Thursday, April 21, 2005

Beautiful one day in Tassie, perfect the next in July

I've booked accommodation for Gold Coast! Because my recovery from the Canberra Marathon has been slow I've decided to miss the Canberra Half Marathon on 15 May. My next major race will be the Gold Coast Half on 3 July. I ran in this event a number of times last century including an 83:31 in 1995. It's a good flat course, ideal for even-paced running.
This weekend there's a carnival in Hobart, Tasmania. It's the Australian Little Athletics Championships. Four kids and one adult from the Calwell group will be there. I want to wish them good luck. When a chance presents itself, don't ask questions, just go for it! A runner named Chris Williams did just that many years ago and came away with two gold medals.
Chris was a middle distance runner who loves running and challenges. You'd think a young sub-2 minute 800m runner would keep running middle distance. Not Chris. He likes running the long and winding road. He ran a half marathon last year and, against advice, decided to return home and run the Canberra Marathon this year at age 19.
Like many runners Chris found the going tough and couldn't keep his early 2:40 schedule going. He still ran 2:56:09 on debut which was a great effort. You learn a lot about yourself running a marathon. I hope Chris learned to embrace the challenges that running offers and to take this great sport with him through the rest of his life!

1 comment:

Unknown said...

You're not doing the Canberra half in May? I'm wondering the same thing about the SMH half in Sydney on May 22nd; have an entry in but Chickybabe will have to seek advice from wise wombat as to whether this is good thing or not good thing to do!