Today's the day I went to the MCG, became friendly with this guy called Cameron, and took a photo of this 10km finisher's medal.
So it all started at the plumber's ass crack of dawn. Want to know what the MCG looks like at 5am?
Fun fact: In Pakistan, they have an MCG Cricket Ground.
I started the day with my usual running ritual of getting intimate with the foam roller. The last 2kms of my runs are always motivated by the idea of getting to eat breakfast, so I decided to prepare something to motivate myself to come back.
(With the exception of the mooncake, that's pretty much the same breakfast I eat every day.)
To motivate myself even more, and at the suggestion of Captain, I had this as my marathon playlist, featuring the amazing Swedish artist Basshunter.
I wasn't allowed to stop listening to that song until I crossed the finish line.
Since I had a piece of paper with giant numbers pinned to my chest, it was pretty obvious to other people with giant numbers pinned to their chest that I would be taking part in today's run. Enter Cameron: who is a runner from Canberra, and today was his first full marathon (he has done a few half marathons and other runs). I bumped into him on my way there, which was fortunate, because I was incredibly lost. Since I was incredibly early, to make sure I made it there on time, we were one of the few people who were around at that time. I saw him, with his giant numbers pinned to his chest, and waved in solidarity - "Yes, we're idiots who are awake this early on a Sunday morning". I was hoping he'd wave back, and we'd both be on our way. Nope, he wanted to walk with me and talk with me for the rest of our journey. Great.
It wasn't too bad, we spoke a lot about running, and he talked about how his favourite part of the run is overtaking people. I replied that I'm more of an overtakee than an overtaker, but I said I'd do my best to allow people to run ahead of me. I asked him whether it was best to start towards the front, towards the back, or in the middle, saying that I should probably start towards the back so that I'm not in the way of the faster people. He said that the problem of being towards the back is that you waste a lot of energy darting around people, so even if you are slow, it's better to start in the middle of the pack, so people can waste their energy darting around you. I thought it seemed bad to take up space, but he was an experienced runner, so I should probably take his advice.
His race started 30 minutes before mine, so we went our separate ways.
By the time I was on the road, I had already listened to the song 10 times. All I could think about was that it was just me and this song, for the next 10kms.
Apparently there were about 30,000 people at today's run, and there were so many 10km runners that we had to be split into two waves. The start of the run isn't really a run, more of a jog, and I managed to be in the middle of the pack. Which ended up being a mistake, as even in the middle, I wasn't the slowest person!
Surprisingly, I spent a lot of the run overtaking people (Cameron was right, it does feel good). My run tracker gave me updates every 5 minutes on how I was tracking, and I was running much slower than my normal pace. Probably because there were so many people around. That was a bit heartening, as I knew I could run 10kms, and running it at a slower pace should be easy.
Nope. Remember how I was worried about elevation? Well, elevation is a killer. By the 4km mark, my strength was flagging. I was starting to question whether running on an empty stomach was a good idea, but I did it because I always ran on an empty stomach. I really wanted to be on Ventrilo playing Dota - I'd even settle for Warcraft 3 Dota.
I pushed myself to the 5km mark, and then from there, it was just another 5kms. That's not so bad, right? I can do 5kms!
I think that's around the time that I went mad, and Basshunter took over, because the last thing I remember is running past the Shrine of Remembrance (which is I think is just before the 5km mark), and then suddenly, we were crossing the bridge towards the MCG.
The final part of the run includes a lap of honour around the MCG, which I thought was really nice. If you told me earlier this year that I'd be doing a lap around the 'G, I'd have laughed at you.
My knee and foot held up throughout the race, but on the last part of the journey home, I think my calves were too tight and my foot started to hurt again. I had to get MrFodder to drive me home.
Breakfast was eagerly consumed, and I'm still working my way through the rest of this mooncake. Om nom nom.
I said I was going to decide whether I'd keep running after today, and the answer is that I might do some 5km runs every now and again, but 10kms is too rough on my body, and I don't think it's worth it. I'm glad I did it, and I'm pretty proud of myself that I managed to follow through, despite the fact that I had many opportunities to quit along the way.
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