Mothers Day Classic
This a new local race run on Mother's Day to raise money for breast cancer research. I'd entered on line a few weeks ago, it is a worthwhile charity. I lost my mother to breast cancer in 1987. The race was held at a park near the Jetty. The Jetty is a iconic landmark in Coffs Harbour. The Jetty is a wooden structure that extends out into the sheltered Jetty waters, splitting in between Muttonbird Island and the South wall. In the past it was used load and unload boats, but now it has been rebuilt and is a popular local tourist attraction. I had only run once this week, with a cold. My training of late has been really ordinary, no long runs for nearly 6 months now. So I knew I wouldn't run all that well.
There was a very good turn out with many of the competitors dressed up in pink running gear. I met and talked to a lady I know from work, who is also a local councillor and who was filling in for the mayor. She gave a short speech, and asked for a moment's silence for those affected by cancer and to remember them. I thought of my mother, she deserved better, much better. Cancer is a nightmare, too awful for tears, that is my experience of it. No time for final goodbyes, just last hellos. Life has an ephemeral quality to it, and there is a kind of dream like quality to the realisation that I'm still here standing in the warm sun of an autumn day, this strange mix of my parents genes, fortunate to be able to run at 51.
Race
Before the race a fitness instructor put the runners through their paces with some exercises. I stood back from the crowd and tried to warm my legs up by jogging on the spot. The race started under a pink blow up arch. I ran along the neatly mown grass of the park, and then around to the right. I was up in the top ten runners even with my complete lack of fitness, Then it was down a little hill past the jetty markets to my left marked with tents at each stall. A band played unknown tunes. Then back onto the cycle path. A traffic jam of runners bottle necked into a narrow uphill section onto the Jetty entrance, and I was shunted back several places. I tried not to tread on the toes of a guy in front wearing an IPOD.
Then the race opened up onto a broader footpath. The leading 3 runners had cleared off in front. I was running behind a group of 5 or 6 runners. It was frustrating to be so unfit. The race went along the Jetty Foreshores Park with its picnic areas and children's playgrounds. A little boy on a bike came pedalling like mad on his tiny bike in the opposite direction.
The course followed the cycle path all the way out to the boat ramp, where 4WDS with boat trailers unload their fishing boats out into the water. Then the course entered the road on the way out to the big quarry at Corambirra Point. Half this headland was quarried in the past leaving an ugly looking cliff face on its northern side. Then there was a turn around where a fence has been erected to close off the construction site for refurbishment to the south wall, which protects the entry to the Jetty, which in the past was open to the ocean.
I kept moving up a few places. A lady runner went flying past, running really well, and another older guy also overtook. Then it was back the way we came, along the cycle path, a pleasant Sunday morning with families enjoying picnics, kids playing on the swings and slippery dips, and throwing balls in the warm sun. After another kilometre or so it was right out onto the wooden jetty structure. Running along the wooden planks out into the Jetty for about 300 metres. The masts of the boats in the Marina to my left, and in front of me the treeless crescent of Muttonbird Island rising up out of the ocean.
The ocean was calm, and a few high clouds moved on past quickly by above. I wondered if they were the clouds I'd seen at sunrise.
Then it was back out to the Corambirra Point quarry again. Two runners pulled out, and I passed another, suddenly I was in about 6 or 7th place. If only I'd been fit, oh well, maybe next year. I tried to chase down a guy in a green shirt, but I couldn't catch him. Then two lady runners overtook me on the Jetty. I let them get away, my endurance was ordinary.
So I finished, and the announcer said "Well done Kiwong. " I got a medal, pink with mother's day classic on one side, and silver on the other. I hung it around my neck with a pink ribbon attached to the medal.
I had a chat with another runner who finished ahead. It was a really beautiful autumn morning, and I bought a sausage sandwich and ate it sitting on the grass. I really enjoyed my morning, even though I didn't really run that well at all. It was good to be part of the run, and I reckon there was nearly two hundred entrants, so the race must've raised a fair bit of money for charity. I felt a part of something, felt like I was living.