I then decided to have a shower, so I tossed everything I was wearing into the dirty wash basket.
A few days later I took a load of washing out to the line to dry. It was a load that contained my running shorts. I pegged the shorts on the line only to see that my iPod was still clipped onto its waistband.
It was then that I realised my iPod had been through the wash, deep rinse, spin rinse and spin cycles.
With great trepidation I showed David the drowned iPod and told him what had happened to it. After alluding to my intelligence, negatively, he suggested we let it dry out for a while.
That night we attempted iPod resuscitation. The diminutive machine was duly turned on. It failed to work. David then decided to see if it would re-initialise on the computer.
He took it upstairs to perform the necessary procedure. I waited downstairs pacing nervously.
After a short quiet period he walked down the stairs and announced that the operation had been a success and that my iPod had returned to functioning order. It was alive.
Although I wouldn’t suggest any of you put your iPod in the wash, it didn’t seem to harm mine. Even so, it’s not going in there again any time soon - not without a floatation aid anyway.
All this is in preface to the major theme of today’s story, which is yesterday’s race, in which I wore Lazarus the Shuffle. Lazarus worked fine, and I did better than I expected too.
The race was a half marathon – 21km. It’s the longest running race I’ve taken part in. It started at Athelstone Primary School in the Adelaide foothills. The route took in most of the eastern portion of the linear park next to the River Torrens. It then took us through the city and to the Brewery corner on Port Road and then back into the city to finish at Pinky Flat just behind Adelaide Oval. See maps for route outline. Click on them and they get bigger!
Apart from Lazarus the iPod I was also wearing my trusty heart rate monitor, which mysteriously doesn’t work in the car - it can't pick up my heart rate. During training runs I usually try to keep my heart rate down to 130 to 140 – doing this is supposed build up fitness. Running at a rate higher than this level all the time is meant to be counter-productive.
David dropped me off at the race and took a few photos. We set off at 8am. Great conditions, coolish (about 16 degrees or so) with no breeze. I put myself in the middle of the pack and tried to keep pace with people that looked like they might run at the same pace I do. Within a few kilometres my heart rate was up to 140. I kept it there for a while but decided I had the fitness to go out to 150 for the rest of the race. However, even slight inclines and hills bumped it up to 160.
At each water stop I took a glug of glucose syrup for energy, which really helped. By the 10km mark my pulse rate was up to an average of 160 but I was running a bit faster and feeling pretty good. With only two kilometres to go to the finish, there were markers every kilometre, I decided to really pick up the pace - stride out and speed up. At one point my heart rate hit 177 and I backed off. I suspect my peak heart rate is just a few beats per minute further on from there!
The run to the line was mainly downhill so I put on a bit of a sprint towards the finish and ran through the finish line. I had completed the 21km run in 1 hour and 50 minutes according to my watch. I was hoping for less than two hours, so I was very happy with the time. I had told David I’d take two hours so he didn’t arrive in time to see me finish.
I still want to see what the official time will be as, by my watch (which is wrong), we set off several minutes before 8am.
A couple of people I know did the race - Gavin from JT Cycles who sold me my bike and Bridget Murphy-O’Neil a former Murray Bridge-ite.
Click on the pictures to see an enlarged version.
Fresh(ish) and ready to go.
The start. These are the fast people. See me? No. That's because I'm back with the slow/slower people.
Here I am. Only 21.1km to go.
The end. Hot, sweaty but fine and very pleased with the time.
Pinky Flat, where the finish line was, is home to a number of black swans - ones that don't mind a gentle pat.
From the SA Road Runners Club website, May 9
The Greenbelt Half Marathon and 10 km last Sunday was held on a lovely morning and was very well attended. Ian Roberts reports there were some 379 finishers with the majority, 270 plus, entered in the half marathon. Hoping for results and a race report shortly.
Official Results
I didn't do as well as I thought. I completed the 21.1km in 1 hour 55 and 37 seconds (169th). That's 5 minutes more than I thought. Perhaps I should learn how to use the timer properly on my heart rate monitor. It's still under two hours, so my goal was achieved. Of the people I know, Gavin Nugent frm JT Cycles did it in 1.36.16 (57th); Lorraine Tyler, a one time member of our swimming group did it in 1.53.00 (152nd) and Bridget Murphy-O'Neil completed the course in 1.49.54 (124th).
