21.1km - The Hurt Locker

You can see it in my eyes and can tell from my body language that I am indeed in the hurt locker!  

This is me just at 21.00km with just 100metres to run (for the record, I beat both the other chicks in the photo!).  This was one of the most difficult mental battles that I toughed out and happy to say I finished in 2 hours, 7 minutes and 42 seconds.  I'm pretty darn happy with 6 minute kilometres x 21!  


Thanks to my iPod I can break it down and do a little bit of an analysis.  I stayed on pace almost the whole way through tracking on average 5'42" per kilometre until I got to the dreaded 17km mark.  I hit the wall so hard and it was bigger than the Great Wall of China.  At this stage, I'm not to proud to say it I actually thought it would be damn easy just to stop, walk or burst into tears.  But I didn't.  I kept one foot moving in front of the other, and sure my pace slowed down to a mere shuffle for 2km but I kept going!  At the 19km mark I had my head in the right space, upped the pace and knew I only had 1.1km to go.  At the 50 metre mark I lifted, put in everything I had, passed two more people and ran through the finish line with a huge smile on my face.  


Best splits during the 21.1km:

• 1km mark - 5'15"/km
• 8km mark - 5'34"/km
• 14km mark -5'34"/km

Slowest split during the 21.1km:

• 18km mark - 7'18"/km

Random moments during the race:

• Hitting the 10km mark and thinking, if my husband had of signed my up for the 10km I would have been done by now!  
• Listening to The Living End song 'From Here On In' and remembering the last time I heard that I was in a world of pain getting through 150 6kg wall balls!  That spurred me on to think that it's not going to last forever.
• Thinking how good I felt in the upper body and just wanting to do something my arms and not have to continually use my legs.  
• Tripping and nearly hitting the asphalt three separate times during the 17-19km mark - oh yeah, I was a picture of grace.  
• My iPod congratulating me for finishing the 21.1km - I was still 200metres from the finish line, mentally devastating!  

What I learnt:

• I can run 21.1km 
• Mental toughness is something not to be dismissed
• CrossFit isn't just a fun sport where you can compete against yourself and others it sets a platform that helps you physically get beyond places you never thought you could go!
• Compression tights are the bomb in recovery
• That sometimes the people you love the most, have more faith in you than yourself.  My husband entered me in the 21.1km half marathon and always believed that I could do it, and my parents have taught me to finish what you start and to never give up.