marathon

It’s time to find out who you are and who you could be

Zoey · July 8, 2016 ·

The first time I ran at the Gold Coast Airport Marathon I was doing the Half Marathon and I was walking back to Surfers and a local said to me the running gods always shine on the Gold Coast. And it stayed with me. And three years later, it’s still true. I’ve had fast runs, slow runs, half marathons and now a marathon, but I’ve never had a bad run.

(From 2014. That was a pretty good run.)

The morning of the marathon I woke up and I thought I was going to have a bad run. I had one of those ghastly sore throats where it feels like razors every time you swallow. I’d had zero sleep because I watched too much election coverage and felt a bit nauseous from the self-inflicted lack of sleep. And to add insult to injury I was about a day away from my period and my breasts hurt enough walking, let alone running. For probably the first time ever I thought I might have to pull out of the run. It seemed like the planets had aligned to create catastrophic conditions to go out and run a marathon.

But you never know right? And I had loads of time down at the start line because I was down there for my husband to run the half marathon which starts about an hour and a half beforehand. Plenty of time to wake up, inhale coffee and mentally get ready for a five hour run. After all, I’d eaten all the carbs the night before, it would be a shame to waste them.

Carb loading isn’t the best part about running a marathon, but it’s almost the best part.

When I hit the start line I had a vague goal of running it in under 5 hours. For no other reason than it can help to keep you motivated through the harder parts of the run. I’d never trade the minutes I spend chatting to people on the run, or high fiving kids for fewer minutes on my watch at the end. But it can help to have a goal to keep you focused. My idea for my training this year was to treat the marathons as training runs and run my way into training form through races. And so far, I’ve enjoyed it. My really long runs are marathons and I do more maintenance stuff in between. As I go I’ve been fine tuning it, so this run I wanted to really focus on my nutrition which I’d not paid enough attention to at South West Rocks and I really suffered in the last third of the run because of it.

I started off way faster than what I intended to run the race for so I could catch up with Carolyn and see how she was going. It was lovely to chat for a bit and then I dropped back so we could both run our own races. And I got to run the rest of my race knowing she was doing really well and got to see her flying on by with about 5km to go too.

I stuck to my plan of one shot blok every fifteen minutes and a GU gel at 14km and 28km and it was great to see how much more my body was capable being properly fuelled for the distance. Although next time I might even add more to that. It was about 30g of carbohydrates every hour but I think I could probably use about 40g. And despite having inhaled about a litre of coffee before I started my stomach was really settled the whole way which let’s face it is like the holy grail of marathons.

So for the most part I got to really enjoy my run. The conditions were stellar. You get to see so much of the water as you are travelling along.

It is a long time to be out there with yourself. All the best parts of you and all the worst parts. The part of your brain who believes you can and the part of your brain who thinks you are a fraud. But it teaches you things too. Like patience. I hit a bit of a wall around 17km which is pretty early but my shoes were irritating my ITB a bit, or maybe it was just that start of the section coming up to half way which is a struggle because you still have so far to go. But if you wait it out, you get that second wind. Mine came at 25km. 8km of patience waiting for it to show up, but it did. And then you get to feel invincible for about another 10km.

I’m fond of saying that on a bad day, a run will remind you who you are and on a good day it will remind you who you could be. Marathons always prove me right on that score. I had everything aligned for a crap run, but I showed up and I couldn’t have asked for a better one.

Never met a finish line I didn’t want to kiss though. I was counting down steps towards the end. It’s what I do interval runs too. It gives me something to focus on, and before you know it, you’ve done the impossible.

And now it’s your turn. Maybe it’s time to find out who you are and who you could be.

My Six Foot Track journey

OperationMove · April 12, 2016 ·

Today we are so lucky to have Ness, one of our Operation Move ambassadors and Learn to Run mentors talking about her amazing experience running the 6 Foot Track Marathon. We are so proud of her! If you want to follow Ness on instagram – you can check her out here. And you can also find her in the Operation Move Community Group, which is a fun place to find out what the Operation Move Sisterhood is all about.

Zoey

Here I sit looking back over the past week. This time last week I was en route to Katoomba to run in the Six Foot Track Marathon on the Saturday. The race goes from Katoomba out to Jenolan Caves. I wasn’t nervous, I just want to get there. I wasn’t nervous until I was driving up Mt Victoria and I realised that this was a big mountain range.

I started running over 10yrs ago. My partner was away a lot for work, I was working indoors all day and I needed something quicker than walking. I started and restarted the Couch to 5K plan (pity the Operation Move Learn to Run program wasn’t around then). I did a 5km race and was hooked. I’d aimed to one day run a marathon. I started training for the Melbourne Marathon, but my other interest, polocrosse, took over and my marathon dream took a back seat.

When I had Buster, I gave up running while pregnant. While I stayed active by walking and doing body weight exercises, I was so slow and clumsy that running was out of the question. After having him, I didn’t want to run as I was slow and it was like going back to learning to run.

At the end of 2014 I’d decided that I’d had enough. 2015 was going to be the year that I came back to running and I would do a half marathon. I set my goal – Gold Coast Half Marathon, I enlisted a coach – a local physio, we mapped out a plan of races and training all the way up to July 2015.

I did the Gold Coast Half Marathon and smashed my goal. I got to meet the lovely Zoey afterwards. I thoroughly enjoyed following other ladies journeys to the half and marathon at that event.

Then, it was onto our local half marathon, Dubbo Stampede. As I was running this, I wondered when I morphed into a runner who happily goes and runs for 2hrs even when underprepared. I was on a roll and thought why not do the Carcoar Marathon in November. Why not pick a tough marathon for your first? I finished it and in the process got my Six Foot Track qualifier.

The day entries opened I was at work. I didn’t think that I would get in given it sells out quickly. I went through the process and got the ‘congratulations, your entry has been successful’. My immediate thought was ‘oh shit what have I done’. I was entered in one of the toughest and most prestigious running events in the country. Right up until I started the race I expected someone to come along and say ‘sorry, we made a mistake, you’re not good enough to be here’.

I was fortunate enough to have a friend from Dubbo, Bec, doing it for her first time along with her twin, Lauren, who had done it once before. My coach was also running it, for the ninth time. He told me it was his favourite race. When he first said this I thought he was crazy, now I look back and I can appreciate that comment, it’s an awesome experience.

I had the best sleep the night before. I woke early. Ate my toast and avo and had a strong cup of tea. Showered and dressed. My parents woke early to see me off. They came up from Illabo to look after Buster for the day and I was so glad to have them there. I caught the bus from the high school to the start line. As it turns out, I sat next to the female winner and shared a few laughs with her. I am always amazed at the atmosphere of running events. Everyone was happy, chatty, excited, polite, so cheery for 5:30am!

We were there with plenty of time to chat, drinks cups of tea, queue for the loo, walk and most of all, see all the waves start, cause you get to do that when you start at the back. Still, I had no nerves, I was just excited.

When our gun went off at 7:35, I fell in with the group and off we went. There was a lot of downhill, we were walking single file down stairs. I was happy when this was over and the country opened up again as I’m clumsy at the best of times but when I can’t see the ground in front of me, I’m hopeless.Forgive me if the rest of the race report is a bit ‘blurry’ but it now seems like time went very quickly.

There were a lot of stiles over fences to navigate and I was worried I’d stumble. The trail down to Cox’s river was difficult but so much fun, I felt like a ninja! I was expecting the river crossing to be waist deep, not good when your short, but it wasn’t even hip high. Running with wet shoes and socks and sand in your shoes is a different experience.

Now for the hills. After the river we have the first big climb, to Mini Mini. There was a lot of walking. It was starting to heat up with no breeze. I was happy to get to the top and run again on the downside.

Enter the climb to the Pluviometer. It was long, steep, hard and hot. This is where my mind started to waiver. I was thinking that if I had walked for so long I’d never make it within the 7hr cut off, although I’d overtaken the 7hr sweepers for the 7:25 start group. I really started to think I wouldn’t make it. I chatted with a lot of other ‘walkers’ I jogged the downhill sections but still couldn’t shake the feeling. The 7:25am sweepers caught up, I almost cried, but they said they were ahead of time and would be stopping at the top of the Pluvi to cheer people on. I was back on track, it was like a switch flicked in my mind and I knew if I stayed ahead I’d be right. This was reinforced by a lovely lady who gave me some tips and what to expect for the rest of the course. I was so glad to see her at the end and thank her for this.

After the top of Pluvi (approx. 26km), its through Black Range which is up and down but a ‘road’ so the going is nice and you can pass and be passed without any issues. Still, I was walking a lot and having trouble getting running.

Another mental boost was reaching the 30km mark and knowing I only had 15km to go. Then getting to 35km and knowing I had 10km to go. There were some more great hills in that last 10km, just short ones of about 300-500m and they hurt but I just wanted to get it done and when I looked at my pace at some points in this part of the race I’m at 5:30-5:50min/km.

The trail got tough again with small boulders to navigate while going downhill trying to avoid doing and ankle or knee. My first glimpse of Caves House blew me away, it looked so far down. You could hear the cow bells and cheers echo up the valley. When we came out of the trails and the volunteers were cheering and saying ‘it’s OK Ness, you have 300m to go, with just that little hill (about 10m) to go’. I sprinted and yelled ‘this is not a hill’. Then it was downhill to the finish (I’m getting shivers and teary now thinking about it). I was teary then as I had no doubt I was going to finish this. As Zoey had said, this was my victory lap and I was determined to finish it strongly and smiling.

I came off the ramp and entered the finishing chute. I could hear my friends yelling my name. Everyone is cheering and ringing their finishers bell. I sprinted as best I could to the finish with a massive grin on my face. I had done it. I had finished the Six Foot Track. I had the medal to prove it.

I’d completed it in 6hrs 37min, well ahead of the sweepers. I’ve never been so happy to take my shoes off. I had a well earned beer. Then for the ultimate insult – navigate stairs up to get my gear bag and back down, stairs after running 45km in the mountains, stairs!

I saw my coach who was thrilled that I’d finished. I saw a lady, Pinky, who I’d run with for a bit and had a chat with her. I finally found Bec & Lauren who both smashed it. My mum cried when I text her to let her know I’d finished.

The Six Foot Track Marathon is my favourite running memory ever. When I got the pictures, I was so happy to see that I was smiling in all the photos. Midway through the race I was ready to sell all my running gear but on the bus on the way back to Katoomba, we were planning next year!

I can’t thank everyone enough. Beautiful comments on various Facebook and Instagram posts helped me through times when my self-belief had left me. When my mind was giving up during the hills, something that kept me on track was the thought of disappointing all the people I had in my corner, they believed in me and I was not going to let them down.

I’ve never been more proud to be an Operation Move ambassador and community member than I was on that day. I wore that green shirt with so much pride.

Set your goals and make them so big that they scare you. Shout your goal out to the world. Surround yourself with people who believe in you as you’ll need them when you doubt yourself. You can achieve more than you could ever hope for if you have great people in your corner.

So, who’s in for 2017?

If you’d like to start your next big adventure we are accepting registrations for Learn to Run and Far and Fast Running Coaching. Claim your spot today.

Run the day that you are given

Zoey · October 20, 2015 · 6 Comments

I wrote this piece just after running a marathon at the Melbourne Marathon Festival in 2015.

I read this advice over at Runladylike and it stuck with me heading into Melbourne.

There are so many uncontrollable factors in a marathon. Anything past 30km is pretty unknown territory and you have no idea how your body will respond on the day. You can train for it, but you never really know. And you can test out fuel sources but your body can chuck a bit of a fit on the day and you can have trouble. The weather can be unpredictable. Or you can just be having an off day. It’s easy to go into things with a certain set of expectations based on your training, but you can’t control what kind of day you get.

I had a couple of pretty aggressive timing goals, which let’s face it are totally arbitrary things. I know why people love going under 4 hours in a marathon or under 2 hours in a half, because I’m also a numbers geek and it’s a bit of a line in the sand. But that line in the sand doesn’t make 3:59:59 a brilliant run and 4:10:00 a crap one. The things that make a run great are your willingness to show up, the ability to push through the tough parts and giving it everything you have. Greatness is not contained in a number. But those numbers often do help us to push ourselves that little bit harder and that’s what I wanted to do.

On Sunday I was really nervous. I was nervous that all the work I’d done wouldn’t be enough to stop the injury from flaring up. Or that I would have to change my run to protect the injury. I had my period which always makes my stomach really upset. My glands had swollen up like golf balls in preparation for some kind of plague of death. And Melbourne in very un-Melbourne like fashion had come up pretty humid. And in a way, all of those less than ideal circumstances which might have affected my run or might not have kind of took the pressure off. Because I just decided to give it a good bash and see where I was at the end of it.

I had a pretty dream run for the first half. It felt pretty easy and it never felt laboured and I was comfortable the whole way. The best part was that my injury felt 100%. I was running really comfortably, there was no pain and I could just run. One of the pitfalls of so much training is that you can lose the love for the run just a bit. Especially when you are always running in the same places and I certainly did lose the love towards the end of my training. But I sure did find it down in Melbourne.

Things started to go pear shaped around 26-28km where my stomach was really not happy. I ducked off for a toilet break (best decision ever!) But even after that I was in a fair amount of discomfort and my non-injured calf muscle started cramping and continued to cramp until I finished. I managed to kind of hold on until 30km. At that point I still felt like I was on track for under 4 hours but by the time I got to 35km I was pretty sure it was out of reach. I felt fine but my legs would just not move any faster. And I kept having to stop to walk because my stomach was not placing nice. I really struggled in the last 5km. At one point I could see the 4 hour pacer in front of me but there was just no way I was ever going to catch up.

The most interesting part about it was that in that moment I was not disappointed at all. Not when I was out there finishing the marathon, not when I crossed the line and not afterwards when I looked at my run. I was really over the moon with what I managed to do. In preparation, I thought I would be disappointed if I didn’t make my first goal, but I was really happy to find that I wasn’t. Because I knew that on the day, I ran that the best way I possibly could have. I could not have possibly gone any faster and I don’t have any doubts about that. And that for me is where the pride is. In knowing that I gave it everything and there was no point where I felt like I could have done more.

That’s the great thing about training, it doesn’t just prepare you for the physical distance, it prepares you to be mentally strong enough to keep going when things get tough. It’s possible that I went out too hard but I did feel really comfortable and I could have easily still had those problem in the back half even if I’d gone out at a more moderate pace. And I got my second fastest half marathon into the bargain and to do that without feeling like I was really working that hard is a pretty cool thing.

All the achievement is in the training, but it sure is nice to get a fitting reward at the end of it.

Things I have done in the last week

Zoey · September 25, 2015 · Leave a Comment

In case you are living under a rock and haven’t noticed my incessant whining about it, I’m tapering.

For people who don’t know (sweet innocents!) it’s the part where you start to scale back on the amount of running to rest up your body to prepare for a race. And it makes people freaking crazy. I was explaining it to my husband the other day and he was asking ‘WHY? (there were probably more expletives in his head) Do you feel like you want to run more?’ And that’s really not it. I’m actually really enjoying the not running.

It’s the time that gets you. So. Much. More. Time. Time to think about how you aren’t ready. Time to think about phantom injuries which aren’t real but are totally plotting to kill you. Time to think about your racing strategy about five million times. Time to buy every running gadget known to man that serves no practical purpose whatsoever. There’s just way too much time.

And that’s what makes you crazy, not the lack of running.

So this week I have:

1) Bought absolutely ridiculous things that there is no way that I will ever need
2) Eaten pizza like it was a sandwich. Numerous times.
3) Had samosas for breakfast
4) Spent roughly five hours going over previous split times in other marathons
5) Changed the shoe that I’m going to run in. That seems like a good idea.
6) Checked the weather for the 18th. I’M SERIOUS.
7) Generally annoyed about 99.9% of the people who know me.

In what can only be considered perfect timing, I’m going away for the weekend. There will be more shopping and more eating, but hopefully slightly less obsessing and I can likely reduce my annoyingness by I think 60% at least.

See you Tuesday.

Melbourne Marathon. Man your panic stations.

Zoey · September 17, 2015 · 1 Comment

31 days out from the Melbourne Marathon. I’ve already started tapering because I’m doing a long taper. So I’m still running 70+km this week but the long runs are getting shorter, the easy runs are getting shorter and even the speed work is getting shorter. The surge of energy hasn’t quite kicked in yet. I’m waiting for that to happen. I’m at the I can’t possibly do this stage. It’s too hard. It’s too far. Only a mad person would volunteer to do this. FOR FUN. I run at marathon pace and can’t even conceive of holding it for so long. It doesn’t seem remotely possible. And I’ve got no excuses because I’ve run every session in my training cycle, six days a week for the last 11 weeks. Which creates a sizeable amount of pressure on the day.

I’m plagued by things like – should I pick an aggressive pace or a conservative pace? What happens if something goes horribly wrong? What happens if I put in all that training and the result is disappointing? Why is there a hill at 36km what demon of geography would do that to me? What if I’m actually incapable of maintaining the mental strength to run on my own and fall apart like I did in the 50km? A thousand million doubts that swirl around.

I know where the weak spot is. And it’s about 18km-24km. The point where you are saying WOOHOO! HALF WAY. And then HOLY CRAP. ONLY HALF WAY. In many ways I’ve had the perfect training lead up. I haven’t been sick. I haven’t had any injuries. It has all gone, pretty perfectly. Which is totally freaking me out.

But really, that’s just all the crazy head games that happen as you edge closer. I almost have to convince myself that I can’t do it to get into the head space to prove to myself that I can. And what is the goal? Sure I have a time in mind but that’s not the real goal. The goal was always to find how far I could push my limit. And one way or another I’ll find out.