Every day is a good day when you run *

This is my friend Louise and I at the start of Auckland's 40th Annual Round The Bays 8.4km charity fun run yesterday. In January, and after I hadn't been running for over a year, Lu and I decided that Round the Bays would be a prefect first running event for us. We have been training since then, just trying to increase our distance really and before you knew it, we were standing at the start line going "we can do this!"

After being sick for about a week, and still not feeling 100%, I had my hopes set pretty low for this event. I was also ridiculously nervous. I don't like crowds and 77,000+ people is a pretty big crowd! Plus this was my first official event run. Despite all of that I got up at 7am, decided to leave my fears and anxieties in bed (where I kind of wished I still was), ate my oatmeal and headed into town to meet up with Louise. 

Waiting by the ferry wharf at 8:30am. Already it was so busy and it seemed that everyone wanted a gigantic coffee. I decided to wait until after the race for mine, to reward myself :)

The weeks leading up I kept thinking 'what am I going to do with my stuff?! I don't want to carry it while I'm running but I also don't have a bag small enough to put it in'. So I bought an Osprey Pack the Friday before the event. It was a bit of a splurge, even on sale, but I am so incredibly glad I bought it. It came with a hydration pack included, which meant I didn't need to rely on the water stops, which meant I could avoid the dangerous plastic cups littered all over the ground. It made me that much more comfortable that I enjoyed the run so much more.

So this is where we started...

...it was as close as we could get. You see that yellow banner in the distance? THAT is the actual start line. I would say we began in the first 1/5 of people but it was one hell of a mission trying to navigate our way through the walkers and bulk of people after we all started. It must have been at least 1.5km before we managed to start running at our own pace, and not be tripped up by someone in front. One thing I have learnt from this; do not expel too much energy trying to get around people at the start. Save it for when there is more space to go at your own pace.

58minutes later, I did a final 400m sprint and went all out to cross the finish line.

I really can't put into words the feeling of crossing that finish line- all that hard work at the gym, all those 5:00am starts, and taking into consideration I was still recovering from being sick,  I managed to finish 8.4km in under 1 hour!~ The human body (and mind) never ceases to amaze me. In December last year I couldn't run for longer than 3 minutes without having to stop and gasp desperately for breath. On March 18th 2012 and I ran 8.4km!

The feeling of such elation and enjoyment of training, has meant that Louise and I have set ourselves another goal. This one is really stepping it up though. You ready? On October 28th 2012 we will be completing the Adidas Auckland Half Marathon. That's a hefty 21.09km (or 13.1 miles) and I couldn't be more excited to get training.

Rhiannon xxoxx

*Title Quote: "Every day is a good day when you run."  - Kevin Nelson