New Challenges - Same Enthusiasm

Alright slightly less hyper post coming up today, yesterday's was fueled with a mixture of Endorphins and Champagne! First up, as I love my stats, here are my results from yesterday - Time - 1:48:00, bugger I hate round numbers (still thrilled with the time though) Placings: Overall - 1612/4269 Females - 424/1989 Age (F30-34) - 75/327 (quite chuffed with that, always good to get into the double figures at a big event) I had a great night sleep and woke up with pretty fresh legs, I put this down to the following -

• Jumping in and out of my sisters very very cold pool for about 15 minutes. Couldn't stay in, it really was very cold
• Getting straight into the Skins after my shower and keeping them on until this morning
• Taking a couple of Neurofen before bed

Mentally a bit so so, pretty tired and emotional all day, but I think that is to be expected after such a big race with a long lead up. It almost felt like the day after Xmas when I was a kid. But I have been able to rest and have a think about where I want to go next. The good news is that my enthusiasm has not waned at all, if anything I am more fired up and excited about where I can go next with this, I feel pretty lucky to have this joy for running. In fact I forgot to post yesterday, at about the 17 Km mark I started to feel quite out of myself, almost like I was out of my body watching myself run, it was very weird but very calming, maybe I had a Zen moment or had discovered the runners high??!! So, what now? I was approaching the half as a benchmark, to decide whether or not it was a distance I wanted to seriously persure or just leave for "fun". Well, I enjoyed the distance and it wasn't a hellish experience. Now that I have tackled a few distances I want to put my heart and soul into 10 Km and Halfs. I want to pursue these and become the best runner I can at these distances, I want to get a sub 42 min 10Km and a sub 100 minute Half Marathon. Now, what about the Melbourne Marathon? I have been thinking long on this one today and I am still in 2 minds. It is 97 days away and I am wondering if that leaves me enough time to train properly for the distance. I don't want to make a "specialty" out of this distance, it is more of a Becuase it's there pursuit. I have decided to get into the training regardless and then about a month out make the decision on whether or not I will enter the half or the full. Part of me feels that I should see out a full year of running before I go down the Marathon track and it takes a big person to re-asses a goal. Also if it is going to interfere with my 10Km and 21Km goals then I won't let it. I don't want to sacrfice a 10Km race because I am worried about losing weekly mileage in a Marathon training plan. I have also decided that I will definitely join an Aths club next year, I am starting to feel confident that I can make a contribution, again I don't want to be locked slavisly into a Marathon training schedule. I will use some of my spare time away from work this week to start looking at clubs, Box Hill seems likely as it is close to home. My only worry is that clubs often seem to be struggling to put together their women's teams, I don't want to pay those fees and then not be able to run. Personally I am a very committed person and will also give 100% once I have thrown my hat in, but having been in club sport before I know that is not the case with everyone involved. A friend has offered to help me put together a training plan, so will be having a chat with him in the coming weeks and will start going after those goals. In the meantime I will ease back into it this week with some easy runs. PS - my sister has quit smoking and has told me she wants to try running again, which makes me very happy. I have given her a link to the Couch to 5K program for her to get started on when she gets over her cold. She is 6 years younger than me and has a smaller, slimmer build, I told her that with a bit of training she will be kicking my butt in no time, she has the perfect runners physique. She enjoyed the atmosphere at the Marathon yesterday and has set herself the goal of entering the 10Km next year, I know I will be back for at least the half, no worries.