Tuesday, November 07, 2006

FINALLY!

I have finally started exercising again and it feels GREAT! Okay, I can't breath very well, I've lost tons of fitness, I'm slow and feel pretty terrible while doing it but it's still fantastic to be active again.

This weekend I got back into the swing of things running in the 100km Haney to Harrison (H2H) relay with Team LETtuCe. It wasn't a good run for me speedwise but it was great to be out and the team was a lot of fun and managed to make up for my slow start. Running was probably a dumb idea physical health-wise but as far as my mental health it was exactly what I needed.

My leg was only 9.42 km, the second shortest leg in the relay, and relatively flat so I didn't have to kill myself running or worry too much that I was setting my team back. Running was frustrating as I had no idea what my pace was and therefore couldn't tell what distance I'd run. It's amazing how I've come to be able to trust where I am based on my pace and time (unless of course I'm sick). I did put in a big sprint at the finish, the only person in the group of runners I was keeping pace with to do so. I also found it interesting that I was running and keeping pace with a far slower group than I normally do but as soon as we got to a slight hill I was passing lots of people. Guess that's the base fitness kicking in.

Photo of the start taken by Jack. I'm so fast I'm a blur!

My time was 55:12, about 10 minutes slower than my (optimistic) predicted time. This was a PW (Personal Worst) for me but as I'd been sick for two weeks prior to racing I think the time's pretty damned cool.

Stage 1 results are here.


Our team finished in 7:54:08. We were 17th in the rec division but if we'd managed to stay in the competitive mixed division we would have come 6th. Not too shabby!

Overall team results are here.

Hanging out after the race with both the LETC teams was so much fun. What a great group of people!

For pictures of Team LETtuCe running in the early morning hours, go to Jack's website.

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