Mummy, my legs hurt

Now that I've had a nap I can write this race report!  A marathon sandwiched between two 40+ degree days was never going be cool and pleasant, but what a top event it was - Narrabeen Allnighter had such a great laid back vibe and that special camaraderie amongst the marathoners and ultrarunners was there in droves.  My alarm was set for 12.30am(!) to allow for the hour and 20 drive to the northern beaches for rego at 2am and then a 3am start.  We'd come here as a family the week prior so I knew roughly where I was going but I always allow some 'getting lost' time just in case. Arriving alone, I wandered around a little, trying with my crappy night vision to spot anyone I knew, particularly any RMAs or Summit Sisters, but couldn't see anyone familiar in the dark apart from the Up Coaching team who were focussed on the job at hand. Another girl who'd arrived solo introduced herself as Ali (Martinez, who I later found out was very speedy!) and we h...

I had been pretty nervous going into this race - I knew I'd picked a mentally challenging one for my first road marathon. And with the combined forces of some stressful restructuring going on at work plus a few overuse injuries starting to appear after the Run Against Violence, my training had been pretty light on for the past few weeks (or should that be months?). But there were also lots of things about this one that made it easy - it was very close to home, I knew the course, it was dead flat (although that's good and bad!), and lots of friends would be there running, supporting and spectating. Mostly I was worried about the heat but luckily on the day it was a little cooler than it could have been. Still warm, but not crazy-hot. That bloody wind however!! Gusting up to 50km/hr it wasn't so much fun as the day wore on. The 'A' plan for this race (a very far fetched A plan I might add) was to aim for a 4 hour finish in order to qualify for Mt Solitary Ultra ...

It was a tough day at the office today at Glenbrook marathon but as always Running Wild put on a wonderful friendly event! Thank you to all my beautiful friends for your hugs and high fives and support along the course, before, during and after. The community vibe is what makes these events so special. It was a cold, cold start at Euroka clearing early in the morning, but I knew it would warm up pretty fast, so I used my itchy but practical wool arm sleeves to keep warm while I was milling around the start line with Nicole, Jaime and a bunch of other local girls and guys. I knew this course like the back of my hand considering its within spitting distance of my house, but that didn't stop it feeling like a long slow trudge at times. The initial climb up the goat track out of Euroka is always a killer but I purposely slowed right down here and kept my heart rate as manageable as possible. It was perfect weather, not as hot as last year, and the parts I had found hard la...

Registering for this event as a UTA training run (to practice race day nutrition) seemed like a good idea at the time. But on the bus to the start line with Jaime, pre-dawn in an unfamiliar part of Sydney, 40km all of a sudden seemed like a really long way. I don't usually get start line nerves anymore but the enormity of this run hit me early that morning! As the sun broke over Manly Dam, I was glad to have Jaime there for company. We'd travelled in together and were both freaking out a little bit. I spotted a few other guys and girls I knew at the start line, then we were off! I lost Jaime right away as the field spread out, but I was ok with starting off easy. There was a little bit of road at the start then onto lots of single track goodness around Bantry Bay and Killarney Heights. There were some brief flat moments but overall there was heaps of big gnarly technical bits in this race, made more intimidating by the fact that I had never been to this area and di...