The month of March proved to be an interesting one, the third month of the challenge required a little bit extra in kms covered underfoot to make up for the shortfall in February due to there only being 28 days rather than the 30 or 31 (it does make a big difference.
I started the month a little behind the 8-ball with the first weekday being a long weekend. Normally, this would be the ideal opportunity to make up some extra distance, however this one I didn’t do that due to being in Geraldton watching a soccer tournament over the weekend and deciding the extra sleep would probably be a better move before the four and a half hour drive home. While I did have reasonable runs on the Tuesday – Thursday of that first week, I was struck with some stomach complaints on the Friday which cuts my run short…first week down and already close to 24km behind where I wanted to be – not a good sign of things to come.
Heading into the second week, I still had belief that I could cover the distance and make the 625 goal for the first three months. I did some calculations and it worked out that I would need to average approximately 11kms each run and could not afford to miss any more – no pressure at all! This meant that an increase in distance would be required for the next three weeks, I accommodated for this by deciding to increase my four 12km days to 13kms each (adding an additional 4kms a week) but this would still result in me coming up short. The difference would have to be made up on my short run days where instead of doing 5km, I increased the distance to 10km. The doubling, I figured would give me some wriggle room if I needed it.
The additional distance was not the only challenge I faced throughout the month. March is a hard month to psychologically get around due to the noticeable change in light conditions in the early morning. At the start of the month, there is still a lot of light at 5:15am when I start running making it a lot easier to engage. However, by the end of the month I find that I am starting in darkness and quickly approaching the finishing in the pre-sunrise light. The inevitable months of non stop running in the dark well and truly makes itself known, the head torch needing to come out to ensure I don’t get run over by cyclists coming in the opposite direction.
There was one more unusual challenge / experience though. One morning in mid-March I was about 2km into my run, running on the shared path between the freeway and Canning River before Mt Henry Bridge when I heard a motorcycle coming towards me. I couldn’t believe my eyes as on the shared path was a motorbike doing approximately 70km per hour speeding along in the pitch dark. When I reached the Mt Henry Bridge I was stopped by a little old lady quite concerned for her safety due to the motorcyclist having sped past her while she was on the bridge. I assured her that the last I saw of the bike it was heading towards Canning Bridge and showed no sign of slowing down…
This whole experience is one that I never thought I would have while running early in the morning. I am grateful that I did have my headlamp on that day!
Despite all the challenges, I am please to be able to say that I managed to achieve the goal of 625km for the three months with one running day to spare, bringing up the distance on Friday the 28th of March.
My statistics for March were as follows:
Total | 221.8km |
Runs completed | 20 runs |
Average Pace | 5’35” |
Total time | 20:38:50 |
April presents some interesting possibilities with endings as the Term One 450km Challenge comes to a close, and new beginnings with The 120km Easter Holidays Challenge, Term Two 450km Challenge, and April – June 625km Challenge all getting underway.
How I will manage all of this with the commencement of the hockey season (and what they did to my feet last year) will be a wait and see…it might be make or break time for 2025.