McLaren Vale Half Marathon

Soooooo a week ago Andy and I got up early and drove south to McLaren Vale and I ran a half marathon- 21.1km/13.1miles!
As you may recall I ran an unofficial half marathon in June of 2008 and later that summer did the Ktown tri. After starting my travels I hurt my ankle in Hawaii and didn't run for 4 months, got back into it a little in 2009 but then landed the manual labour banana job of my dreams and couldn't be bothered. So after probably 6 to 8 month of nothing I started something. I've been back at the running thing since mid April now and had been following a half marathon training plan since August with a half marathon as my goal. When I started the new job, the one where I walk over 5 hours/day, my training plan sort of went out the window. But the walking allowed me to maintain my fitness and I still did a few short runs during the week and of couse the required long one on Sundays.
All that brought me to McLaren Vale. I chose this half marathon because I wanted to do one before the new year and this was the last one in South Australia until April. Also, McLaren Vale is a wine region and I thought I could probably squeeze in some wine tasting afterwards!
We arrived to the Information Centre, the start and finish of the race, early and I had time to have a nervous poop and stretch at little. Then we all lined up and some guy said GO through a loudspeaker.

Dynamic Stretch on a beautiful Sunday morning

GO!

At the beginning a lot of people ran past me and at the first turn on the course I took a glance behind me to discover I was near the end! This struck panic through me but I stayed with my slow and steady pace.

Eventually I started to feel pretty good and it was at about this time that I reached the turn around point at the 13km to go point. So I picked up the pace and started passing people, people that had passed me early on that were now going very slow or even walking. It felt good. I continued at my stronger pace and although it was probably a little too strong I kept going.

With less than 7km I passed Andy at the side of the course and he got a few snaps of me...

Less than 7km to go!

Believe it or not I am running in this picture, not walking haha

About 1.5km after my photoshoot the course passed the start/finish area and did another little out and back for the last 5km. It was about 10am when I got to this part and it was turning out to be the warmest day of the spring so far- about 25C and B-U-T-full! This last part of the course was through some sort of valley between big hills though and there was no breeze, just the dry heat of the sun beating down on us. It is also where I was for 10:10:10am on 10-10-10! The last 4km took forever and my legs were screaming for me to stop. But when I saw that 1km to go marker I gave it everything I had left and went hard to the finish line.

Approaching the end!

I ended up coming 143rd out of 233 21.1km runners. My time was 2 hours, 1 minute, and 2 seconds. I would've liked to go under 2 hours, but close enough I suppose!

Done! Where's my gawdamn commerative wine glass?!

After a bathroom break and lots of water and some fruit and an amazing apricot slice bar thingy, oh and a brutal ant bite that I still have a mark from, we decided to figure out where to have lunch. We asked at the info centre desk and the lady suggested (she would've recommended but they're not supposed to do that she said, haha) a winery called Ekhidna. The setting was lovely and we talked to the owner as he let us taste his wares. We started with their new beers: all preservative free and only available at the winery on tap. Too bad because they were really good! We then sampled a fee whites, including Riesling we liked so much that we took home a bottle, and then Andy tried a few of the reds (I was driving).  Then we had a lovely lunch and the effects of the mornings effort started hitting me hard. I was tried. So we called it a day and vowed to plan a full weekend in the Vale sooner than later. There are many more wineries to visit and a plethora of great restaurants to eat at!

Vineyard at Ekhidna

Andy and I waiting for our lunch

Mmmm, Mmmm.