I conquered the Elephant !!

Yahooooooo.  I did it.  And quite frankly right now this evening I'm walking around like a little old lady, but I feel ever so proud of myself.   Although the day did not start well, I had a heat rash on my left armpit and an unpopped blister on my toe to which I bandaided it "just in case".  I was breaking up before the race was even beginning.

We got across to Derrinallum around 8.30 and signed in.  This is the first fun run they have organised, the Market to Mount, so I feel pretty good that I'm at the inaugural event.  There were probably about 80 runners and walkers all up?  Maybe more, not sure.   And as you can see here this was first thing after signing in, 8.30 and it was pretty hot and only going to get hotter.  That sun was FIERCE!   And behind me the "elephant" just out of town that we were going to have to scale.

Here I am in a group of runners heading through town.    The run commenced at the Recreation Reserve on the east side of Derri, commencing with a lap of the oval, then out onto the highway, running through town and past the market, out of town and up to the mount and then to scale the mount any which way you could.

Didn't I say in the Surf T Surf photos in January that I was going to have to work on my goofy faces, oh Lordy Lord, here I am running past Mike who was snapping away like a mad man.

So I did the race in my run/jog/shuffle/sometimes walk a few steps/shuffle/jog/run style.  Thank heavens for the race organisers having plenty of water tables on the way because that sun was merciless.  Although I have combatted the flies for sure, I dabbed Nature's Botanical on my skin and it did the trick.  Works for horses right? tee hee.

So once I hit the road heading up to the car park at the mount I just knew it would be tough going, I could see the front runners already scaling up the steep incline at the front.  I did a bit of overtaking, then I was overtaken, vice versa as it went.  Once I left the car park and the incline really began I knew I was in for a rough trot.  It was STEEP!  The first part was scoria/gravelly type footing, and from here on in I walked.  I was in good company apparently, after the presentation I was talking to the second adult male place getter and asked him if he actually ran up the mount, and he said none of them did, it was way too steep.  That made me feel better in hindsight.

Years ago I used to do a walk up a big hill in Belmont when I lived in Geelong many years ago, Mount Pleasant Road.  Being the ex-brass band girl I was, I would have a stirring march playing in my head and that would keep me at pace getting up a hill.  I tried the same tactic.  Unfortunately my stirring march in my head was like a record on the wrong speed and it was getting slower and slower.  

Another water table (THANK GOODNESS!!) and still climbing and the track turned to cut hay kind of grass.  Every now and then I'd get a spurt on, but it would be short lived.  My legs were going wobbly at this stage and my calf muscles screaming in agony, but on I kept going.  It was magic looking up at one stage and seeing the finishers at the top.  On I went until I rounded the last knob and there was the finish line and I finished with a run.  I mean come on, I'd come all that way, I *had* to finish with a run, didn't I?  

This photo was kindly taken by Natalie from Colac, one of the ladies I met up at the top and she emailed it to me.   Oh and that wasn't sweat, well maybe some of it was, but it was mainly when I upended some of my drink bottle on myself to cool down.  

47 MINUTES and 33 SECONDS!!  Way to go me.  It was meant to be 5km, but Natalie said her Garmin watch said it was more like 5.7km.   

So after admiring the view and having a breather and a rest and a drink for a while, what goes up must come down and we started the trek down the mount.  There would be a shuttle bus to take us back into Derri.  I almost came down the quick way though when I slipped on the path and fell on my ass!! (padded as it may be).   I walked down with two new friends, Natalie from Colac and Shona from Creswick, both seasoned runners and very inspiring.  We nattered about running the whole way down.  

The shuttle bus had just not long headed back into town so we thought eh, lets walk it, it will be a good cool down for our legs.  Except we got back on the highway and had the crazy notion to run back into town.  So a huge thanks to the ladies for the encouragement in keeping me running.  It would have been soooooo easy to have waited for the shuttle bus.  I think Mike was surprised when we came running back into town, and he took our photograph.  

And that was it, the end of the line.  I was holding up the tree here, or maybe the tree was holding me up, not sure.  But all I know is that I was so darn proud of myself.  I remember grumbling to myself on the way up the mount that this was a first and last time, I'd never do this again, but by this stage, those little endorphins had kicked in and were fluttering about inside me and I was already planning to put this on the calendar for next year.  :-)

Oh and fun runs really tire a person out, don't they?  Look who I found asleep on the couch this afternoon when we got home.  Must have been all that standing around holding a camera that wore him out.    My friend Alison commented though "but well it is a big camera after all" !!

So a couple of things I'm REALLY proud of myself for today:

1.  I didn't know anyone else doing the race and still did it anyway.

2.  All up by not waiting for the shuttle and running back to town, it was a 10k (or thereabouts) day.

3.  I love pushing my body like this, even though I'm walking like a little old lady tonight, it's a great feeling.

Let's wait to see how my muscles feel in the morning! ha.