Bridge to Brisbane

Well... I did it!! I ran a 10k race, the Bridge to Brisbane. It was so exciting too - just being part of something like that was a pretty incredible. It was also awesome to be sharing the day/experience with someone. Particularly as we had to get up so damn early! We caught the train at about 5.30am to Murrarie station and walked with the masses up to the starting point... or, as close as we could get to it given that there were 30,000 other people trying to get close to it too! Everything was extremely well organised, bag drop-off containers were easy to find and even when I realised I'd left my ipod and phone in my bag it was easy to go back and retrieve them. We even had one of the baggage guys take our photo...



So then we parted company and Maria went to the green zone so she could get in a good pack of runners and beat her time and I went and met the girls from the gym who were at the start of the yellow zone. The starting gun went off at 6.45 - it was ages though until we shuffled towards the starting line, eventually starting at about 7.20 - 7.30am. The first part of the race was up the gateway bridge - a big hill... but it seemed my training paid off and I scaled it with no problems, cleared the top and enjoyed the descent. Shortly after the end of the bridge and close to the first water and toilet station I saw the first distance marker - 3km - already!! The k's were flying by. I was in a good groove, had a good pace and felt really comfortable throughout the whole race. It was hot and sunny as I ran down Kingsford-Smith drive but I don't remember, at any point in the race, a time when I wanted to stop and walk, I just kept running!

The 8k marker was a big milestone for me as 8k had been my previous longest distance - which I'd only run 4 days prior, the first and only time. Once I'd passed that stage I was in un-chartered territory. Apart from the small hill (on-ramp) around the 8k mark which was an unexpected obstacle, I still felt great and knew the end was pretty close (doh - only 2k away!). Getting to the 9k mark was pretty exciting, by this stage there was a pretty consistent pack of people together and there was a buzz around us, a few people commenting on how far we'd come - I remarked that I'd never gone 9k before so even that was an accomplishment!

It wasn't long after that marker that we entered the showgrounds, and practically just as I stepped over the entrance, Robbie came on my ipod - c'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon... and I just got a huge grin on my face and kept running... 900, 800, 700, these figures were in my head but there was a 200m marker and by this stage people were picking up the pace, whoooting and the crowd was getting louder ....

Unfinished... but it's been two days and I'll lose this post all together if I don't get it up!