Burnley Half Marathon and MUACXC rocks!
Woke up at 5.30am this morn to have breakfast before the Burnley Half Marathon. Andy gave Iylia, Tom and I a lift to the race site (and home). We were there early and boy was it FREEZING! the past 2 days were a warm 25 degrees and this morning is a bloody 12 degrees with rain. during warm up and just before the start it was raining pretty heavily! I was feeling miserable and dying for a pair of gloves and a beanie!
anyway it's an Athletics Victoria race, there were about 500 people on the 3.5loop course. Andy said it was a "good fast course" which meant undulating roads with gradual uphills and downhills. uhhhh...not sure i would think it's a fast course. A fast course would prob be pancake flat. Their idea of tough would be 21km of HILLS.
Anyway, took a while to warm up coz of the cold. but after that it felt great! I held back the first 6km then picked up and held it for the rest of the race. It was fantastic. I felt really strong and very happy! I was smiling and running and waving and cheering my other teammates. haha. bcoz of the back and forth loops you get to see everyone on the course many times. Well, i ran a 1.43.15 i was so happy. i thought if i did a 1.45 i'd be v happy. woohoo. haha. i had enough energy to sprint finish, much to my surprise. main prob was my knees and hip got stiff. havent been chalking up much mileage and definately havent been doing v long runs! the last 3 km really got to me. haha.
Well, obviously i was the slowest in the team. Bry ran 1.27 and Al 1.28. OMG they are soooooooo fast! yea and Tom did really well. 1.11. yep, i think the male winner won in abt 1.04? that's just insane. Anyway, Hamish who ran 5mins off his PB was running with a hangover and 3 hrs of sleep coz of his bday celebrations the night before! haha.
after race, my quads cramped up. jogged it off. we all went down to Alison's place, which was abt 1 km frm the start point. It was a potluck brunch. abt 20 of us were there, abt 15 of us raced, the rest came to support or were the spouse. The support was great. we were just encouraging each other and all. helped a great deal =) At the brunch there was brownie, muffins, rock cakes, biscuits, buns, hot tea and coffee. Perfect. and we just stood around and talked.
Tony (coach) turned up with his 2+yr old son and his wife. They brought a HUGE 3 layered homemade birthday cake for Hamish! It was Hamish's 30th birthday on tuesday. it was so brightly coloured and cute. Tony's son, Simon, is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute! he's really independent as well. just ran aroud playing with us. He was feeding me chips. haha! yep, and he was turning the cake around on the table so he could pluck off the Smarties/M&Ms stuck round the sides to eat. haha. he fed them to Al's dog too! Then has was preoccupied with eating chips and running around to give out chips. suddenly, he ran over the dining room to stroke Al's cat. he had his left hand patting the dog and his right the cat. haha. adorable. When the dog suddenly snapped at him, he got a fright and jumped back, but after a while he just went back to play with it. Brave little boy.
Yep, got home and did some housework, took a 30min nap and headed out to meet the girls from the athletics club. It was a girls gathering cum send off for Dyna who was leaving for the US. Yep, we chatted and had some tea snacks and drank red wine. At 5pm, the guys came to join us and we basically sat/stood around the bar and had drinks and chatted until 8pm! haha. It was so fun. They are seriously funny. Bry, the girls captain, is really nice. She's completing her PhD, a VVVVV fast athlete (ex-triathlete), pretty, funny and nice. Wooo. Anyway, I had a lot of fun chatting with all of them. They're all Australians, with 1 from UK, and then 2 S'poreans, Iylia and me.
I love the athletics people. We're having an end of x-country season BBQ on 23rd Sept, and we're (almost) all flying up for uni games. it's cool. Mon, wed and fri mornings after swim squad i have breakfast at Thresherman's with some tri guys. and i wonder y ppl tell me they cant mix with Australians and dun have Aust friends. Join a sports club! they're all so friendly and you all share a common interest and possibly personality so it's easy to get along. I've had a fantastic day today. Real happy after my run, felt good and was in the company of a great bunch!
Btw, people have been saying i look MATURE beyond my age. hahaha. At tri squad, some thought i was 21. At the athletics club, they thought i was in year 3. More examples but in short, i am a MATURE girl. hahahahahaha! but im proud to be 18 and done much =) oh and they cant believe ive been here 7 weeks and i got organised and started to train with the club after just a week, and i'm all nestled comfortably in the team. =)
Well now i better call Melvin who asked me out for dessert tonight. Somehow on days when u're busy/when 1 person asks you out, everyone asks you out.
I've got a couple of photos from the brunch but cldnt upload! will do that tmr. ciao!
anyway it's an Athletics Victoria race, there were about 500 people on the 3.5loop course. Andy said it was a "good fast course" which meant undulating roads with gradual uphills and downhills. uhhhh...not sure i would think it's a fast course. A fast course would prob be pancake flat. Their idea of tough would be 21km of HILLS.
Anyway, took a while to warm up coz of the cold. but after that it felt great! I held back the first 6km then picked up and held it for the rest of the race. It was fantastic. I felt really strong and very happy! I was smiling and running and waving and cheering my other teammates. haha. bcoz of the back and forth loops you get to see everyone on the course many times. Well, i ran a 1.43.15 i was so happy. i thought if i did a 1.45 i'd be v happy. woohoo. haha. i had enough energy to sprint finish, much to my surprise. main prob was my knees and hip got stiff. havent been chalking up much mileage and definately havent been doing v long runs! the last 3 km really got to me. haha.
Well, obviously i was the slowest in the team. Bry ran 1.27 and Al 1.28. OMG they are soooooooo fast! yea and Tom did really well. 1.11. yep, i think the male winner won in abt 1.04? that's just insane. Anyway, Hamish who ran 5mins off his PB was running with a hangover and 3 hrs of sleep coz of his bday celebrations the night before! haha.
after race, my quads cramped up. jogged it off. we all went down to Alison's place, which was abt 1 km frm the start point. It was a potluck brunch. abt 20 of us were there, abt 15 of us raced, the rest came to support or were the spouse. The support was great. we were just encouraging each other and all. helped a great deal =) At the brunch there was brownie, muffins, rock cakes, biscuits, buns, hot tea and coffee. Perfect. and we just stood around and talked.
Tony (coach) turned up with his 2+yr old son and his wife. They brought a HUGE 3 layered homemade birthday cake for Hamish! It was Hamish's 30th birthday on tuesday. it was so brightly coloured and cute. Tony's son, Simon, is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO cute! he's really independent as well. just ran aroud playing with us. He was feeding me chips. haha! yep, and he was turning the cake around on the table so he could pluck off the Smarties/M&Ms stuck round the sides to eat. haha. he fed them to Al's dog too! Then has was preoccupied with eating chips and running around to give out chips. suddenly, he ran over the dining room to stroke Al's cat. he had his left hand patting the dog and his right the cat. haha. adorable. When the dog suddenly snapped at him, he got a fright and jumped back, but after a while he just went back to play with it. Brave little boy.
Yep, got home and did some housework, took a 30min nap and headed out to meet the girls from the athletics club. It was a girls gathering cum send off for Dyna who was leaving for the US. Yep, we chatted and had some tea snacks and drank red wine. At 5pm, the guys came to join us and we basically sat/stood around the bar and had drinks and chatted until 8pm! haha. It was so fun. They are seriously funny. Bry, the girls captain, is really nice. She's completing her PhD, a VVVVV fast athlete (ex-triathlete), pretty, funny and nice. Wooo. Anyway, I had a lot of fun chatting with all of them. They're all Australians, with 1 from UK, and then 2 S'poreans, Iylia and me.
I love the athletics people. We're having an end of x-country season BBQ on 23rd Sept, and we're (almost) all flying up for uni games. it's cool. Mon, wed and fri mornings after swim squad i have breakfast at Thresherman's with some tri guys. and i wonder y ppl tell me they cant mix with Australians and dun have Aust friends. Join a sports club! they're all so friendly and you all share a common interest and possibly personality so it's easy to get along. I've had a fantastic day today. Real happy after my run, felt good and was in the company of a great bunch!
Btw, people have been saying i look MATURE beyond my age. hahaha. At tri squad, some thought i was 21. At the athletics club, they thought i was in year 3. More examples but in short, i am a MATURE girl. hahahahahaha! but im proud to be 18 and done much =) oh and they cant believe ive been here 7 weeks and i got organised and started to train with the club after just a week, and i'm all nestled comfortably in the team. =)
Well now i better call Melvin who asked me out for dessert tonight. Somehow on days when u're busy/when 1 person asks you out, everyone asks you out.
I've got a couple of photos from the brunch but cldnt upload! will do that tmr. ciao!
posted by aine at 3:42 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home