GE Women's Run 2015

We ran. We panted. 

1 November 2015, GE Women's Run... Once again, Opus and I did the 10k. Favourite run! Great route, well-organised, and like Opus says, it's all girls and no sweaty men. Aaaah. And this year, they had volunteers spray you with sunblock while you're in the starting pen waiting for the gun. So thoughtful!

Another new feature this year was the tutus. Yes, TUTUS! Women who were running for a cause they supported chose to wear a tutu while they ran. Many did so. And the tutus came in all colours and some took the effort to decorate their tutus with badges, feathers, pompoms, lace, hand drawn pictures and embroidered motifs. Really cute. A super girly run.

The haze cleared a few days before so it was all systems go as far as the weather was concerned. I'd been down a cold the past week or so and wasn't sure how I'd feel on the day itself but was quite sure I wanted to run anyway as long as the PSI was below 100 on race day.

It turned out to be a great sunshiny day! It had been raining too so it was nice and clear. Met J and Opus but second year in a row. we just couldn't find C. We were flagged off in the second wave and it was a good, comfortable run.

I'm really getting used to the NB Nimbus zero drop shoes though it seems that NB is phasing them out of production. They're getting harder and harder to find! I'm not sure it's such a good idea to stock up on them either.

Post run, they offered the BEST drink - sparkling Ice Mountain! Only gripe is that them organisers were a tad stingy. Only one bottle per runner. Bah. Oh wait. One more bit of unhappy news - no Nando's this year!!! And heyyyy, where was the bouncy castle this year?!

Anyway, I decided to do a screen grab of my timing to help me track how I've been performing.

Quite happy with the time. Tried to push through even during the slightly uphill bits, didn't let myself stop but tried to change my stride, take deeper breaths and think calm, happy thoughts of getting a cold shower and possibly prata for lunch. Whatever it takes, right?

Dusting off....

It's been quiet here! But I'm back.

I can't explain why it took so long to start (or, re-start) blogging again, especially when there have been more than a few occasions when I thought to myself, I should blog about this! I can't seem to hold on to those thoughts, as much as they were inspirational, epiphanic or stirring at the time. Of course there have been the smaller, lighter observations which were blog-worthy too. All gone, crowded out by busyness and forgetfulness.

I've just finished reading Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall (thanks, Opus!). It's a fascinating book with amazing, almost unbelievable characters. I was compelled to google some names mentioned to see what some of these people looked like, to check out if they were even real. What intrigued me was, the idea that humans were designed physically to be running machines. How can this be? I find running a chore, even after all these years of trying to like it. What am I doing wrong? A related thought was, wouldn't it be interesting to be trained by the likes of professionals, e.g. Eric Orton?

The other thing that struck me was how there seemed to be a correlation between great running and pure hearts. Examples are littered throughout the book with ironmen with hearts of gold. Has running made me a better person? Or more likely, is it the case that I'm a bad runner because I don't quite like people?

One other thing in the book also impressed me. That these ultrarunners experienced great joy while running. And we're talking about running impossibly long distances, through rugged terrain and extreme weather conditions. Insane!

I mostly feel a quiet peace to be alone during my runs, listening to the water, resenting the heat and thirst I feel, estimating the distance left, thinking about the day ahead, organising errands mentally and sometimes, consciously correcting my footfall and trying out different rhythms of breathing. Not a very others-centric activity at all, even during times when I am burdened about someone and silently talk it through with God during the run. And my default expression is definitely not a pretty one, nothing close to a smile.