Originally written June 2023
It’s marathon and ultramarathon season in Cairns, so apologies in advance if you see a lot of race photos from me until the end of July. 
This was actually a last-minute decision. I’ve always said I don’t like road running.
Or, to put it more accurately, I don’t like people seeing me struggle towards the finish line. 
But because the Sydney Marathon is on the road, I thought I might as well get used to running on flat surfaces. My training plan also had me running 20K this weekend anyway, so I figured I may as well do it in a racing environment.
Vanessa and I are training for Sydney together, so we decided we would treat the half marathon as just another training run.
Well… what a training run it was.
I think I’m slowly getting the hang of road running.
For someone who always says she doesn’t like crowds, I actually enjoyed interacting with people along the course. I found myself soaking up the excitement, the cheering and the energy around me.
Although, to be fair, I had only run 21K.
Ask me again when I’m 38K into a full marathon, I’ve hit the wall, everything hurts and somebody enthusiastically yells:
“YOU’RE ALMOST THERE!”
I may have a completely different opinion about the cheering crowd by then.
Stories Along the Way 