This morning (Sunday) I left Lorne on a bus at 6.00am to head to the starting line for the Great Ocean Road Half Marathon – my first half marathon. It was cold and very dark and I sat on the bus feeling a little queazy as it made the windy drive to Kennett River.
I was super impressed with the organisation of the Great Ocean Road Half Marathon. Everything went according to their published times and their was such a lovely atmosphere of people keen to take in this gorgeous part of Victoria that the Great Ocean Road encompasses.
While waiting in the toilet queue, I met a dear friend and his running companion. It was nice to have someone to talk to as a distraction from the cold!
This is the only scenery photo I took and it is from just near the starting line. Although the blogger in me did want to stop a number of times to take photos along the course.
The starting line was packed, but it didn’t take long for it to disperse. As a novice runner in these types of events, it was the start that was worrying me the most, but it was much better than I imagined.
The course went from Kennett River to Apollo Bay. 23kms in total, so runners received a half marathon and race time (or a marathon and race time if you ran that far!).
I had set myself a goal of finishing under 2 hours for the entire race and was happy to have come in well under that and run a personal best time for that distance.
Thanks to Pete and Cath, who let us stay at their fab place in Lorne Saturday night. Thank you also to another friend Mark and Mr I I for the prompt in getting me to take part in this event. It wasn’t something that was on my list of things to do this year at all, but I did really enjoy the challenge of pushing myself and has me thinking about other areas where I need to push myself out of my comfort zone!
Have you done something recently that has taken you out of your comfort zone?