Awards & Trails

I am now in my "off-season" time of running. It is a nice feeling, to have all that pre-race pressure taken off my shoulders! So for the next few weeks my focus will not be on endurance, or speed, or improvements. It will be about enjoying a bit of running with friends and taking it eeeeeasy.

On Thursday it was our year-end awards dinner for the club. I was happy to go along and celebrate with my friends on their achievements. Imagine my surprise when I won an award myself!

There were three "Performance of the Year" awards given away. Two went to runners of the Melbourne Marathon. The third went to me, for The Great Whitsunday Walk. I was floored at this unexpected honour.

Who would've thought a slow runner such as myself would get an award for running?

This trophy is not representative of how I actually looked crossing the finish line at the Whitsundays, but it does a good job of representing how I felt at the time!

 Bec - the gal who inspired me to run faster than I thought possible. She earned a well-deserved 'Honorary Lifetime Member" award.

Me, Bevan, and Jen. I think Bevan is more excited about the free wine than he was about his "Performance of the Year" award he also received.

While I've been taking it easy this past week after last weekend's 500k relay, I did decide to go on a trail run with friends. It was great! My biggest mistake was getting a lift from a friend and sitting in the back seat of the car. There is a mathematical equation that exists: twisty roads + back seat = car sick Laura.

I had already been overly tired, so adding car sick onto that was not fun. I thought I would get better as we ran. And I did, sort of.

The trail was beautiful, and I loved running it. The first part was slightly downhill, which was fine. We finished at a beautiful look-out before turning back. My stomach was still (unfortunately) feeling quite off. As we turned back to start back up the gentle uphill, it reminded me unpleasantly that it was not a happy stomach.

As we were heading back, I noticed one of my running buddies wasn't with me. I stopped and waited, and waited. Then I thought maybe he had gone on ahead or taken a different trail, so I ran back to the carpark to meet the group, expecting - hoping - to see him there. Nope.

I volunteered along with the group leader to go back to where the trail had forked and make sure the person hadn't taken a wrong turn (he had). Luckily, we found him fairly quickly and were able to return to the group. 

At this point I was feeling downright terrible. I staggered along to the start of the trail, then my previously lost buddy and I walked for a bit - he to slow down and calm his heart rate, me because I was trying not to be sick.

We reached a lovely view point and took a few photos. At this point, he continued on to catch up with the group. I instead returned to near the carpark to chill on a bench. I can't say my stomach completely settled until hours later, making me think that it wasn't just a bit of car sickness that was bothering me.

But so what? It's off season! No races to worry about, no concerns of speed, or endurance, or maximizing training. I was out to run with friends and enjoy. Mission accomplished (minus the stomach problems).