Hmmm, I've come to realize something about myself and I'm not sure if its a Sagitarian trait or a Carol trait. I seem to 'latch onto' things and for a while they become all consuming in my life, then suddenly they take a backseat to the next 'latched onto' thing.... The things in the backseat always remain in my life, but aren't foremost anymore.
At the moment its running. If someone had told me six months ago that I'd be running now, I'd have laughed them all the way out of Cape Town, but here I am, fretting because I'm on rest days and can't go out and run :( Running at the moment is my all consuming passion, and it seems to be all I can think about. I 'troll' the running sites, read running & health mags, scan adverts for running gear and am getting quite knowlegeable about running injuries and their solutions. Conversations and facebook statuses always seem to be about running. Geez, I must be quite boring at the moment to any non-runners LOL
To tell you the truth, I find it quite fascinating how obsessed I have got and I'm still shocked at the fact that i'm still running approx 4 months after I started. I used to read those articles about people who said that they couldn't get through the day without their run and I'd laugh and think "how pathetic, surely they have to be kidding", but no, they weren't and now I'm one of the pathetic ones hehehehe
Initially I was very firm on my intentions, I wanted to get fit, get healthy and lose weight, but wasn't really interested in running races. Oh how I was kidding myself :-) I was very genuine about that at the time and to be honest, that is still my main aim, but having set myself a goal of running a race and having done it and survived, something changed.
Yes, for me the training is still the most important thing, but there's something about running a race, that gives you motivation and a boost of confidence. Coming to the end of a race and having people cheer you on, even if you are right near the back of the pack. Mostly those people are strangers who don't even know you and yet still root for you. Its a great feeling :-)
Running has done a lot for me. Its making me more healthy, its getting me fit, its helping me lose weight, but the MOST IMPORTANT thing it has done for me is change my attitude and mood. Finishing a training session exactly as specified makes me so proud of myself and what I have achieved, its SUCH an ego boost to know that I CAN DO THIS!!! I get such a 'high' from running and it carries me though the day, through the week, through the month etc.
Having now done two 10km races and had my first 'runners' injury, I can now confidently say that I'm a runner. I'm proud to be a runner, in all my obsessed, boring to non-runner, glory *HUGE GRIN* (wanna check out my medals hehehehee)
Showing posts with label runners. Show all posts
Showing posts with label runners. Show all posts
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Saturday, April 16, 2011
ProSano 10km Road Race - hosted by Telkom Athletics Club
Sooo, yesterday the BIG DAY finally arrived, the day of our club race. Now, as helpers on the day, we had to get up at 4am to get ready and be there at 5am to do final setting up before people started arriving at 5.30am for registration. There were two problems with this, firstly, I woke up at 12am and couldn't get back to sleep so REALLY didn't want to get up at 4am and secondly, some peeps arrived just after 5am to register, before we were even ready - such eager beavers at that time of day LOL.
Our awesome sponsors ProSano, gave us GREAT long sleeved T's to wear, which made me very happy and a cap as well, great style, great quality. They also provided some great spot prizes for after the race. Their sponsorship helps to make this a great race, thanks ProSano :-)
I was helping out at the registration of Grand Masters - these are peeps of 60+ years who are doing the 10km run. What an inspiration they were, still running at their ages and in lots of cases getting awesome times too. One of my fav local runners, Vladimir Kotov also entered and won the race in his catagory. This guy is amazing, he just keeps going and almost seems to get better the older he gets LOL. I got my shoes from his shop in Century City and was very happy with his assesment and assistance in chosing shoes - and his prices are great too :-)
By this time I was starting to get nervous, as I was running the race too. Each person that registered at my table, was a reminder that I was going to be undertaking my second 10km race Eeeeeeekk. At 6.40am I had to leave my table to get ready for the race - it was now really a reality. So I took off my track pants and my nice ProSano T, got my USN sport drink and went to line up. My sisters-in-law, Tracy and Glenda were also doing the race, so I was chatting to them while waiting for the start.
And then the gun fired, I started my stopwatch and we were off. I let Tracy and Glenda go off in front of me, cause I'm nowhere near their level yet, they've been at this longer than I have. I had decided that I was gonna try do it in 1h20, but was a bit wishy washy in the beginning with regard to how I was gonna organize that. By about the 2km mark though, I had a plan. To get my 1h20, I knew at what time I needed to get to each km marker, so I decided that I would jog to each km marker and when I got there, I would walk for approx 2mins to recover, then jog to the next km marker.
LOL, my watch and those km markers became my friends and to get myself through it, I'd start taking to the km markers before I got to them (in my head of course, don't want those other runners to know I'm insane hehehe). So as I knew the 5km marker (for eg) was coming up, I'd start this conversation in my head "Where are you 5km marker, I know you're here somewhere. I'm getting to you, don't you be worried, I'll be there soon" etc etc. When I actually SPOTTED the marker the conversation would get more interesting hehehe "Oh there you are my angel, I see you, don't worry, I'll be with you soon, here I come..." All this said with a silly grin on my face cause I was so pleased to see the marker LOL. It may sound totally mental, but it woked like a bomb :-)
However, I have to confess, that at about the 5km mark, I was starting to think that I was seriously insane to be doing this and was really wondering if I could finish it. However, as I had a plan to get to the end, I just kept plodding on.
There was one drawback on the course though and that was running past a solid waste treatment plant (I can't remember at what point in the course it was, probably about the 3 or 4km mark I'd say). Eeeewwwww, the smell was disgusting, but on the plus side, it did motivate me to keep on running, maybe even a little faster LOL
Getting back to CPUT campus was great, because I knew that at that point I had about 2.5km more to go. All the way along, I was on track for my 1h20. In the beginning I was reaching most of the km markers BEFORE the time I needed to be there for my time, and that was great because it gave me more leeway when walking, I could relax and recover a bit more. In the last 3km's though, I was reaching the km mark exactly when I needed to so I had to make sure that I didn't walk for more than 2mins and I had to walk pretty fast when I did walk. It was back in the campus that Trevor, my hubby (who was doing marshelling inside the campus) got these shots of me running.
Our awesome sponsors ProSano, gave us GREAT long sleeved T's to wear, which made me very happy and a cap as well, great style, great quality. They also provided some great spot prizes for after the race. Their sponsorship helps to make this a great race, thanks ProSano :-)
I was helping out at the registration of Grand Masters - these are peeps of 60+ years who are doing the 10km run. What an inspiration they were, still running at their ages and in lots of cases getting awesome times too. One of my fav local runners, Vladimir Kotov also entered and won the race in his catagory. This guy is amazing, he just keeps going and almost seems to get better the older he gets LOL. I got my shoes from his shop in Century City and was very happy with his assesment and assistance in chosing shoes - and his prices are great too :-)
By this time I was starting to get nervous, as I was running the race too. Each person that registered at my table, was a reminder that I was going to be undertaking my second 10km race Eeeeeeekk. At 6.40am I had to leave my table to get ready for the race - it was now really a reality. So I took off my track pants and my nice ProSano T, got my USN sport drink and went to line up. My sisters-in-law, Tracy and Glenda were also doing the race, so I was chatting to them while waiting for the start.
And then the gun fired, I started my stopwatch and we were off. I let Tracy and Glenda go off in front of me, cause I'm nowhere near their level yet, they've been at this longer than I have. I had decided that I was gonna try do it in 1h20, but was a bit wishy washy in the beginning with regard to how I was gonna organize that. By about the 2km mark though, I had a plan. To get my 1h20, I knew at what time I needed to get to each km marker, so I decided that I would jog to each km marker and when I got there, I would walk for approx 2mins to recover, then jog to the next km marker.
LOL, my watch and those km markers became my friends and to get myself through it, I'd start taking to the km markers before I got to them (in my head of course, don't want those other runners to know I'm insane hehehe). So as I knew the 5km marker (for eg) was coming up, I'd start this conversation in my head "Where are you 5km marker, I know you're here somewhere. I'm getting to you, don't you be worried, I'll be there soon" etc etc. When I actually SPOTTED the marker the conversation would get more interesting hehehe "Oh there you are my angel, I see you, don't worry, I'll be with you soon, here I come..." All this said with a silly grin on my face cause I was so pleased to see the marker LOL. It may sound totally mental, but it woked like a bomb :-)
However, I have to confess, that at about the 5km mark, I was starting to think that I was seriously insane to be doing this and was really wondering if I could finish it. However, as I had a plan to get to the end, I just kept plodding on.
There was one drawback on the course though and that was running past a solid waste treatment plant (I can't remember at what point in the course it was, probably about the 3 or 4km mark I'd say). Eeeewwwww, the smell was disgusting, but on the plus side, it did motivate me to keep on running, maybe even a little faster LOL
Getting back to CPUT campus was great, because I knew that at that point I had about 2.5km more to go. All the way along, I was on track for my 1h20. In the beginning I was reaching most of the km markers BEFORE the time I needed to be there for my time, and that was great because it gave me more leeway when walking, I could relax and recover a bit more. In the last 3km's though, I was reaching the km mark exactly when I needed to so I had to make sure that I didn't walk for more than 2mins and I had to walk pretty fast when I did walk. It was back in the campus that Trevor, my hubby (who was doing marshelling inside the campus) got these shots of me running.
Thats me in the navy blue, light blue cap and black compression socks
At this point I was still on track for my 1h20, although I was VERY tired, so needed to work hard to keep it up. I was REALLY happy to see the finish line in sight and eventually finished in 1h19m which made me very happy. Having my two sil's there shouting for me at the finish was awesome too :-) All finishers of the 10km race got a medal and a pair of socks which was great.
I was a VERY tired, but VERY happy runner at the end. The race in my opinion was very successful and it seems that ProSano and Telkom Athletics Club make an awesome team. A lot of work goes into hosting a race like this and if I remember correctly there were about 120 or so helpers on the day to make sure that everything went smoothly and it did. Well done ProSano and Telkom Athletics Club, really a job well done!!!!
Oh and well done to me too hehehehe
I'm very happ
Friday, March 4, 2011
Week 3 is now klaar, kuput, totally finished LOL
I was both looking forward to and just a lil bit dreading todays session, because it included a 10min stretch of running ( more correctly jogging I should say) and that is twice as much as I have done before so far in one stretch. I started out very excitedly, eagar to see if I could overcome the 10mins. I'm VERY, VERY proud to say, that I did overcome it and the last 5min stretch too, so day 3 of week 3 is now completed.
With my interest in running, came a lot of reading about running and all thing associate with it. I've come to the conclusion that us runners (and I include myself in that) are a rather weird bunch. We do some very weird things, like running 42kms (that won't be me at any time though), running in the most ungodly weather that ducks stay home in and some even run in the heat of the day (personally, I can't understand how that can put up with the heat) and a whole other assortement of things....
For instance, on my weekend away, I did a run - on a gravel road in the farmlands. I was more concerned about my (relatively) new asics getting dirty, than I was in looking at the beautiful scenery LOL
Another thing - those pavement oysters - Ewwwwww, GROSS. If you don't know what pavement oysters are, I don't think I even want to try and explain it, but suffice to say, a popular runners mag (Runners World) actually had an article in it explaining HOW to do such said offence. Apparently its quite common among runners, BUT, I'm not sure if I will ever be one of those types of runners, I think its totally gross and would much rather carry tissues with me *grimace*
Another article in said magazine, discussed when one becomes 'a runner' and one of the theories is that you only become a runner, when you have peed in your pants, on the run..........again EWWWWWWW, Thats another kind of runner that I DEFINATELY won't be becomming.
I can understand though that top road running athletes probably do both - in the interests of getting good times, but thank goodness I'm not a top athlete.
I've also learned that vaseline & sunblock can rapidly become my best friends, going with me to every race. Also a banana is good before a race and chocolate milk is good for recovery afterwards.
For the time being though, I'm VERY happy with the kind of runner I am and I'm feeling VERY proud of myself and what I've done so far and I'm really looking forward to continue on being a RUNNER!!!
With my interest in running, came a lot of reading about running and all thing associate with it. I've come to the conclusion that us runners (and I include myself in that) are a rather weird bunch. We do some very weird things, like running 42kms (that won't be me at any time though), running in the most ungodly weather that ducks stay home in and some even run in the heat of the day (personally, I can't understand how that can put up with the heat) and a whole other assortement of things....
For instance, on my weekend away, I did a run - on a gravel road in the farmlands. I was more concerned about my (relatively) new asics getting dirty, than I was in looking at the beautiful scenery LOL
Another thing - those pavement oysters - Ewwwwww, GROSS. If you don't know what pavement oysters are, I don't think I even want to try and explain it, but suffice to say, a popular runners mag (Runners World) actually had an article in it explaining HOW to do such said offence. Apparently its quite common among runners, BUT, I'm not sure if I will ever be one of those types of runners, I think its totally gross and would much rather carry tissues with me *grimace*
Another article in said magazine, discussed when one becomes 'a runner' and one of the theories is that you only become a runner, when you have peed in your pants, on the run..........again EWWWWWWW, Thats another kind of runner that I DEFINATELY won't be becomming.
I can understand though that top road running athletes probably do both - in the interests of getting good times, but thank goodness I'm not a top athlete.
I've also learned that vaseline & sunblock can rapidly become my best friends, going with me to every race. Also a banana is good before a race and chocolate milk is good for recovery afterwards.
For the time being though, I'm VERY happy with the kind of runner I am and I'm feeling VERY proud of myself and what I've done so far and I'm really looking forward to continue on being a RUNNER!!!
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