CC Half

Saturday 3 December (continued) – The Entrance here we come!

Go Girl picked me up from Parramatta station in the Go-mobile just after 4pm. After collecting Go Husband from his cricket match at Winston Hills, we arrived at the Entrance - after making a short detour (ie we missed the turnoff) - at about 7.30pm. Checked into my lovely B&B and after tucking into a delicious slice of homemade carrot cake (being well fed proved to be the theme of my stay), I was collected by the Go couple for dinner at an Italian restaurant. Crawled into bed exhausted at about midnight.

Sunday 4 December – CC Half

I have to confess that when I woke up this morning (in my very comfy bed) my first thought was – why am I here? Did I really want to go and cheer today? In all honesty, the answer was no. The Owl & I have often said that there have been times when we wanted to cheer instead of run – it is loads of fun and a very rewarding experience. However today I really did not want to cheer. But there I was - so I dragged my butt out of bed and got ready to head down to the start. As I was leaving, my hosts asked me if I wanted coffee or cereal. I said no, keeping my eye on the time. After saying that I couldn’t go so long on an empty stomach (I’d asked to have breakfast at 9.30am), my hosts sent me on my way with a bag of 5 homemade cookies!

Before the start I finally met the lovely Twopennys. Blue Dog kindly told me he would “take care” of Mr Jen_runs if he ever causes me problems ;-) LOL. Thanks Doggie. I was also handed a huge bag of water sachets by Truckie and told to get on the course and hand them out(!). After seeing Satan yesterday, my arms/upper body were bloody tired – thankfully Go Husband was on hand to carry them for me!!

Once we cheered the runners off, Go Husband and I set off to walk down the course to cheer and to hand the water out. The 9kms runners came past us while we walked down the course. At about the 4kms mark, we pulled up stumps on a park bench, just after the last drinks stop, and cheered the Half runners through. Once the skaminer-mobile past, Go Husband and I set out to walk back to the finish. On the walk back, Plu caught up to us and stopped running long enough to give me a cuddle and then set off on his run again! Bennyr decided to join us on the long walk back after having a bad day at the office. Very shortly after getting back to the finish, I had to walk back to my B&B for breakfast so I missed out on the chance to catch up with Silverfox which is a real shame. After breakfast (fruit salad, cereal, english muffins with avocado and cheese, toast & honey, coffee & juice – unfortunately my appetite hasn’t yet come to terms with the fact that I’m not running!), I checked out and headed down to the Entrance Hotel – carrying, amongst other things, a paper bag containing a muffin that I hadn’t been able to eat at breakfast!. It was great to catch up with Miners, Twopennys, Royworlds, Omni (briefly), Gronk, TA and Gnome, Go Girl, Go Husband and Bennyr over a drink. After lunch, we finally piled into the Go-mobile for the trip home.

As for my knee, it seems that I always speak too soon. Despite walking 8kms during the race, my knee was fine. That is until I walked up the hill to my B&B for breakfast. A sharp stabbing pain in my knee very quickly reminded me that my ITB isn’t as happy as I thought it was. Unfortunately it continued to tighten through the course of the afternoon. I even resorted to some drugs which is pretty unusual for me (thanks TA). So my plan to return to running in 2 weeks is now looking extremely unlikely. Not particularly happy Jan.

Huge thanks to Go Girl and Go Husband for the lift and their wonderful company over the weekend :-)