ran 4 the kids 2 days ago

I seem to be forever dragging my heals in the blogging department lately.  I started my Run 4 Kids post on the day and now it is Tuesday 😯  

Sunday was the most brilliant day, weatherwise, runningwise and socialisingwise!  Met up with RJ outside the Arts Centre and headed down to event area.  Checked our bags in, did the toilet stop and before we knew it, it was time to line up at the start.  Have to say it didn’t appear as organised as last year as we noticed lots of different coloured bibs in our yellow section which we paid for after the run had started. It took ages to weave through walkers and prams before we found ourselves on a clear path. Honestly, whats the point of different coloured bibs if you are not going to get into correct allocated area! Running through the Domain tunnel was awesome and I made sure to really take in all surroundings from start to finish as last year I didn’t. We were in a really good rhythm and before we knew it we were at the 5km mark. It was totally awesome looking at the streams of runners way ahead and then look behind at the mass as well. Loved the Bolte Bridge and I was wishing I had my mobile to take a snappy of RJ and I under the BB sign. We kept cruising along and were soon at the La Trobe Street where Sara was stationed and it was really great to see her nice smiling encouraging face at that point 🙂  Not long after that we found ourselves at Collins Street.  I knew they had changed the course and I thought it was going to be flatter at that point. It was a very rude shock to find myself grunting up a different killer incline as this is where I started to feel the pinch last year and just wasn’t expecting it at all!  I could hear RJ saying “I thought they got rid of this hill?” 😆 Eventually got through that and then continued along and fell back into a rhythm again although probably a little bit slower.   Ran down St Kilda road towards finish and felt so much happier as I definetly was not carking it like last year.  Crossed the finish line and spotted Jaykay, Michelle, Tigerboy and Wombatoutofhell and stopped and chatted for about 10 minutes.  We then continued along and it was then that RJ and I realised that we hadn’t passed through the “paddle swiping bit yet 😳  We collected our bags and then headed to the Transport Bar for coffee, champers and something to eat.  We caught up with the ausrunners and met some coolrunners from the forums which was really awesome!  It just made the day so much better and was a great way to spend post race.  Its just a shame that when I got home I had to return to “Mum” mode the minute I walked in the door 🙄  All I felt like doing was continuing on with the champagne and lapping up my “runners high”, pesky kids 😆

*edit*  Results are in the paper today and my official time was 1:32:28.