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| View from the top.... Finish of P2P |
You know when you think; ‘this is going to
be a great idea’, and that thought passes through your frontal lobe of grey
matter. There probably should be a
safety switch there that says ‘hell no’, especially when you are going through
a mid-life crisis.
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| Mt Wellington in the clouds at start... |
After 8 months on the side line through my
failed actions of Supergirl on tennis court, causing a wee damage to my ankle. I
needed a goal to aim for and thought wouldn’t it be awesome to do Point to
Pinnacle, Half Marathon from Casino to summit of Mt Wellington, in Hobart,
Tasmania. It has been on the radar for a
while, and being in November asked hubby could we do this for my birthday. Thinking not in a million years my hubby
would agree to do a half marathon, never mind it’s all up hill.
Well, you could have knocked me over with a
feather because he said ‘why not’. Oh
no, I think he could sense my ongoing frustration of being injured, soooo long and
not doing anything. When rego opened
there was no turning back.
Tassie is one of the most beautiful pockets
of Australia. The Point to Pinnacle
celebrated their 20th
anniversary this year with 2,600 athletes
taking part, the majority being locals, the 350 or so of us being
‘mainlanders’. Ranging in all ages,
shapes and sizes the Point to Pinnacle is all about people having a go and
leading a healthier lifestyle and I think that is what drew me to it in the
first place. It is all about having a
go.
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| All smiles at flattest part of course, the start line. :) |
You can rego to run or walk, and with the
fitness level at below par and still ‘fixing’ the ankle we registered to
walk. All hale, you runners that
course....amazing.(and walkers) :)
The night before was a dinner at the West
Point Casino, our starting point for the following morning; special guest
speaker was Mr John Maclean, who was the first paraplegic athlete to complete
the mecca in Ironman, Kona, Hawaii, after 3 attempts. Swam English Channel, and much, much
more. What a truly inspirational person.
Race day arrived and the walkers start out
an hour before the runners. A group
warm up to get the muscles moving, Mt Wellington tried to appear, but it hadn’t
quite woken up yet and was immersed in cloud.
Somewhere up there was the finish line.
The siren went off and only for us to discover we were leaving the only FLAT
part of the course; the West Point Casino carpark, the rest is all uphill;
isn’t that noice.
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| a bit of fun on side |
Surrounded by people laughing and chatting
in the first few km’s, the occasional costume floating by; beer wenches,
Hawaiian grass skirts etc. The temperature was perfect with just a wee chill in the
air. The road beneath our feet kept
climbing up and the tip of Mt Wellington still in clouds.
By 10km, blisters had popped on both heals,
we still were not on the pinnacle road to the summit, and did I mention the
road was still climbing up. After an
hour of walking the first of the runners appeared, amazing, and go you good
things. All the walkers were giving them
a cheer to keep them going. Everyone was
so encouraging it was like being with my teamies (Empowerfx) and they were 4,000km away.
At the 11km mark cramps had set in, oxygen
was getting to be a minimal thing, and did I mention oh the road was still
going UP. But we were finally on the
last stage of mountain road; only 10km’s to go whoopee. My hubby looked back at me to say with his
eyes are we having fun yet? I’m a little
delirious by this stage so I think my eyes rolling into the back of my head and
Frankenstein walk probably answered that one.
With 9km to go, each km is marked on the
road, that’s still going UP by the way, and totally in struggleville by then,
yet my mountain goat hubby kept on going and kept me going. Even to the point of taking a leaf out of
coaches book. We passed the 9km mark on
the road and he’d say ‘hey only 8km and a bit to go’. Who was he kidding ha ha.
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| Bubbles of delirium at "the Springs" |
6km and I’d passed struggleville right on
by and hit wall number 99. I looked down
and to my amazement my curvy calf muscle had actually gone straight out
sideways with cramp..well I’ll be. It was
pretty freaky, stretched it out and kept going only because of my beautiful
hubby said we came 4000km we are going to finish by cut off.
Whilst taking a few wee mini breaks on the
side, regaining much said oxygen intake, beautiful people encourage me to keep
going, and doing a great job. The summit
was coming into view between the clouds and it all seemed a finish was
possible.
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| just oxygen to lungs would have been good at this stage |
The last drink station was at 17km mark,
and you could really see the summit by then, woot woo. I think my hubby literally dragged me the
last few km’s and if I wasn’t so delirious with cramps, blisters and oxygen
intake I’d probably really enjoy the amazing view, it is spectacular. (Good
thing I'd seen and appreciated the beauty by car the day before.) 300m
away from the finish line if I had of had any moisture left I’m sure tears of
happiness would have fallen.
We crossed the finish line 4 ½ hours after
we started…….a big fat hoolllly dooolllly. We made it. And the beautiful beer wenches took a photo
of us both, yes I was delirious but they were real I promise. :)
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| hmmmmm |
They don’t call it one of the world’s
toughest half marathons for nothing. It
just happened to be my first, refer back to ‘safety switch’ comment at the
beginning ha ha. It is an amazing race, and
that doesn’t happen without A LOT of behind the scenes organising, and it wouldn’t
happen without the police, SES, St John’s Ambos and a host of volunteers, a BIG, BIG, BIG thank you to you all. Plus the
beautiful people of Tassie that encouraged us up the mountain. I’ll definitely be back to Tassie; P2P maybe
still a little shell shocked to say I’d do that again, but happy to be a
supporter. But dare say this mid-life
crisis might go on for a while. :)
Thanks Tassie, and now sometime later I’m
beginning to smile and go yahoo ‘made it’ and a quote comes to mind from JohnMaclean’s support crew while he did Kona; the
pain doesn’t last forever….keep moving.
(They obviously said that from comfort of support crew car :) )
Then again I think the quote of the day
belongs to my gorgeous hubby who said after we finished and collected our
medals, water and lollies, heading for the bus to take us to bottom again.
‘So Shell, next year for your birthday can
we just walk 100m across the road to the pub, instead of 21km up hill.’ Yep I
thinking that could be a plan. :)
Here is the link to the P2P, why not give
it a crack….. :)
Just keep giving it a go..
Shell xo :)
This one is my favourite signs from the day...... Thank you all Point to Pinnacle team :)
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