Darren was not in a good state of mind this run. His thoughts were how hard it was, and he even had to walk a couple of times up the hill in the last kilometre (IT WAS a BIG hill!!!). He played cat and mouse with one other runner, he would pass him, then Darren would pass him etc etc. I seen Darren at the 11-12km mark and we high 5'd! He seemed to be going along ok.
The run for me was good. I chose songs I liked to listen to as opposed to songs with good beat. My best split was 5:51, and at that time. I was listening to every road leads home to you by Richie Sambora and was thinking of my little sister. I also downloaded the grease songs, and they had my running along pretty well also.
We had head wind and hills to deal with, and the climb at the end was HUGE!! I kept saying I wasn't going to walk, because that is my goal in my runs. I ended up giving in and walked about 50 metres, but didn't beat myself up about it, as I said it was a BIG climb after running 20km!
I pass through the finish line, and I don't see Darren, until I sit down to remove my timing tag. I'm chatting with the lady next to me when Darren comes along and removes it for me; the lady next to me thought he was 'some random', t'was funny.
We eat chocolate, drink, eat more chocolate and recover before heading into the factory shop, $80 odd later and we have added 8kg's to our luggage! Lucky we only do this once a year!
We head to our bus, and are lucky to get the last seat, and head back to our hotel. We relax for a bit before heading out to the Hobart aquatic centre. Here, we spend 2 hours recovering in the pool and spa, alternating between warmth and cold. We feel pretty good.
We head back to the hotel, where we do a quick turnaround before heading out to our 2 hour Thai massage. We have never had a Thai massage before! and laugh quietly and not knowing what to do when they lead us into a room with mats on the floor and they are arranged with decorative items. We didn't know what to move and what towel to put over us, before we know it, the masseuses come back into the room, sort is out, and before I know it, I am listening to Darren snoring gently.
The 2 hours pass relatively quickly and we head back to our room. In the foyer we meet up with one of the couples we met at the Pre run dinner. We swap stories about our runs, and we find out that they thought it was a tough run. Darren and I feel great about our times. We have a drink to celebrate, dinner and dessert and then head upstairs to sleep. I don't remember much about last night, just hitting the pillow, and then the first light coming through the curtains this morning, and Darren was pretty much the same.
This morning we ordered room service for breakfast, packed and left the hotel around 11am. Our flight was leaving at 1pm, so we enjoy chai lattes prior to going through security. An hour and a half later, after catching up with some other runners, I hear Darren and my name being paged!! We run to the gate, and board our plane. It's a quick flight of 1 hour, and we collect our luggage and drive the hour or so home. We decide our recovery should include some after work, and after unloading the car and catching up with the 2 youngest head out to Carrum beach for a couple of hours. We walk/jog 3 Km's and stand in the cool ocean. Aah! It was amazing. So amazing in fact, we are heading there straight after work tomorrow, after all, it is going to be low 40's tomorrow.
Thanks for reading. We are off to bed shortly, hoping I can walk a little easier tomorrow!
