"Instructions for living a life: Pay attention. Be astonished. Tell about it." – Mary Oliver

Ask Me Anything: Vol 1

Today, I’ll be answering some questions you submitted. When I set up the form, I didn’t include a place for people’s names, so now I don’t know who asked me the questions. I apologise for that. The first question I have no idea who asked it but the next three comes from someone who loves travel and travel tips and has also been a runner, so I’m guessing Kyria. (Let me know if my guess was correct, or if you are the one who asked any of these questions) If you have a question for me, fill in the form. I’ll be doing more of these posts.

Have you finished running every street in your neighbourhood?

Bathing Boxes are a tourist drawcard in our neighbourhood

When we moved across town into a different neighbourhood, I decided to try to walk every street within a 5km radius of our house to discover more about the local area. This is my first post about it. Partway through, I decided to convert this goal to walking/running every street in Brighton, Elwood, and Gardenvale (we are in Brighton but close to Elwood and Gardenvale) and I’ve added this to my 101 Things list. I haven’t made much progress on this goal over the last six months because I’ve completed all the streets closest to us, and I got a stress fracture in my foot, which meant I either couldn’t walk at all, really, or not very far and definitely no running. I use Citystrides to track my progress and it currently says I am 92.55% for Elwood, 76.26% for Brighton and 40% for Gardenvale.

I plan to write some posts about things I noticed or learned about (if I see something interesting, I will try to find out some information about it) while I am doing this project. So far, I have completed one post, have one post in draft, and have four ideas for posts I want to write. I hope to get stuck back into this project after Christmas.


What advice would you give a person who is just starting (or thinking about starting) to run?

I only took up running in my forties, so starting to run is still fresh in my mind. I had tried running previously but always found that after a few weeks, my knees would hurt, which I now know was most likely ITB issues. I was big on tennis, which was my favourite form of exercise. Anyway, when my daughter was twelve, she broke her tibia and fibula and was not able to run or jump for six months. When she finally got the go-ahead to run, it was only four weeks until the school cross country, and she said she wanted to make the school team, so I said I’d take her out running. It was then that I realised just how unfit I was and decided to do something about it. I decided to give the Couch to 5K program a go. I needed new running shoes, and at the shop, the guy asked what I needed to shoes for. When I mentioned that I was doing the Couch to 5K, his advice was to follow it strictly, even when it felt super easy, and that’s exactly what I did. I also added some glute strength exercises and foam rolling, and I had no ITB issues. When I started, my goal was just to be able to run 5K, and I honestly would have been rapt with that outcome, but once I got to 5K, I thought to myself, I think I can do 10K, and so I moved on to the Couch to 10K and now I’m planning my first marathon.

To summarise my recommendations for people just starting to run: Start small. Something’s better than nothing, right? Use the Couch to 5K or a similar program to build your running gradually. One of the benefits of the Couch to 5K is that it starts easy instead of being a slog straight out of the gate. Do some simple strength work; this looked like a maximum of 15 minutes a couple of times a week at the start. Foam rolling is helpful if you get sore. Above all, have fun!


What was your most difficult moment when running?

There were a few contenders for this: my first half-marathon, where the official pacer I was relying on walked off the course at the 12 km mark; quad cramps during the Two Bays Trail Race (I still haven’t worked out how you would stretch to clear these, so anyone with insight here, let me know in the comments); but the winner is my post-COVID Gold Coast half-marathon. Here’s the whole story:

It was late June 2022, and we’d been having a ball (with some work thrown in the mix) in Noosa for about a month. On the Sunday two weeks before the race, we decided to join a friend doing the Sunshine Coast Longest Run. The idea was that you started at 6 am at Mudjimba Parkrun and travelled to eight different Parkruns over the course of the day, finishing at Brightwater, where we did the run and then had dinner at the pub. So if you do the whole thing it’s 40 km of running. We had to drop H at the airport in the morning, so G and I only started running for the last four runs and G only did two of them. I ran four of the parkruns with my friend getting up close and personal for our selfies. There were a few warning signs of the impending disaster: she said she didn’t sleep well the night before and must have been sunburnt because she felt hot, plus she was sweating during our last run which she never does. We just thought it was because she’d run 40 km that day. Anyway, it was a fantastic day, we had a good pub meal and went home happy and tired.

On Tuesday evening, I suddenly started to feel unwell, and by Wednesday morning, I only just made it out of bed. A RAT test confirmed COVID, and I went back to bed. This was at the time when we were still required to isolate. Let me tell you, I did not feel like leaving my room. Our friend tested, and yes, she had COVID—most likely, she had it on Sunday and gave it to me. G tried to steer clear, sleeping in another room and dropping plates of food at my door. I was pretty unwell, at one point waking on the bathroom floor with a bruised face after fainting. After my week of isolation, I ventured out, pretty shaky still, for a walk. This was the Wednesday before my Saturday half-marathon race.

Thursday we drove down to the Gold Coast. I was feeling OK by then but still deciding whether I was going to run. Clearly, I wasn’t going to have a PB run, and I committed then to entering the Melbourne HM later in the year to go for the PB I’d trained for. I was still torn though because I needed a 2:15 HM time for entry to the Two Bays Trail Run and there was no guarantee that something wouldn’t come along and derail the Melbourne HM. I went out for my normal pre-race run on Friday and felt OK, so I decided to go ahead with the race. I figured I should still be able to get a sub 2:15.

Race day began with a steady drizzle. The start was fine, and for the first 10 km, I kept a nice steady pace between 5:30 and 5:40 min/km, although looking back at my Strava, I can see that my heart rate was a lot higher than it should have been. Around 11 km, I hit a very large wall, and my pace bled off to close to 6 min/km for the next 3 km. After that, the wheels fell off completely, and I got slower and slower. There was a lot of walking, and I got more discouraged. The only thing that kept me going was that I calculated that I should still be able to get my time for Two Bays. The last few kilometres were the opposite of fun, alternating walking and shuffling. My hips were painful because I didn’t have the energy to stride out. Finally, I made it to the finish chute and tried to rally with all the spectators. I’m not sure how successful that was. Let’s say I did not order any race photos that year, and I’m glad that our coach did not spot me around the 19 km mark either.

I made it across the line, but the pain didn’t end there. I felt like I needed to lie down, but there was nowhere even to sit down because it was still raining, and everything was wet and muddy. I found G and the others but just said I’ve got to start going home because standing there stationary, unable to sit, felt worse than keeping moving, and we had 2km to walk back to our apartment. That walk was horrible. Apart from the various aches and pains from running, my whole body just ached. I’m proud of toughing this out, but I don’t know how wise my decision was to continue with the race, considering the dangers of long COVID. Luckily, I recovered OK, and my finish time of 2:05:30 got me my entry to Two Bays.

I think I have gone on long enough for now. I’ll answer more questions in another post. What would your advice for beginning runners be? Do you know your neighbourhood well?


Comments

10 responses to “Ask Me Anything: Vol 1”

  1. I am in my “off running” stage, but got introduced to running for the first time via Couch to 5K. It’s a great program. Very effective!

  2. I honestly do not know if those are my questions! They sound like something I may ask, but I would have to see the others to know for sure! Haha!

    That post COVID race sounds horrible. I am so impressed that you finished it and that you got your qualifying time still! I much prefer races where my car is at the end and we are bussed to the start, because I don’t want to walk any further (or take a bus) to get back to my car/house!

  3. The mere thought of doing all that running brings me out in a sweat. You really are dedicated to the sport, and that post Covid race? Oh my … what a nightmare for you. I’m in awe of your dedication.

  4. I like the running related theme (no it wasn’t me who asked these!) You definitely have a great “most difficult” story!

  5. When I see those bathing boxes I can’t help wondering if their decoration isn’t a code similar to maritime signal flags. It’s just how my brain works 🙂

  6. Oof your experience with COVID sounded rough! Passing out! Yikes! The first time I got Covid I was supposed to run a 10 mile race but I skipped it since I knew I wasn’t nearly well enough to do it. Covid wiped me out for a good 10-14 days the first time I had it!

    That is a really cool goal to walk every street in your neighborhood!

  7. I pondering if this should give me hope that you started in your forties or if it just pressure on me. I am not a fan of running, never have been but I am trying out all sorts of things to get back in shape. Jogging wasn’t really one so far.

    That race you talked about sounds awful to be honest. So much pain…

  8. Oh my gosh. That run experience sounds dreadful. I also started running in my 40s, but I don’t/haven’t run a 5k or anything similar. I run about 4.5 miles every other day, but not in the dead of winter. My advice would be to start out slowly.

  9. I think those were my questions, definitely the first one! 🙂 You inspired me to try and run all streets in my neighborhood but I haven’t kept track on how I am doing (I just logged into CityStrides for the first time in a while and I made decent progress in my neighborhood, but have some streets left to run – maybe I’ll share in a post soon!).

    I think I knew that you came to running kind of late, but I didn’t remember how exactly. I love how you picked it up in your forties and look where you are now, planning a full marathon! I only started running more seriously in my late 30s.

    Your race experience does sound dreadful, I almost can’t believe you finished that race.

    1. Haha, I think that deep down I’m just very stubborn and once I start something I tend to see it through.

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