I spent this past week in Melbourne with my 4 year old daughter, visiting family, shopping and doing general touristy things. I also ran. Once.
And it was a pretty awesome way to explore the city.
I had one clear instruction in order to not get lost (I’m not the best with maps or with that internal GPS that some people have). And that was to stick to the river bank. 20minutes one way and 20minutes back. And that was fine. But I noticed some pretty nice looking parklands to my right and after 13 minutes on the riverbank I couldn’t resist it anymore. So I went in. And it was undulating and a little more interesting in a different way. However, about 3 minutes in I realised I was lost and that my life was probably in morbid danger. If snakes and spiders were anywhere in this city, it would be here! So I needed to keep vigilantly alert for these and it was probably best not to go on the freshly cut grass. That’s where snakes like to hide. Grass. And there’s the crocodiles too. Probably hiding in the fountains. (Honestly, who would live here?!)
Anyway, back to the other pressing matter – getting home. I meandered through the parklands and eventually found a sign (I was in Alexander Park), some street art to take a selfie in front of, a pedestrian crossing of a road (great places to stop and rest and appear reluctant about it because you’re a hard core but safety conscious runner), and my way back to the Yarra River. I was only 29 minutes (of a planned 40min run) in by this point so needed to press on.
At this point I probably passed 100,000 people on their way to work. Me and about 1,000 cyclists weaved through the throngs who were mostly on their mobile phones. So blissfully unaware of me. It’s nice not to be noticed when you’re running and you jiggle. Because that’s a barrier to women. They don’t want people to see them running for fear of being judged. But running may be beneficial to being a supermodel. So it’s a cycle that keeps us on the couch. Except in the city, I realised. Nobody is interested. Come to think of it, maybe nobody is interested in Whakatāne either. Maybe we need to get over ourselves ladies?
I ran for about 48minutes – I added the extra 8 minutes to make up for all the pedestrian crossing waiting time and for all the photo-taking/selfies. And it was awesome. I felt awesome!
And now that I’m back, I’ve decided to get serious about this running business. About Toi’s. So stay tuned to see what that’s going to look like.
*For the record, I did miss a week/blog – I was pretty busy getting things sorted with work and the whānau in order to make my escape to Melbourne. But after the appalling week (zero runs) previous, I was determined and I managed 3x runs + an actual yoga session (for stretching).
– Rebecca Mackay
Rebecca will be writing weekly as she continues her journey to achieving her goal of completing the 18km Tois Challenge. Check in next Tuesday for her next article.
Read Rebecca’s last article here:
And all her previous articles are stored here:
https://www.coachray.nz/category/client-stories/rebecca-runs/