Mothers Day recap - a run, a lunch and a present!

Sunday just past saw Mothers Day in Australia.  It was Mothers Day in the USA too, not sure about other countries.  And Mothers Day in Australia means the Mothers Day Classic.   This is the third year I've done it and it's a great day (usually!!)  Everyone gets their pink on and there are Classics held all over the country.  I head down to Geelong and mum and I go down to Eastern Beach to participate.  Well *I* participate, mum is a very avid spectator.

But then this happened...
The weather.
The icky icky weather.
And for once the Weather Man got it right.  

I was staying down at mum's and I remember waking up at 2.30am to the sound of torrential rain outside.  It was bucketing down.  Oh joy.  I bundled back down under the doona.  My alarm went off at 5.30am and it was still raining, albeit drizzly now.   I had a coffee, I didn't intend to eat brecky this morning before the run as I wanted to be down there by 6.30am, the 8km run was to start at 7.30am.

I took one look at mum and told her not to come.  She probably would have ended up with pneumonia, mum only has one kidney and has had pneumonia before.  I told her to stay home in the warm, I was still going to head down there.  I'm kind of glad it worked out this way, as much as I love running knowing mum is enjoying the festivities down there, this particular year I know all I would be worried about would be mum standing around freezing.

So I got down to the Eastern Beach area at 6.30am and there was a hive of activity setting up.  Umbrellas, people sloshing around, the ground was wet.  I was bundled in my rain coat and took shelter under one of the tents where the volunteers were meeting.   I got chatting to a few people and as the time ticked on I was thinking I was going to have to ditch the raincoat to take with my things to the bag drop.  I can't run in this thing, I get wetter from sweat inside, it's a raincoat, not a running jacket.   But ah ha!  I also had with me in my bag a tricks one of those plastic disposable raincoats that you see people at the footy wearing.  So the plan was to ditch my bag at the bag drop and pop the disposable thing on to stay dry then ditch that in the nearest bin once the run started.

Well it was a good plan, except I couldn't get the jolly thing on to start with and when I did I had it on backwards.  But it worked and it did indeed keep me dry and semi-not cold, I'm not going to say warm, because everyone was cold.   I put my tribute card up on the tribute wall.  I was running for my bestie's mum Helen who passed away last month of a brain tumour.  Yes I know it's not breast cancer and this race was all about breast cancer, but it was my run and I could do what I wanted.

There was a balls up at the start.  They had a lady on stage leading the warm up exercises and they were running slightly late.  She was ready to start the next exercise and a few people realised the run had already commenced and soon she lost everyone as we all headed over to the start.  But it had started and people were already making their way up the hill.  Bah!  I look forward to the anticipation of the start and the count down or the gun going off but none of that.  Miscommunication between the two areas I'm thinking.

The run was rainy and cold, and when we came along the bay front it was freaking windy!  That air came right out of the antarctic I'm sure.  The volunteers were great though, they were cold too, at least we kept somewhat warm by running.   My official time was slightly slowest of all the MDC I had done, but in trying conditions I would take it at 57:28 .   I was mega proud I ran up all the hills, even the Eastern Beach hill.

Came over the line to get my key chain medal and a banana and water and was surprised with this Garnier box full of samples, which everyone got.  That was a lovely surprise.

The 4km walk and run was about to commence as I was heading back to the car and down the heavens came again, it was relentless, I was so glad to make a dash for the car and head back to mum's for probably one of the top 10 best hot showers in my life.

A bit later on we got ready for lunch, we had booked once again at Empire Grill and this year my brother also came.  Mum was delighted to have us both there.

The three course menu was just magical, my choices were pumpkin soup with almonds for entree, crispy skin salmon with a saffron sauce and apple and fennel salad for mains, and then this magical cocoction for dessert - lime cheesecake with mango sorbet and what they called caramel dust which was almost sherbet like with a taste of caramel.  It was AMAZING.  Thank goodness I had run 8km so there was only a little guilt with this.

So after all that a long drive home, but here's a little collage - a pic of me and mum, and then a pic of me and my furbabies.  :-)

And then they "surprised" me with a present.  Hee hee.  Well when I say surprised, I had heard via our 12wbt Runners Connect group of an amazing deal 70% or something ridiculous off and sent the link to the menagerie (via Mike) !!    Yay for me.  A terrific pack containing a Nathan belt/bottle, a Nathan water bottle, socks, earphones, a running shirt, a phone case to hook onto your belt, and gel/protein bar goodies.  Clever menagerie!

And that's how I spent Mother's Day.  A huge day, but oh so enjoyable.