Forgive me Father (this is long).... I actually enjoyed c2s!

As c2s is not a target race for me, I had PT as usual Saturday arvo. The bay was at its beautiful best and the weather perfect. The session was c2s friendly made up of circuit work, easy laps and some form/run thrus. I really enjoyed the boxing part especially the kick boxing. Tim made some remark about me hitting hard, only for me to actually knock the pad off his hand seconds later. Better be careful Gnome :-).

As for my confession, it is running related and relevant to c2s. For 21 of our (almost) 25 years married I had weighed more than Gnome, had never been able to keep up fit wise and despite all his wonderful support had really low self esteem . 2002 I decided to change that and did. Gnome said he would run with me as support and we did our first race together - the 2002 c2s. Since then he has always run with me until he decided a couple of months ago to lose weight and start doing some of the shorter races on his own. All of a sudden I felt I was back at sq. one and it has taken me awhile to realise that it's no big deal and I can do this on my own :-).

Just as well because Gnome was in A2 at c2s and despite my applying to be with him I got A1. We thought we would probably meet about the 10k mark and Gnome decided if he was on for sub 70 he'd keep going otherwise he'd stay with me and we'd finish together. I have to admit I felt abit of a fraud being in A1 group but there was not much I could do about it. I was delighted to catch up with 26 during our warmup and was then lucky enough to spy Munch and Belinda from runclub in the A1 pack and was entertained by them while waiting. Mind you Belinda entertained plenty of people as she tried to discreetly change out of her trackies into running shorts !!

A1's criteria was 75min or faster for the course . I knew it was theoretically possible for me but on this course not realistic. So I wrote out splits for 75 and 80 expecting 77ish. People streamed past me when we got going but I was happy to let them go. I was under 75 time at 3k but knew HBH was ahead. I got an awful shock when I heard "Hello beautiful" at the 6k mark and there was Gnome beside me. I couldn't believe I was running so slow but he said they had started earlier than we'd expected and I was still on for my 75 time. He hesitated as if to stay but I just yelled GO a few times and I think he decided to run away in embarrassement. Mind you I think I slowed slightly watching him go so smoothly up the hill. I hit the 7k at 39.26 a bit over my 75 min split but wasn't worried. I was prepared for the hills that were coming and just worked towards each top knowing I could recover my breath on the downhill ( I love downhill running). Yelled to the cheersquad as I descended into Bondi and just powered along Campbell Pde. I still cannot believe how strong I felt at this point and came home in gun time of 76.01. My watch said 75.48 which meant a neg. split - 36.22 for the last 7k!!! and 14k does not seem as far as it used too. Couldn't believe a 11.10PB from 2003. That can only come with a big thankyou to Tim :-).

Gnome and I hugged each other knowing we'd achieved more than expected. We spent the rest of out time meeting up with CR's and Striders and enjoying the vibe of the day. We also got to put faces to so many fellow bloggers and managed a quick visit with Horrie and Belinda to the Bear Cottage Tent. They are looking at reaching $40,000 from donations.

To top it all off we got home in time to watch the last quarter of the Swans thrashing of Brisbane. Then we sat and watched the tape of the c2s and Gnome spied me running off at the start. A nice end to a good day.

TA