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The rarely updated blog of Joel Dixon
Viewing blogs posted in October, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
I ran a[n eighth of a] marathon today!
# Posted by Joel Dixon at 11/10/2009 20:44:21About two months ago, I had been going to the gym for a few weeks and started to really enjoy the treadmill work I was doing. So, of course, I went too far ahead of myself and said to Bell "I want to complete a marathon before I turn 30". This was partly because I think running a marathon is a good bucket list goal - and partly because of Hamish Blake's effort.
So I signed up for the 5km event of this year's Melbourne Marathon. I chose the 5km distance because I was still new to running - and just wanted to see how much harder running would be when not on a treadmill. Over the last few months I've found that 5km isn't that long - and I predicted I'd finish the race in around 30 minutes, maybe 25.
The race started a little annoyingly - I was so far back at the starting line - I just stood there for a full minute while the long line ahead of us got started. But when I got running it was great fun! The weather was excellent - and spectators were littered around the course offering encouragement.
By far the most enjoyable part of the race was the final 800 meters - a semi-lap of the MCG. Running in through Gate 3 of the 'G to apparently 10,000 people sporadically cheering was amazing. Sure - most of them were there for the proper runners (half and full marathons) - it still felt pretty good.
After the finish we all received a participation medal. Sure, it sounds like "everyone gets a medal day" - but it was a really nice quality prize. In roller hockey, I've won grand finals, team and league MVPs and various other sporting trophies - and none have looked as nice as my 5km participation medal. The longer distance ones looked much nicer too!
My bling
I had a look at the online results - and I actually finished in 19 minutes and 51 seconds. I'm pretty surprised at that - it's an average of 15 km/h - I guess I've been slacking off when on the treadmill. My official position is 400th (out of around 4,000) - but my net time (i.e. discounting the time it took me to get to the start line) puts me around 300th. I'm pretty happy with that - especially for my first race.
My Results
In the end - I wish I had have run the 10km race. 5km isn't enough to see if I have the right kind of endurance to get a full or even half marathon. I'm going to give the 15km Run For The Kids a go next March - should be a better challenge.
To top it off - our mixed basketball team won our first non-grading game by 38 points tonight. I scored 12 points - meaning I wasn't allowed to score anymore. The "can't score more than 12 rule" is one that I thought would never need to be applied to me during a game. Perhaps I should go for a 5km run each morning before basketball!
# Posted in the General section and tagged as: Running
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