A hard rock to crack...

We tackled Hanging Rock for a 20km run as part of our overall training plan.

Seemed a good idea a few weeks ago.

It was a tough run and the hilly, rocky course was more trail like than we are used to and it showed in our slower times, 2:25 for me.

It was a lovely sunny crisp morning and we had high hopes of continuing our progress through the training runs, we thought we were well prepared but it didn't pan out as expected. At one stage Running Buddy was really struggling and we had to break up the run into smaller parts. "We'll run to that next tree" or "We'll run to the flag" etc. There was no thinking about how many kms there was to go, that was too much. I even tried tricking my brain into thinking I was running along our river and the hill was just like the one at home that we practice on. Even the speedy Melissa confessed to walking on the steep sections. Running Buddy apologised for holding me back but I was glad to catch my breath as well.

We had a bit of a joke with the volunteers/marshalls and photographers. They did a great job and some were cheeky in telling us we looked good (we didn't) that the rest of the course was all downhill (it wasn't) or that we were close to the end (not even close). When we saw this photographer waiting at the peak I told him he was mean but then teed up this jump for fun. I enjoyed this aspect of the event, not taking it all too seriously.

we had some fun with the photographer who was perched at the TOP of the hill!

I was able to trial a new hydration product called Tailwind which I sipped as I ran along instead of pre loading or relying on the drink stations. We also tried some Cliff blocks and protein bars which seemed good. Usually after a long run, despite eating and drinking various things, I feel very nauseated and have occasionally vomited. It takes me a while to come good and I have to feel right before the drive home as that just makes things worse. But after this race with the Tailwind on board and some protein immediately after the run, I felt really good.

The best part of the run was coming into the home stretch into the finishing chute I heard the faster members of the Melton City Runners who had already finished, had a beer and a shower cheering me on by name. It was very uplifting and heartening. It's quite nice to have a crew of varying abilities to be a part of and to pick their brains for advice.

MCR - the running crew

Later that day I saw this quote about runners preparing for this weekend's Boston Marathon...

Enjoy the day. While every person who shows up to run Boston on Monday won’t have the best race of their life time-wise, there is no reason this can’t be the best race of your life experience wise. Savor the moment and celebrate all the milestones along the way.
Each run teaches us something new.

This run certainly taught us something and that just might be not to think you know what you're in for.