Race Recap Gold Coast Half Marathon – From the Back of the Pack by Nic Gibbs

Firstly a little about me….

Vital Stats:

• Age: 44
• Married – 16 years
• 2 children – boy ~14 girl ~11
• Works – Full time
• Live on a farm in rural Queensland

I was a person who played team sports all their lives, throughout childhood is was hockey, netball and then as an adult touch and netball. Even after having both my children I returned to playing touch once a week. That was my ‘me’ time.

I totally sucked at individual things like running. I was not a runner, no way. I returned to full time work in 2010 when my youngest commenced school. Towards the end of 2012 I suffered a knee injury playing touch. I did try to return but soon realised 20+ years of netball and touch had taken it’s toll on my joints. So I did nothing, except became heavier and unhappier. Not fully myself.

My Dad had been diagnosed with early on set Parkinson’s disease in 2002, when I was pregnant with my son.

My dad died in March 2014.

It broke my heart and I miss him every day. He and my son were very close, and I see Dad in him so much.

Losing Dad made me realise……“Life is short.”

I did not want to be 70 wishing I had done something when I could have. So, in late April 2014 I decided to try to learn to run. As an incentive to stick to this, I decided to set a goal to run 5km at the Sunshine Coast in August that year. To keep me honest I invited friends to join me (now my ‘tribe’)! Entry done, accommodation booked. There was no backing out!!

So we start out trying C25K….. struggled to make it 45sec intervals! OMG ‘How will we make…… 90secs!!!’ we thought. Well we made it, little by little, step by step. And boy did we also learn a lot. We would train when your kids were at dancing around the local oval in town, or laps around my house yard and then progressed to running along the back roads near our farms.

So I did our 5km in 2014. In 2015 I decided why not try for 10km…. So after doing our 10km, and then watching how great the Gold Coast events looked via RMA, I convinced Kim we could do our first half at the Gold Coast in 2016. Three of my ‘tribe’ also entered events at the Gold Coast, including two first full marathons, sadly one friend had to pull out due to injury, she’s going to do her full at Blackmore’s now.

Training has been challenge at times, sometimes 2-3 of us meet together, other times it is solo. I had injury issues in December-February, which were almost a huge set-back, It was like starting again as a beginner. I decided to train using Galloway run:walk in order to make it injury free. I know I am not the fastest or the fittest but that’s ok, I am faster and fitter that I was 3 years ago!

About 5 weeks out from the Gold Coast I was really struggling mentally and doubting I’d ever make it, ‘What was I thinking?, was I kidding myself?’. I tried to let go of some of the pressure I was placing on myself and decided to have no time goals, I wanted to enjoy it as much as I could and finish as strongly as possible. After doing 18km in training, I knew we’d make 21.1. My running buddy Kim decided she would run with me, we had done our 5 & 10 events together but on the day run our own race – she is a little faster. We were going to do this together all the way.

My hubby (who had never seen me run), kids and I arrived at the Gold Coast on the Friday after approx. a 5 hour drive and I spent Saturday at the race precinct watching the 10km finishers and cheering on the 5.7 from the RMA tent, a great morning.  I also chatted to a couple of the volunteers….some amazing and inspirational stories there!! I felt quite calm ~ pre race nerves are usually huge as I rarely run in crowds. I felt as ready as I’d ever be, I had trialed fuelling during training, I’d been working of my hip strength to try and avoid any further injuries, I’d had been sick for a couple weeks about 3 week to go, so was hoping the last of the congestion would be clear for Sunday.

The night before I carefully laid out all my gear, and as I am sure many did and had very little sleep. In the morning of the half I awoke with my stomach churning…..too many ‘what ifs’ happening! Once I started getting dressed I felt calmer. I told myself to trust my training, “I am calm, I am ready, I am strong” – a message I had sent to my other friends running earlier in the week, particularly Amanda who was running her first full today. I met Kim and another friend Michelle in the foyer of our accommodation and we walked to the start. I was so pleased and relieved the weather was perfectly cool, ideal for running. We dropped off our bags, and made our way towards the start….so many people! I was worried it would be too congested at the start, I did not want to fall or trip – my biggest fear at that moment.

Kim and I made out way to zone D start, our plan was to not go out too hard at the start. I stood on tip toe to look towards the start….what I saw was a sea of head as far as the eye could see, it was still dark, I could not see the start line, mind blowing!

It was go time!   Slowly we started to surge forward, walking, and then by the time we crossed the start we were running!!! We found our space and could stick together, yay! For the first km we ran at the pace was fine and we wanted to wait for the crowd to thin before starting our walk intervals. Our goals were to stick to our running plan, high-5 as many people as possible, enjoy the whole run, finish strongly with a smile! I did not want to cross that finish line regretting my run or hating every moment, or even worse injured.

To be honest the first 3km felt so surreal…was I really doing this…? I really almost had to pinch myself. How could someone like me be doing this?! We turned right and looked at the sky as it turned orange and then blue, as the sun rose, two pelicans took off from the water, just perfect. Feeling a little emotional, I thought of my Dad, I knew he was there, I am sure he’d had a word to the powers that be to ensure great weather for us.

The first 5km flew by, we paced ourselves well, really wanting to finish in around 3 hours. As we ran we chatted with some of the other runners, one was a younger women “Emma” she was running for Parkinson’s, another sign!   I didn’t see Emma finish, we passed her around the 17km mark, I hope she went ok.

As we turned a corner onto Bayview St there were 2 RMAs on the side of the road cheering and we high 5ed as we passed, I realised as we did it one was the lovely Anna Fitzgerald…. How amazing she had come to encourage us when she could not run herself! Another OMG moment!

Kim was concerned she’d need a toilet break, I assured her I’d wait for her, we were in this together! So after a not so quick toilet stop (rookie error…lol). We were off again! We’d lost some of our group we had sort of been running along with, and started to go out a little to hard – I thought if we keep this up we will run out of legs to finish. So we slow back into our grove, our aim was to run under 8.30 we were averaging around 8.10-8.15 – so I knew we’d be ok. As we hit the 7-8km mark we were starting to pass the zone A-B-C runners, on their return, our first ‘Go RMA’ was from none other than Nicole Bunyon! Well it was a festival of “Go RMA, high 5s, waves and you rock signals” AMAZING! So glad we wore our RMA tees – the support was amazing. We looked for 3-4 of our friends who we’d knew were ahead and saw them all, they looked strong and I was so trilled they to were running well. It truly makes the time pass so quickly scanning the crowds until we hit the turn around ourselves.

Kim and I were checking in with each other that we were going ok, we slowly began to catch up with quite of few of the pack we’d been with at the start, there were some amazing ladies walking for bowel cancer….boy they power walked it out! We had some great exchanges as we passed and then they pass us in return….keeping an eye out for each other.

12-18km it was beginning to warm –up, I had been using tailwind, salted chews & raspberry lollies. I was starting to feel the fatigue, my stomach felt a little queasiness but not too bad, we kept each other going when one would want to slow the other would push on, if one went too fast the other would reign them back.

After 18km I knew I was in unknown territory, there were times I struggled, anything was a welcome distraction, the wheelchair racers come past, Kurt Fearnley who was in the lead even took time from his race as flew passed to encouraged us, we cheered all of them on as they passed, amazing athletes!!

Turning onto that last bridge, was a killer, I felt the fatigue in my quads, I wanted to just keep walking in the run intervals, which we did for 1-2 intervals here and there. Then we ran, that crowd on the straight could not come quickly enough, I knew they would carry us through. I knew where the RMA tent was too. I knew you would be there. I moved to the left and high 5ed so many of your out stretched hands – faces were a blur! I never heard my Garmin chime the 21^st kilometre.

As we turned into the finish chute, there were my children and husband just before the 250m arch, I waved, smiled and we kept going! Joy began to flow through me, we were going to do this. We ran up past the corner where I had stood and watched and cheered the day before. There was the finish line, I turned and grabbed Kim’s hand, we had started together and we were going to finish together. All those early mornings before work and on the week-ends were worth it, the running the same loop through the back roads were worth it, the stretching, strengthening, rolling and dealing with the niggles were worth it. I never would have thought at age 44 this would be me, never! I am now a half marathoner! It is still hard to believe…

Learning to run as given me so much, I am stronger mentally and fitter and healthier physically, I am more balanced, I have strengthened friendships, I have made some amazing new friends. I know if you have a goal and you are prepared to put in the work, you will achieve it.  My son wants to run next year, my daughter says Mum is my hero. I think the fact I did 21.1 is still sinking in with hubby…lol.

I would not be running without ‘my tribe’, those girls who joined me in this journey, who have spent hours either training with me, on their own, discussing training, encouraging and supporting each other. We don’t have running clubs near-by, nor do we have face to face coaching, nor do we have a gym or physio just 5 mins up the road, we often run the same route as this is our only option. When we do run kangaroos, snakes and cattle can be almost as frequent as cars and for many it is highly likely we will not have mobile service for most of our run. Having said this our farming neighbours keep an eye out, they see us leave and they check we’ve returned, I had one lady wanting to go looking for me during a long run as she knew I was on my own and was worried. The online communities we are part of are often where we gather our knowledge and information. All of us work outside the farm, we help run our farming businesses as well as everything that goes along with having family. Sometimes without each other, the struggle would have been too great. So I thank these women, my success is their success and vice versa.

Finally, what I want to share most importantly is that if I can, you can too ‪#‎believe