Gold Coast Marathon - Run

So because I had been sick with pneumonia my training had been non existent since late May. I went into this with no real belief that I was going to be able to finish it. However I had decided that I was just going to run until they told me to stop - that would be either because I had crossed the line or because the sag wagon was picking me up.

The atmosphere was pretty good with lots of runners and a pretty good crowd along the route. I set off with mum as her pace is a little slower than mine and I figured that it would help me to get to the end. We started off doing a 4:1 run/walk and I had to tell mum to slow down a few times in the first K cause she was going out too fast and I thought that she would crash and burn.

For the first 10 K we kept the pace at the mid to low 7s which is pretty fast for mum, but she said that she was ok and that running slower hurt.

At the 13k mark she said she was done and had had enough for the day. So I told her to put her headphones in and turn her music up loud and SLOW DOWN. Which we did.

At around the 15k mark the balls of my feet started to burn and I knew that I had blisters developing - not a surprise given my lack of running.

At the 20k mark we stopped and used the loos, I hadn't realised how full my bladder was. By this time my feet were really burning but I figured that I would deal with the blisters later.

It had gotten fairly warm and there was less shade on the second part of the course, but I was feeling pretty good from a nutrition point of view.

Mum had started to stop and walk a little bit more often, she would only take a few steps and then she would run again but she was starting to struggle a bit. We had done the first 21k in 2:52 which wasn't far off Mum's best HM time.

At the 25k mark mum told me to go as she couldn't keep up any more. Truth was I was really struggling as mum feet were really hurting and changing between running and walking was hurting too much. I headed off but I honestly didn't know how much further I was going to get.

I stopped at the water station at the 27k mark to top up my electrolytes bottle and mum caught up to me. She told me to just walk, she said that she could see that my feet were sore cause she had been watching me from behind and could see that I was running funny. I told her about my blisters and she suggested that she had band aides and we should stop and see what we could do for my feet.

Given that the entire balls of my feet were on fire I knew band aides wouldn't help. I also knew that if I stopped and took my shoes off they would not be going back on, which is what I told mum. I took some panadol which helped a bit.

We worked out that we had about 3 hours to do the last 15k so we decided that we would walk the rest of it, but we decided that we would keep the pace at under 10 minutes per km, to give ourselves a bit of a buffer.

At around the 32k mark we were talking about how we thought K might be doing and as mum looked sideways she saw her sitting on the side of the course at an aide tent. She looked ok and was talking on her phone so we weren't sure if the sag wagon had picked her up or if she had hurt herself. (It turns out she had some hydration issues and had stopped because she was worried that she would fall over and hurt herself and that they wouldn't be able to do her surgery the next week).

At the 32k mark you pass the start/finish line so we knew that we only had 10k to go and we had a bit over two hours to get it done. By this time I could actually feel the fluid in the blisters on my feet but I figured I could manage 10 more k.

Getting to the turn around point at the 37k mark seemed to take forever. It had gotten hot by then and we had to walk past our hotel. Thankfully I didn't have a key to get in cause otherwise I may well have just walked straight into the swimming pool fully clothed.

There was a good crowd at the turn around point and a number of them had oranges and watermelon and ice which was great. We started to set ourselves challenges as to who the next people that we were going to pass were, which helped to keep the pace up. We also came across more and more people who were struggling.

By this time I also had blisters on the insides of the heals of my feet because I had changed the way I was running to account for the blisters on the balls. At the 38k mark I told mum that I had to slow down - just a little bit cause I couldn't keep the speed up. so we aimed for around the 10 minute per k mark.

At the aide station at the 39k mark a lady gave me a small bag of ice which I used to ice my lower back for a bit (it was sore because of the way I was walking). It helped A LOT. when it was too melted to hold on my back anymore we stuck a hole in the bag and ate it.

With about 750 meters to go E appeared on the course. She had finished in about 4:30 and had been tracking us. I nearly cried when I saw her. I think cause I realised that I was actually going to finish, up until that point I hadn't let myself think about it because I didn't think that I would.

There was a big arch that said 250m to go and I suggested to mum that maybe we could run that last little bit. I took a couple of steps and realised that it was a very bad idea but I got to the line.

YAY I finished

not get pneumonia a month before a marathon.

There was 200+m walk from the finish line to get your medal which wasn't great, especially because my brain suddenly decided that my feet were no longer going to be walked on.

The finish line is right near the beach so I thought that it would be a good idea to take my shoes off and stick my feet in the salty water. It WASN'T.

The salt water wasn't a problem, it was walking on the sand to get to the water. Anyway sat with my feet in the water for a bit and then somehow managed to get back to the step and put my socks and shoes back on because we had to go and find a taxi to get back to the hotel because the shuttle buses had finished.

Mum, E and K decided that I needed to go to the medical tent and have my feet looked at so I hobbled back over there. They wrapped my feet in massive bandages which was far from helpful cause then they wouldn't fit into my shoes. Thankfully mum has slightly bigger feet than me so I out her shoes on and we headed off to find a taxi - that was a drama in itself.

But hey I finished and that is all that matters


lack of training due to being sick


Great race I just wasnt trained enough to make it a really great race.