Great – and relevant – running question in today’s Ask Penguin: “What do you do after you achieve your big running goal? Why does it feel anti-climactic?” Last May that’s pretty much exactly how I was feeling.

Those of you who’ve been watching my Twitter feed or Facebook page over the past month know a secret: I’ve been running again! I finally managed to get going again after taking most of the summer off. (For those that don’t know, I did a lot of running last year.) I’ve been easing back into it gently. My speed’s taken a bit of a hit, but my fitness level is better than I expected. I had a vague idea that I might run the Sydney Half-Marathon again in May, but I scrapped that plan this week. I’d like to do another Half this year, but I don’t think mentally I’m quite prepared to do it again yet. Instead I’ve decided to focus on shorter distances right now. I registered last week for the Mother’s Day Classic, which is an 8K event that I ran last year. My previous time was 55 minutes, but this year I’d like to do it in 48 (which would equate to a 60 minute 10K time). The race is in 9 weeks, so I started my training plan this morning. So far so good!

Also, I’m using some new software to track my runs. I downloaded RunKeeper for my iPhone, which tracks your progress via GPS. It seems to be a lot more accurate than the Nike+. I was using the free ad-supported version before, but yesterday I upgraded to RunKeeper Pro. The Pro version just introduced audio feedback, so you can tap the screen to hear your current distance and pace. It’s not quite up to Nike+ standard yet (you can’t set a workout goal yet or challenge people on the site), but the developer seems to have a lot more planned. RunKeeper has a few distinct advantages too: you can use it while cycling, and you don’t need any special shoes (or a hack to hold an accelerometer). If you’d like to track walking/running/hiking/cycling and you’ve got an iPhone, you should definitely try it out.

Spudds
Earlier this week an email went around the office announcing that the weekly gym sessions would be starting up again. Huh? It turns out that the company pays for an employee circuit training session every Wednesday afternoon at a local boxing gym around the corner. Neat! Not wanting to be the conspicuously absent new girl, I packed my gym gear this morning and tried to look like I knew what I was doing. At 1:15 about half a dozen of us walked over to Spudds Gym on Crown Street. It’s a tiny terrace that has been converted into a WORKSHOP OF HORROR. “Spudds” (aka Mark Carroll) is the proprietor, and I soon found out that he was a former Rugby League star (and afterwards bodyguard to Russell Crowe!). Spudds started me on a bike in the “hot room.” This tiny room at the back of the gym actually had heaters running to make you sweat MORE. Every couple of minutes we rotated through the equipment, each of us eventually taking a turn in the ring throwing punches at Spudds’s pads. Then we had to run around the block. Then we had to do it all AGAIN. By this point I was feeling… not great. Yeah, I’m not in peak shape at the moment, but even when I was my abilities were better suited to endurance than short bursts of power. So when we started the third circuit, I hit a wall. I was supposed to be doing squats with weights in my arms while balancing precariously on half a medicine ball. (No, really.) Suddenly my legs started shaking, and I felt like I was going to faint or puke or cry (or all three). I grabbed my water bottle and waved at Spudds. “Need… air…” I gasped. I stumbled out the door and down the street towards the East Sydney Hotel. I really felt awful, dizzy and shaky. I knew I should walk but I just couldn’t. I sank to the pavement and leaned back against the hotel wall. I sipped my water and tried to get my breathing back. A few minutes later, the fog finally lifted and I could think straight again. I walked back to the gym and offered an apology to Spudds. “Hey,” he said, “you’re doin’ great! Now give me a 100 sit-ups.” So I pulled out my mat, sat myself down, and did the best I could. I guess that’s the best you can offer, right? It’ll be easier next week.

It’s been awhile! Following the Melbourne Half-Marathon last month, I took a couple weeks off completely from running. Now I’m slowly starting to build up again. Tonight I decided to run/walk home from North Sydney, which was about 7km all up. It took me just short of an hour. I’ve been reading Runner’s World and starting to think about goals for next year…

Official Race Photos
Hooray! I just got an email telling me to check the Race Photos from the Half-Marathon again. I looked before but there weren’t any of me, but now there are THREE! I’ll saved them here for posterity.
Here I am just after passing the starting line. I feel like it should be captioned, “SERIOUS RUNNER IS FEELING SERIOUS.” It was just starting to hit me that I was going to have to run 21km without my iPod.

The crowd around me has really thinned out here, so it must be on the second half. I must have also been feeling kooky, as evidenced by the thumbs and the wacky grin.

And here’s me and Pinky/Donna running up to the finish line!

If you’ve been following my training at all, you know that the last month has been difficult. I peaked too early, caught a cold, and found it difficult to stay motivated as Race Day approached. I think I expected that my second half-marathon would be way easier than the first, but that was definitely not the case.

Race Day dawned unseasonably hot and windy in Melbourne. I’d had a terrible night’s sleep but still felt relatively okay in the morning. I had, however, forgotten the #1 piece of pre-race advice: Get everything you need to wear or take with you ready the night before. So I was a bit frantic trying to get ready and eat some breakfast (toast with peanut butter) before the cab arrived. Once we got to the MCG, I discovered my mistake. I’d forgotten my iPod. Crap. That meant I had no way to track my pace or keep an eye on my split times (not to mention no way to distract myself). There was no time to go back, so I just had to accept it.

There were thousands of people streaming down from the MCG to the starting line, so I rushed to use the bathroom and get ready. I pinned on my number and attached the timing chip to my shoe. I ate a Gu pack and drank some Gatorade from my water belt. I rubbed Voltarin (an anti-inflammatory gel) on my back and hamstrings. The Snook took a quick picture of me in front of Rod Laver Arena, where the Australian Open Championships are held. Then I kissed him goodbye and headed to the starting area. There were 7,700 runners in the Half-Marathon but you’d never know it by how well-behaved and orderly the crowd was. I did some easy stretches and tried to quell my nerves. Someone sang a lovely a capella version of the national anthem. And then we were off!

We headed out of the park and climbed a gentle rise up into the city. I knew I didn’t want to start too fast, but it was hard to judge without knowing my exact pace. My original plan had been to take a 1 minute walk break every kilometer, but as we approached the first marker, I chickened out. I didn’t want to look like somebody who had to walk already. (Which is stupid, because the whole point of the run/walk method is starting the walk breaks BEFORE you feel the need to.) I decided to run all the way to the first water station at the 3.5km mark. When I got there, I “timed” my break by counting to sixty as I drink my water. I felt pretty good at this point.

At the 5km marker, I walked again and had another gel pack. “Hey Kris!” someone yelled out. It was knitter (and former Sydneysider) Emma! I can’t believe that out of nearly 8000 people, I ran into the one other runner I knew there. I jogged with her and her companion for a bit before picking up the pace. For the next five kilometers, I struggled with the feeling that I was going too slow. I started playing mental games with the other runners, like the ones Galloway mentions in his books. I’d use my “invisible lasso” to snare someone ahead of me, and then I’d mentally let them pull me along while I slowly, slowly reeled them in. My ultimate goal was to catch “Pinky,” a woman in a pink shirt who’d been maddeningly close to me since the very start. I decided that Pinky was my nemesis and must be defeated. Hey, when you don’t have any music, your brain comes up with weird things to occupy itself!

We’d left the CBD by this point, and we were actually running around a lake south of the city. I was now well and truly in the “back of the pack,” and the marathoners (who had started half an hour behind us) were now overtaking us in large numbers. At the 10km mark I had another gel pack. There was a timing mat to mark the halfway point, but annoyingly it didn’t have a clock displaying the time. I yelled out to a volunteer and he responded that it was 8:25. “WHAT?” I thought. “85 minutes?! That can’t be right!” I thought I’d been going faster than that. The sun was starting to come through the haze and it was getting hotter. I felt tired and depressed.. but suddenly I realized that Pinky was right beside me. I passed her! I passed my nemesis! So that cheered me up a little bit. (Of course, it was that much harder to keep going without her in front of me as a target.)

At about the 13km mark, the half-marathoners turned back towards the city while the marathoners headed on to St. Kilda. That’s the point where I suddenly realized how monumental their task really was. Every step was now taking me back towards the finish line, but they had to run another 20km to get to that point. I persevered. By this point, I was taking a walk break every kilometer. My hips and feet were aching. The trees were blowing clouds of what I thought were pale petals (seed pods, according to the Snook) over the road. At 15km I had my last gel pack. I was so, so tired, and I knew at that point I wasn’t going to come close to setting a PR. I started playing the “Just run to the next stoplight, then you can walk again!” game. My back felt stiff and I had to fight the urge to hunch over. The crowd had really thinned out by this point (since the marathoners were gone) and there weren’t as many people to lasso.

Eventually we were back to a part of Melbourne that I recognized, and I could hear music and cheering in the distance. We climbed back up St. Kilda Road and crossed the river. “Just run to the end of the bridge, then you can walk,” I told myself. I was only about 2km from the finish line. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye I saw a flash of pink. IT WAS PINKY. She caught up with me! I wanted to take off sprinting to beat her to the finish line, but I knew it would kill me. It was time to take a different tack. We were both walking at that point, so I turned to face her. “I followed you the whole first half of the race,” I said cheerfully. “You better get me the rest of the way to the finish!” “I don’t think so,” she laughed. “You’ve got to motivate ME!” So we walked together.

Pinky’s real name was Donna and over the next 1.5km we became friends. It was her second half-marathon too. She was just as tired and achey as I was. She was also resigned to the fact that her finish time was going to be ten minutes slower than before, but she didn’t mind as much as I did. That made me feel a little better. “Downhill! Okay, time to run again.” We urged each other on as we shuffled down the hill towards the MCG as best we could. We took another short walk break. “Less than a K to go,” Donna said. “Let’s finish it.” Just as we were approaching the entry gate, we heard beeping behind us. A motorcycle with a TV camera zoomed past as the marathon leader overtook us. “Holy shit, we’re on TV!” I said as I waved. (As the Snook congratulated me later, I only got beaten by one Ethiopian. Nice.)

We ducked into the tunnel and headed for the bright green of the pitch ahead. I could hear the crowd cheering as the leader crossed the finish line. We came out onto the grass and we could see the finish on the other side. “Time to sprint!” I said. I started to push it. (Even though we were friends now, I still wanted to beat her to the mat.) There were lots of people in the stands, so I didn’t even bother trying to look for the Snook. I just put my head down and charged for that finish mat as best I could. Once I heard the beep, I slowed to a walk and gasped for breath. Donna crossed just behind me and we shared a high-five. Then it was down into another tunnel to collect our medals and turn in our chips. We were done.

The finish times were briefly available on the marathon website this morning, but they seem to be down now. My net time was around 2:47, which is about ten minutes slower than I ran in May. On one hand I’m disappointed; I knew this course was flatter and I wanted to improve my time. On the other hand, it was hot and windy, and I didn’t have the adrenaline of a first-timer to draw upon. Maybe it’s easier when you don’t really know what to expect. I also didn’t have my iPod or any other way of tracking my pace. I’ll be prepared for these things in the future.

Overall, I have to say that the Melbourne Marathon (including all the various races) is an very well run event, much better than the Sydney Running Festival. Water stations were plentiful and never seemed to run out of supplies. The start and finish areas were well-organized and sign-posted, and using the MCG meant there were plenty of toilets. The course is a lot flatter than Sydney, and it’s quite picturesque with the parks, lake, and seashore to look at. I’d recommend this event for any runner looking for their next challenge!

Anyway, that’s my second half-marathon finished. I said to the Snook afterwards, “The first one was for me. This one is for you.” I’m so, so grateful for all his support. He puts up with me during the ups and downs of training, and he cheerfully waits for hours to give me a hug at the finish line (even if he does think I get a bit stinky). I really couldn’t do it without him!

It’s the final week. The Half-Marathon is on Sunday… and I can’t decide whether I’m completely ready or completely burnt-out. These last few weeks since my 25km training run have been difficult. I was sick, and then I just didn’t have the energy or drive to finish my training plan. I only ran twice last week. I think I might have peaked too early. I’m still looking forward to the run this weekend, but I think I’m going to cut myself some slack and just try to enjoy it. Having a goal is great for motivation, but not if it saps all of the fun out of the activity. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow I go. I just want to get out there and have a good time.

Not a good weekend. I just had no energy, and I had a tension headache the entire time. I had plans to do a long run but instead I got stuck on the Couch of Doom. I don’t know. I suppose it’s easy to try to justify it by claiming I was overtraining and needed the break, but to be honest, I think it was just lethargy, dehydration, and laziness.

Week 12 distance (SICK): 6mi (10km)
Week 13 distance (SICK): 12mi (20km)
Week 14 distance (LAZY): 7.5mi (12km)

I went out for a run this morning to try to get back on track… and I still felt sluggish. Maybe I stretched out my preparations too long. Maybe I peaked too early. Maybe I’m just getting bored waiting for Race Weekend to finally arrive. I just haven’t had any great-feeling runs for several weeks now, and it’s hard to get inspired to get back out there.

Another light week on account of my cold. I did two 3K walks to the city (during my training course), an easy 5K run, and then the 9K Bridge Run.

Week 11 distance: 26mi (42km)
Week 12 distance (SICK): 6mi (10km)
Week 13 distance (SICK): 12mi (20km)

The good news is, I’m just about fully recovered! I went out for a 6K run this morning and, though my legs are still a little sore from the hills, I was surprisingly speedy. This is meant to be my last hard week before the Half, and I’m scheduled for a 17-miler on the weekend. (I may break that up over two days though.) Then next week I’m officially tapering.