Port Mac RunFest

After some “longer” runs it was suddenly back to shorter faster (well, that’s the idea anyway) races, kicking off with the 5000m for my other club (Mingara) at the NSW Country Championships. This is an annual competition for the “country” clubs, ie excluding all those who run in Sydney, and this year Mingara was hosting it so they wanted as many club members as possible to show their support. The longest event available was the 5000m track race and so although I hated the thought of it….the very idea of a “short” track race, the fact that the oldest age group eligible was 40-49 years, and the fact that it was being held on a Friday evening (officially 730pm but in fact we didn’t start until 8pm!!)….I figured I should get over it and represent the club.

With clubmate Tara after the 5000m

As it happened, it wasn’t (quite) as bad as I thought it would be, as the lateness of the event meant that some people had gone home, and although there weren’t very many women competing , all ages and sexes were combined together so it was easy to hide/lose yourself in the field. As usual, I started at the back (after hating the fact that they lined us all up on the line in numerical order so I couldn’t slot in behind the others) but eased my way into it and then just kept on going at that pace. The race announcements were rather confusing as they kept giving us splits and predicted times for the leading men (who were very speedy and on track record pace, lapping most of us at least a couple of times), and all they said whenever I crossed the finish/lap line was what my age was!!! Nice!!! I tried to tune that out and focus on the cheers/support from some friends who were in the stands offering much-needed encouragement! I could hear them announcing the “leading female” but what they failed to mention was that she was the leading female in the U20s race as I actually managed to lap her as I ran into the line. Not my fastest time, but it was an age group record for the club and I did take out the ladies’ win and score some vital points for the club!

Drinks and snacks pre-3K

The weekend afterwards was a Trotters’/girls’ weekend away as we had all entered the Port Macquarie Running Festival in one of its various forms. I traveled up with my friends Jackie and Monika (and Mon’ daughter Ash) as we were going to go out and stay with Mon’s parents on the Saturday night. We got to Port nice and early on the Saturday afternoon and registered for the Grand Slam of races - the Breakwall Buster Port Treble consisting of a half marathon, a 10K and a 5K on the Sunday morning, and a 3K for the indigenous foundation on the Saturday afternoon. After some food and a beer, we met Mon’s dad who was going to do the 3K with us. All3 of us girls had said that we were going to walk it, but we ended up having to run just to keep up with him (despite him running in sandals as he doesn’t own any joggers!!!). Luckily Ash joined us on the way back so we had a lovely time swinging her along the course and encouraging her by waving Koala Lou just ahead of her - it was so lovely to see Ash grinning at her Trotters “fans” on the run in, and proudly wearing her mum’s medal afterwards!

Mon's dad and his Trotter harem!

After a nice evening out in Wauchope (Mon’s dad was a chef - result!!!) including marshmallows toasted over the fire, we headed back to Port in the early morning to meet up with several other Trotters. Some were “just” doing the HM, some the 10K, but there was a large group of us doing the “Treble” and so we had a separate baggage area that we could go into as we would need to change our bibs and eat/drink between the events.

Ash and Koala-Lou joining us in the 3K :-) 

The starts were in self-seeded waves so the girls waved me off in the first one (they were going in the next one) and I was off. We started with people dashing headlong across some grass and then onto tarmac to start the first of three 7K laps along the the breakwall and a couple of roads/paths. As the laps were mainly just out and back, there were bollards set up to keep people clear of each other as they headed in different directions, but at first people were running both sides of them just to avoid congestion and settle into a pace. 

The Trotters pre-RunFest

I loved running in my Trotters vest as it led to lots of support en route (and not just from other Trotters!!) and it meant that I could easily spot club mates up ahead or going the other way once we started turning back on ourselves and even lapping each other. People commented on the fact that I got stronger as the race progressed and even ran a “negative split” but I don’t think that this was actually the case, it just appeared to be so, due to how fast others started - and the heat of the day definitely caught most of us rather unawares and so everyone slowed down. I wasn’t sure how much my head was “in the game” as I wanted to stop on several occasions, especially as the aid stations, but I did manage to reel in a couple of ladies and finish in 3rd position in a much faster time than I’d anticipated. The winners of both male and female races looked amazing……as if they were just out for an easy morning jog, but I consoled myself with the fact that they weren’t backing up and doing the Treble (though I doubt I could have run faster even if the HM was my “target” race) - and full marks goes to my club mate Mark who set a 2 minute PB finishing 3rd in the men’s race!

The Trotter "Treble" girls

The format of the event was that the HM started at 7am, the 10K at 9am and the 5K at 10am, so the amount of rest you got in between events (if doing them all) was related to how fast you completed them. I had a bit of a gap after the HM so it gave me time for a drink and a snack and then, having not actually spotted the portaloos in the Treble enclosure, I wandered off in search of a toilet. I found it so hard to get my legs moving again after stopping, that a few people asked me if I was OK, and if I needed a wheelchair or a medic, so I did wonder how on earth I would manage to run again.

It didn't feel too bad in the first lap

I cheered the girls in, we changed our numbers, and then I headed back to the start for my wave of the 10K. This time we had 2 laps of 5K to run (which meant they’d taken out the only real decline and incline that had been in the extra part of the HM loop) but as we started along the exact same route as before we were mingling in with HM runners who still had their final lap to go. 

It definitely got harder as the laps passed

It did take me more than the initial grass stretch until I felt like I could actually run properly, but then I realised that I actually felt OK going out again. As it turned out (talking to everyone else afterwards, we all felt exactly the same) this “running euphoria” was rather short-lived as by the time I’d run 3K, I suddenly found myself wondering how on earth I was going to get round the next 7.

By the time you lapped people it
was hard to work out who was racing who

By the time I started the second lap )how I wished that there had only been the one), I was really feeling the heat (and the exhaustion). I caught the girls in second and third place twice but on each occasion, I thought I was risking much more serious heat issues so decided to take shirt walking breaks at the aid stations whilst drinking water and pouring it over my head (and so they overtook me on both occasions). As it happens I closed back up on them again into the finish and was just a couple of seconds behind them, having been a good 20s behind after 5K, but the breaks clearly paid off (though at the time I just thought that was being mentally weak whenever I walked) as the girl that came in second ended up having a couple of drips as soon as she finished and being carted off by the medics, poor lass! Then again,  respect to her as I just cannot push myself that hard!

The 10K was definitely less "fun"!!

After the 10K, they said that they would delay the start of the 5K by 10 minutes as the course was getting so crowded with people going in various directions at various speeds in various different races, but suddenly I heard them say that a lot of the Treble runners were starting to cramp up and so they were setting them off there and then. Luckily it was chip timed as I was too stiff to get across to the start line for the off, but I had worked out that I had a good lead on the next lady in the Treble anyway so if she managed to make up that deficit over 5K then she deserved to beat me anyway!

Jackie, Mon and myself with our bling!!

A cyclist drew alongside me and asked if I was the leading lady in the Treble and then started cycling in front of me, saying that she’d clear a path through some of the runners still participating in earlier events. This sounded good in principle but I did warn her that I was probably running a lot slower than she would have expected. Soon after that she disappeared off, as the “actual 5K runners” had started and she was going to cycle with their leaders….which was fine with me, as then I could have some walking/drinking/pouring water over myself breaks without feeling too guilty (not that anything would have stopped me having them by then anyway). 

The Trotter "survivors" photo!

It was nice to still be getting support en route and see my club mates out running, as whenever I saw someone I knew (and when I saw the lady chasing me down in the Treble) it did push me back into running from walking….and I finally made it back home to the finish hot and bothered, but happy :-) After a lot to drink, much ice on my head and neck, and a couple of bags of lollies, I cheered the other Trotters in - everyone did amazingly, but special respect goes to Mon who had just had several months out with a stress fracture but managed to complete all 36K of the Treble mainly on cross training, and on such a hot sunny day too! What a fab weekend it was!!!

Not a bad interlocking bling haul from the weekend :-)