Big Sur Half Marathon aka My Comeback Race

QJust like it disappeared, so it suddenly re-appeared. Of course I'm talking about running! As you know I've been 'away' from both running and blogging, for a rather long time. When I stopped running, I felt that I had nothing else to say. I certainly did not want to talk about crossfit, because even though it has done me a world of good, and ultimately led me back to running, I do not love it in the same way I do with running. Crossfit is a tool, a means to an end - running is my passion. But like passion, it can be a fickle thing.....but I'm working on.

 So on Sunday, I found myself on the starting line of the Big Sur half marathon, with no training, and the longest run in the past 3 years being 5 kilometres. Foolhardy yes, but desperate times call for desperate measures - and it was he best thing I could have done. I had signed up for this race very early on his year. I wanted to try and start running again, and thought that a November goal date would give me time to prepare. As usual, this did not happen, but over the past month, I have been trying to run at least twice a week - maybe just 2 miles, and then I did a few races....all 5ks. I was highly annoyed that I was going to miss yet another goal, and tried offering my place to some people I knew, they all said no.then I thought, well why not walk it - walking will be a lesson to me, and I will have lots of time to think about how lazy and unmotivated I have been. A colleague was kind kind enough to offer to drive me down on the morning, as I did not want to spend anymore money on a race I had not trained for. I got up at 2am on Sunday morning, drove down to meet him, the off we went, to Monterey 100 miles away.

 Race packet pick up, waffles and a coffee (at MacDonalds), and on the starting line at 7am. I thought I would run the first 3 miles gently and then walk the rest of it. I started off slowly, found a pace and just kept going - I walked up a few hills as I did not want to destroy my quads, and that was a good strategy. So here's how it went:
 Mile 1 - Republica "ready to go", and I was.....good warm up.
 Mile 2 - Adam Clayton's "Mission Impossible", still had me warming up, I needed to make sure I got to mile 3.
 Mile 3 - Roxy Music's "Avalon" and the Hermes Houseband's "Susanna" made mile 3 fly by. What already?
 Mile 4 - Still running, this time to Fatboy Slim's "Praise you like I should". Hmmm still feeling good.
 Mile 5 - uncharted territory this, but still running - thanks to KC and the Sunshine band's "Shake x3". Mile 6 - Alice Cooper had me singing "Bed of Nails" hope I did not look too weird!
 Mile 7 - Now I was really surprised that I could still run - maybe it had something to do with Sharam's "PATT"!
 Mile 8 - "Mortal Kombat" made me choose my destiny......and I did. I was walking up a few hills here.
 Mile 9 - I stopped and took 2 advils as I usually have terrible pains in my IT bands and hips. Felt
 nothing on Sunday, but I took them anyway. Luca Carboni's "Mare, Mare" was perfect as I looked out over the Pacific Ocean.  Mile 10 - I couldn't believe it was mile 10, and Rick Martin's "Livin la Vida Loca" pushed me to run more.  Mile 11 - Jamiroquai's "Cosmic Girl" had me thinking he'd written it for me.  Mile 12 - Spandau Ballet's "Gold", you're indestructible, brought tears to my ears.  Mile 13 - and I finished it with Survivor's "Eye of the tiger", never underestimate the power of a good song!  .1 - still sprinting with Rocky!
 I finished in 2:46 with a sense of joy, gratitude, elation, happiness - I had just done that, and it was probably one of the sweetest running victories. After 3 years of hell and not running, I felt the love again. And it was good. So much so, that I have signed up for the Berkeley half marathon nest Sunday. Irresponsible? Probably, but I have to get this monkey off my back. Any advice would be most welcome! Photos will follow soon.