Sunday, May 26, 2013

Impossible Schimpossible

"Sometimes I believe in as many as six impossible things before breakfast"- Alice Kingsley, Alice in Wonderland

Today I did something that I thought was impossible, and the funny thing is it isn't the first time this month.

I realised a few months back that May was going to be pretty filled with running events. I signed on for True Grit with my sisters way back in January, realising at the time it would be a back to back weekend with the Mothers Day Classic the next day. I signed on for the Color Run a few weeks later, and I had already decided that I would be doing my first Half marathon for the year in May, I just couldn't decide whether it would be the Greenbelt or the Barossa, the former on the first weekend in May, the latter the last. I don't know at what point decided I would do both, and round out May with 5 events, and I am not sure when exactly my big sister decided she'd do it too... but all of a sudden we had Mad May on our hands.

I started with a bang and did my first impossible thing on the first weekend.

I have mentioned before that I have been running off and on (mostly on) since I was 13, I have always believed myself to be a slow runner and in fact it's not even been until last year that I have actually considered myself a "runner". For a long time cracking 5 min kms seemed like an impossiblity, 5.30 has long been a comfortable speed for me. At some point since I completed my first marathon last year my speed has improved. I didn't realise just how much until that first weekend in May. Tatum offered to run with me as a support, she'd done a big run the day before and didn't feel the need to do a PB. I grabbed the opportunity, hoping I'd at least crack two hours. I ran it in 1 hour 44 mins and 24 secs, smashing over 12 mins off my pb. I ran an average of under 5min kms for the whole distance. I was still shaking my head in disbelief at that this morning. There were major high fives and hugs between my sister and I, her support had been amazing, and I guess somewhere in all of that I had forgotten that my legs actually did that running.

The next weekend on the Saturday we tackled True Grit. We completed it in around 1:50 and I was truely knackered and very battered and bruised when I crawled into bed that night. I believed there was no way I would beat my previous best time for the Mother's Day Classic the next day.....but I did, only by about half a minute. But there you have it another "impossible" thing made possible.

The next weekend was a bit of a rest with the Color Run being a short distance that I covered with Luke and the girls in tow. It was a beautiful morning. I must admit though, despite the "rest" I had been feeling pretty tired out this week.

Fast forward to this morning and I had told Luke that I would be happy with anything under 2hrs, because I was running "by myself" this time. Don't get me wrong, I always intended to give a good go of it, I don't enter anything with any other intention. But any runner will tell you that you have your good runs and your bad runs, and I assumed this morning wouldn't be great. I was feeling tired and I was aware that my support runner was going for her PB this morning and I would be doing this one "on my own", and as I said before, I had really forgotten that it had been my own legs that had run those other "impossible" races.

I am waiting on the official time, but it would seem that I crossed the finish line in 1 hour 42 minutes and some seconds this morning. I think it might be time for me to start paying to attention to Lewis Carroll a little more and believing in the impossible.... after all, if you put in the hard work in any area of your life, good things really do happen.







Friday, May 24, 2013

No Words.

I have had no words for a long time now. Since September last year in fact. Time has marched on so quickly over the last few months. After a massive year of goals achieved 2012 ended in a rush, suddenly it was 2013, the days have run together. So many happy days, so much has changed and so much has stayed the same.

I am not going to go into detail about the last few months, the girls have aged another year, D has started the journey of school, there has been sewing, baking, talk of renovations, yoga and oh so much running.... there has been joyous time spent with family, rediscovery and fun, work, warm days in the sun.... and apparently no time for writing.

But the moment has come when I realise I have missed it and it is time to start documenting again... time to find my words again.