22km Coastal Challenge!

Saturday was race day! Rose, a host mom for some girls in our program wanted to race with us but couldn't do the distance we chose, so she was so kind in giving us a ride and she met us at the finish line with her mom because they ran the 6km race.

Looking at the course and thinking... what did I get myself into?!

We signed up for the race that morning and little did I know when I signed up for the 22km coastal challenge, that I really was up for a GINORMOUS challenge, oh boy! About 10 minutes after registering, we were talking to a guy that had done the race last year and he strongly cautioned us against bringing our ipods because you were swimming in some parts of the race, and even if you were super careful, you’d have to strap it up on top of your head somehow.  He also suggested that we “vas” up! Meaning we needed to put Vaseline in all areas of your body where you could chafe. That in and of itself was a bit odd, but hey it worked, so I’m not complaining. J

"Vasing" up so we didn't chafe

The starting line... yes, we ran into the water and around the bend

The course was literally running along the coastline from Long Bay all the way down to Devonport. That meant that if there were rocks in the way, you had to either climb over them or swim around them. When there were sandy parts, you had to just do your best to run on the sand. If you fall, you get back up and keep going because you’re on the coastline and there’s no other way to go. When you get sand in your shoes, you have to ignore it and keep going because you probably won’t get it out anyways if you did stop. If you are running on the rocks, you still had to go super slow because you could slip on them even if they look okay to run on. If you are swimming around spots, you still have to feel with your hands before swimming forward because you might run into a large rock barely covered by the water. And last but not least, the only other markers for the race are the starting points for 3 shorter races… everything in between I had no idea where I was at or how long I had until the next marker. Here are some pictures from the Coastal Challenge website to illustrate my point.

We started running straight into the water and rounding the bend of the bay, so it was a mad rush to the rock edge and then the race slowed a bit as everyone waited to get up over the rocks. I got separated towards the beginning of the race because after getting around the rock bend I chose to swim around the next one instead of waiting to climb and run on the rocks. I ended up getting in 1^st out of the four of us by about 5 minutes. The whole time I was wishing that Stacey and Natalie would just catch up to me so that I had someone to run with as well, but alas, they didn’t. Kirsten was an awesome trooper and ran almost half of the race with blisters on the back of her feet from the sand rubbing against her shoes.

I did it! Mallory came and watched but missed me finish, so she took a pic later.

It felt so good to sit down... and the banana was heavenly

dirty socks full of sand

We all DID IT!

Overall, I am really glad that I did it because it was UBER challenging, I can say I did it, it was absolutely beautiful scenery and now I feel like any other half marathon after this one will be slightly easier. I ended up doing a lot better than I thought I would. I came in at 3:07:05 which placed me in 16^th for my age grouping (20-39) and 21^st out of all the women running the 22km race.

Beginning of race: somewhat happy and excited               Middle of race: Wanting it to be done!

What I hope I looked like most of the time           What I probably looked like all of the time