better.  I got through a strong 35k run and only noticed it a couple of times, and even then if i hadn't been consciously thinking about it I doubt I would have taken any notice of it at all. It has stayed settled down so I'm hoping it was just a small hiccup which is on its way out.

Just over three weeks until Melbourne Marathon.

Ow, my bum

It's been a week since my second lot of PRP injections, and boy, has it been a long and difficult week.

Apparently I did too much after my injections last time so this time Dr Kuah said, very clearly, that I was not to run or ride for two weeks. I could swim but only if I used a pool buoy. He then wrote it all down and underlined the word 'STRICTLY' on it. He was serious.

The purpose of all this is to give the tendons the best possible chance to repair. It makes sense, but that doesn't mean it's easy.

Do you know that swimming using just your arms is boring? And slow?

To be honest, the main thing that has been hard to deal with isn't being told I can't ride or run - yes, that's not fun but I can see it has a purpose. The biggest hurdle I'm facing is coming to terms with everything I'm going to miss this year.

No Canberra Marathon. No SMH Half. No state road 10k. No SMC. No Woodford to Glenbrook (there goes the chance of winning five years in a row). Highly unlikely I'll be able to do M7 Cities Marathon.

It's a bummer alright and I spent quite a few days feeling really down in the dumps. And frustrated. And I probably wasn't the most fun person to be around. (Public apology to my husband and thanks to family who went on a 'cheer up Joh' campaign on Sunday).

Physically, I think the post-injection pain has been a little worse this time. I didn't bruise as much as the first time, but sitting in a car for more than 15 minutes really hurts it. When I'm working on my computer I move around a lot (the joy of laptops) so I'm constantly changing position. I joked with my husband that I think Dr Kuah must have done something different this time in order to stop me running too soon.

I'm back doing rehab exercises and my right side is responding really well - I actually think the right side might have been OK with only one injection. As for the left side, Dr Kuah said he feels it'll probably need a third injection in four weeks, but Brent (physio) will test things out before that date and we will decide from there.

I'm hoping it doesn't need another one so I can start getting into some proper (if modified) training. Another injection means more time spent doing nothing (OK, pool-buoy swimming). Having said that, I'm obviously going to do whatever Dr Kuah and Brent recommend. They're the experts, they've got a lot of experience with high hamstring tendinopathy and I've got a lot of confidence they're giving me the best treatment and advice.

Oh I miss running. Miss, miss, miss it so much.

Sweaty hugs from strangers (and Run4Fun)

One of the things I love about racing is the camaraderie that occurs between runners in the seconds after crossing the finish line. In my experience I've found the general rule is the more exhausted you are, the more inclined you are to throw your arms around the nearest person (and vice-versa).

If you think about this is a non-race situation, it's gross. I certainly wouldn't go near a panting, sweaty, often-sticky-with-gel-and-sports-drink stranger if they approached me in the street, mumbling incoherently about "thatlastkilometrekilledmeyoudidsowellIjustcouldn'thangon."But put me in a race situation and I'll welcome those hugs as if they were coming from Grandma herself.

What sparked these (oh so insightful) reflections you ask? I ran the Rebel Run4Fun on Sunday 4 November and the friendly atmosphere at the finish was magic. I was hugging strangers as if they were old friends and having conversations with people as if I'd known them for years. Truth be told, I was a little disappointed with my time but I felt so incredibly happy to be out amongst other like-minded runners. There is something so wonderful about feeling part of a community.

Run4Fun - Homebush - 10k
So, to the race. I was aiming to break 37 minutes. I thought I had a shot, but I've had so little experience racing 10k that I wasn't sure how things would pan out. My first half was quicker than my second half (I have to learn to pace myself) and I ended up finishing in 37.09, fifth woman. Happy enough because it's a PB (my third PB in as many races) but a bit miffed because I hadn't broken the 37 mark.

Interestingly enough, there has been a fair bit of discussion about the course being 200m long. The course was certified, but talk is that a turn point was put in the wrong spot. If true, this would mean I would have hit my target time, which is a bit disappointing. Having said that, the race has been run (and won by Lara Tamsett and Ben St Lawrence for those of you playing at home) and all I can do is look forward to the next 10k to try and achieve my goal.

I wore the Mizuno Ronin for the race and I can now say, without a doubt, they are definitely my favourite shoes to race in. They are light, responsive and really comfortable. I'm pretty confident they'll stand up to the marathon distance too.

Life has been incredibly hectic lately - work is taking precedence over everything and I am working incredibly long hours to get everything done. Working from home is a joy but it also means that if you need to stay up until 2am to get something done, you do it.

Naturally, this is making it hard to fit in quality training sessions, but I am trying hard to get it all done. I surprised myself on Tuesday - I had done an easy 7k in the morning because I thought that may have been my only chance to get a run in but the interval session was hanging over my head like a big, black cloud. At about 5.30pm I pushed myself out the door and headed to the oval. I felt flat and sluggish and I couldn't focus (I kept thinking about work), but I got through my session. What a change! A few months ago I would have looked for any excuse to avoid interval work.

I had a pretty solid weekend too, which has probably taken a bit of a toll on my legs. I did a three-hour ride on the M7 on Saturday, followed by a very short run (I am still considering doing Canberra half Ironman, but things are looking very doubtful right now). On Saturday I did a 30k run (I had 35k scheduled, but that was without taking the Saturday ride into consideration). This was on top of a lot of work, which is doing my head in and stressing me out.

This is always the busiest time of year for me and I am really looking forward to Christmas so I can take some time out. Still, I have a few more deadlines and a few more races before then.

Keep on running.

2:51:27 - Melbourne Marathon

2:51:27!

A three-and-a-half minute PB!

OK, that's the short version. If you don't want to waste time reading the world's longest race report, stop here.

THE LONG VERSION
I flew down to Melbourne on the Friday before the race. After the previous week's hot weather it was a rude shock to wake up and find a grey, rainy, windy and cold day (it was snowing further up the mountain). My flight was scheduled for 12:15pm but the weather delayed everything so I didn't end up leaving until a fair bit later.

Finally landed in Melbourne and made it to my hotel (so easy with Skybus - had a nice chat to the driver when I was the last one left on the bus. I asked him to explain how to do a hook turn... I decided I'll never drive in Melbourne). Quick dash to a supermarket to get a couple of things then out for a short run. I was feeling so, so nervous.

I slept in late on Saturday because I was worried I'd have a restless sleep that night and I wanted to be as rested as possible. Eventually headed out for a very brief run on which I started to feel... fantastic. My legs felt strong and I was full of energy. Phew! Good thing that taper decided to kick in!

I had to be at the MCG at 1pm for the elite athlete briefing. Took my time getting there, dropped my personal drinks in then had a look around the expo before meeting with the other runners and the competition director, Tim Crosbie.

It is truly a privilege to race as an 'elite' runner in this race. I've been lucky enough to do it three times and it is such an amazing experience. The title 'elite' is a bit misleading - yes, there are some real elite athletes involved, but there are also runners like me who have some solid results and are racing as part of their state or territory team.

 The 'elite' group has access to facilities under the MCG on race day - before and after the race. Any runner knows how valuable that is - we have toilets, space to warm up, showers, water, sports drink, bananas and people to help us. No lining up for anything, no waiting in the cold. It's awesome.

Tim and his staff do such a great job of looking after all the elite runners - not just the super fast ones - and I am so appreciative of all their work.

The briefing was pretty standard - an overview of the rules and info on the course, drug testing and the schedule for race day. We got our bibs and we were on our way.

As anticipated, I had a lot of trouble getting to sleep that night. The alarm was set for 4am (three hours before race time). Eventually I nodded off, but I woke a number of times - frantically checking the clock to ensure I hadn't overslept.

When the alarm finally went off I felt OK. Nervous, yes, but ready to race. Breakfast, shower, dressed (NSW uniform and Mizuno Elixir), more breakfast (lucky raisin toast) and some anxious pacing around my room.

Early morning MCG.

I got to the MCG about 5:40am. Plenty of time to warm up, go to the bathroom (a million times) and get into 'race mode'. This part of the day is, as I said before, such a privilege. Everything is so easy and you don't need to waste energy worrying about queues, getting a good start position, being cold, getting rid of your warm-up clothing... it's all taken care of. About 35 minutes before the race started I took a tablet to stop my dreaded 'toilet stop'. (As an aside, I think I may now know what causes this - supplements that contain a high dose of magnesium).

THE RACE
It was a relief to hear the gun go off - finally I was underway and I knew that in under three hours I'd be home and hosed (I refused to entertain the idea of running over three hours!). I planned to go out at 4 minute ks - a strategy I've followed in the last few marathons I've done - go out at 4 min k and see how long I can last.

This time, thankfully, I held the pace for much longer than usual. Although I detest racing in my Garmin (it stresses me out) I knew the split information would be valuable in analysing the race so I wore it (and forgot to turn off the sound so the stupid thing beeped at me every kilometre).

I settled pretty quickly and began ticking off the kilometres fairly evenly: 3:47, 3:54, 3:57, 3:56, 3:58, 3:56, 3:57, 3:55, 4:02 (oops), 3:57. The official race results say I went through 10k in 39:41 (my Garmin didn't match with km markers so better to use official timing).

16k marked the point where I started doing a few more four-minute kilometres, with some sub-4s interspersed.

At about 31k a piano fell on my back and the ground turned to quicksand for a while. I felt like I was running in slow motion - at 33k I ran a 4:09 km and at 34 I ran 4:08 before dropping back down to 4:02. The hill between 36-37k threw a spanner in the works - I ran a slow 4:14 then a horrendous 4:23. Ouch!!

The results give my 10k splits as follows:
10k: 39:41
20k: 40:26
30k 40:21
40k: 41:45

My Garmin has my halfway split at 1:23:48 (it's odd that the race doesn't record a half split).

When I crossed the line, in 2:51:27, I had nothing left in the tank - I was exhausted and so, so happy about it. I really believe I gave it everything I had.

I was thrilled. And relieved! After focussing on (and worrying about) this race for the past 11 weeks I could finally relax. The thing that made it even more wonderful was the knowledge that I had trained really hard to achieve that time, and it had paid off. Yahoo!

I had a massage after the race (during which I had one of those awful foot cramps where your foot curls up like a claw and won't release). I was feeling pretty sore. Back at the hotel I flooded the bathroom by having a epic-long shower then sat by the window overlooking Jolimont Avenue and watched the procession of runners continue. Those people are champions - I don't know how they keep going for hours and hours and hours.

The winner of the female race was Lauren Shelley in the stunning time of 2:36:29. Jane Fardell was second in 2:37:52. Both these women qualified for the world championships next year - amazing runs.

I finished 11th overall and 10th in the Australian Championships. A record number of women (22) ran under three hours. Go girls!

I spent the afternoon enjoying the Melbourne institutions of coffee and retail therapy with fellow NSW runner Magda Karimali-Poulos - one of the most consistently strong (yet unbelievably modest) athletes I have the pleasure of being friends with. She finished fifth in the fantastic time of 2:45:36 - and still had the energy to go running after a bus at the end of the day.

Unlike last year, when I flew back to Sydney straight after the race, I had allowed myself another night in Melbourne to kick back and relax. So lovely.

Felt surprisingly OK when I woke up on Monday. Sore and tired but not as bad as I had been anticipating. I thought I was supposed to do an easy 20 minute recovery jog so I did (turns out that wasn't on the program). It was lovely being able to run without thinking, "Will I do it? Will I run well in Melbourne?"

But the gods have a sense of humour and couldn't let the weekend go by without having a laugh at my expense. When I flew into Sydney I couldn't wait to jump in the car and get home. I'd timed it so I'd be ahead of peak hour traffic so I'd have a nice, stress-free drive. Ummm... no. My car battery was flat. Dead as a doornail.

This was a saga in itself, involving me asking the carpark office and every single car rental place if they had a battery charger pack before standing next to the pay machines and accosting everyone there. Without going into detail, my poor (and wonderful) husband was three quarters of the way to the airport when I was saved by a car park officer and sent on my way - three hours after my plane landed.

So there you have it.

2:51:27.

Huge thank you to my coach Sean - this wouldn't have happened without him. Also thanks to Mizuno for supporting me. Finally, endless hugs and kisses to Andrew who has done absolutely everything so I haven't had to worry about anything except eat, sleep, train and work.

Resting the body, calming the mind

Not too long to go now. Taper is well and truly in full swing - only had an easy 5k on my program today.

While the body is resting up, I simply can not calm my mind. I was hoping my nerves wouldn't be so bad this time, given that I have trained well, but it seems all my training has done is up the stakes. I know I am now chasing a PB but I keep going over and over the numbers in my head and driving myself nuts with it all.

I am thinking seriously about my pacing strategy, and although it sounds OK in theory I just don't know how on earth I am going to put it together. Sean's advice regarding pacing was exactly what I was thinking of doing, so the fact that we're both on the same page is positive.

Everything points to a PB. It makes sense, doesn't it? But marathons can be nasty little buggers and one can never be too complacent going into the 42.2k. Having said that, I really do think I have respected the distance this time. A couple of years ago Jackie Fairweather was talking to me about how important it was to respect the marathon distance - they are words I've always remembered but not always acted upon.

I'm keen to see what impact this training has had, but I'm also realistic that 11 weeks (the amount of time I've been training properly) is not a long block of time. I feel most calm when I think that this race will be the first of a number of steps towards improving my marathon (and half, and 10k) performances. I actually feel quite happy if I think of it like that.  The only problem is that I have a little thing called Ironman planned for next year which is going to get in the way of focusing solely on my running.

Anyway. There's a bit of my mental angst released! Hopefully that means I won't have crazy dreams tonight - I've had some odd ones the past few nights. I was bitten by a snake in one, but my mum wouldn't take me to the hospital. In another I was being chased by a murderer. I'd like the winning Lotto numbers tonight please.

Doubt

Doubt is a repugnant, sneaky little thing. It's like the monster lurking in your childhood cupboard - he's not always there, but the more you think about him the stronger and more threatening he gets until you have no choice but to go and sleep in the big, safe bed with your mum and dad.

Guess who's getting nervous about a little race coming up?

The doubts and the worries are creeping in, made worse by me reading things online, such as a thread on Coolrunning in which someone said there's no point in training at anything slower than race pace.

I go from being pleased that I am making progress in my interval training to thinking,' Great, so you can run intervals faster now - go and do a 42.2k interval and tell me how you feel.'

I never try to hide the fact that I get incredibly nervous before a race - any race. Some people say you should put on a confident front so you don't give competitors the advantage but in my mind I'm my biggest competitor - and I already know I'm freaking out. In the marathon I'm racing myself and the clock - I want a PB and if I get it I don't care if I've finished 10th or 1010th.

Negative thoughts are never useful and I'm trying to banish them. The truth is:

• I have trained for this race. 
• I have trained better than ever before for this race. 
• Granted, I have not had a good year for marathon racing but I ran a PB for a half marathon a few weeks ago. 
• Even if it all goes to shit I have a full day in Melbourne after the race where I can shop until I feel better. It may take a number of credit cards to achieve this.