Down-time

Monday, Dec 7, 2009

It took me until the weekend to get back on a proper sleeping schedule but I didn’t feel too badly considering. Since I have been back I have been taking it easy. I have run a few 45′ runs at an easy pace. Jon said I could go ahead and start doing my strength and plyometrics training again (easing into it with just one session/week) but other than that, I am getting lot’s of rest, recharging for the next bout of training.

The rest of my time away was just brilliant. The day after the Ekiden started with an early morning run and one of the fastest packing jobs I have ever done in my life. Buses picked us up first thing to take everyone to the airport to drop off luggage before heading into Tokyo. Since I had to get to a different terminal than team Canada, I got on the bus withthe Australian team who let me tag along with them for the day. Our time spent in Tokyo was too short. It’s an absolutely fascinating place. I felt like my head was going to twist right off my neck, I was turning it so much trying to look at everything and take it all in. We toured around the Akihabara Electric town for a bit to start. The main street is wall-to wall electronic stores…just wild!

We then went to the very unique Ameyayokocho shopping district near the Ueno station. This is an area where I  wanted to spend more time exploring but we only had about 90 minutes to pack in as much as we could. We didn’t even come close to seeing anything in Tokyo really. You’d need at least a week!

 

 

My adopted team treated me like part of the family and we had a terrific time. We all caught an 8pm overnight flight to Sydney and then it was onward to Melbourne for me.

I met Andrew Carlson and Stefano Baldini soon after we got off the flight. They too were flying directly from the Ekiden. Stefano made a quick introduction but didn’t look like he was into chitty-chat with anyone. I wasn’t even sure he spoke English but the three of us found ourselves walking to the next gate together. As we waited for Andrew to finish filling out his custom card, a large pod of Japanese school kids poured into the zig-zagline-up putting us in the very back of the line within a matter of seconds. With a flight to catch in less than 45 minutes I knew we were hooped. Stefano didn’t look happy. I told the guys to follow me and I went up to the security guy helping with the huge line-up. I told him we had a flight to catch and that we would be late if we waited in line. He asked where we were from and I said, ‘Canada!’…Right this way, he said.  He put us straight  through an express line that had us through customs in less than five minutes. Stefano was grateful and warmed up to me instantly!

The days before the race were spent eating, sleeping, shopping, exploring with a bit of light running thrown in there. My legs felt terrible the day I arrived in Melbourne and only slightly better the next day forcing me to postpone my short wo to the Friday. I guess the combination of racing on Monday, walking for hours on Tuesday followed by a 12 hour flight will do that to you!

I couldn’t have asked for a better room mate than Helen Clitheroe from the UK. We hit it off immediately and spent most of our free time together and got along just great.

The Great Australian Run was just fantastic. The course had a flat start, followed by  a gradual climb from about the 4km to 8km, followed by a quick and steep down hill, another couple of short ups and downs to the 10km then the longest, straightest, flattest 5km I have ever raced. So, lot’s of challenges that made for an interesting course! The weather looked OK for the start of the race, cool with just a light breeze.

The women’s elite race was the first to get under way. There were ten of us invited elites which Helen and I both thought to our horrow, was the entire women’s field. Fortunately another 25 local elites joined in…whew! I got off to a solid start. Knowing my legs weren’t feeling all too hot in the warm-up, I paid close attention to how my first km went. I was just 5″ off the front pack and went through in 3:25…but it felt brisk and rough so I knew running any farther trying to hold that pace or faster to stay in contact with the leaders would be suicide so I relaxed and found a pace I knew I could hold for the day. About four women who chose the suicide pace eventually faded and I passed them with ease. It wasn’t my friskiest run and that last 5km was all I could do to focus on keeping my rhythm going. To add to the fun, we were hit by a sudden rain/wind storm with 2km to go. I was running with my face turned sideways just so I could see where I was going! I finished in 53:39 and in 8th place…not stellar but considering how I was feeling and that it was another solo run in less than a week, I would say I was a tough litttle thing out there. Pics from after the race:

 

The sun broke out about thirty minutes after I finished (typical Melbourne weather). A really neat thing happened while here. I was finally able to meet fellow blogger Aussie Em!  We met a few years back on-line discovering each other’s blog when we were both hobbled with a stress fracture that happened to us almost to the day. I never thought we would actually some day meet. We made a plan to look for on another near the stage. We recognized each other instantly! Pretty crazy!

We had a fabulous, sunny (though windy) afternoon. Helen and I had a date with a street dedicated to cakes near St. Kilda Beach so off we went and spent a few hours walking around this quaint district, shopping and eating the best cake on the planet!

 

A birthday party was celebrated at Sonia O’Sullivan’s in the evening. She had us all over to her home for a BBQ and munchies.

It was a pretty specialtrip. I met so many world-class athletes all of whom never made me feel like I didn’t belong (even though I was clearly not even close to being in their league).  I made a lot of new and good friends and meeting Helen was a highlight of the trip. Andy Caine and his entourage were incredible and we were never without from second we got off the flight to the time we boarded to come home. I feel very, very fortunate to have had this experience. Running in such a competitive international field was pretty special and I learned so much once again.

I know I made a selfish decision to pull out of running on the BC team at the last minute and I am not proud of that. I know I burned a few bridges there. However, I hope that with contacts made, more Canadian athletes will be invited to events such  the Great Run series…although after having me acting like a nutbar all week they may never invite a Canadian back ever again! Hopfully the timing will be better in the future too.