Sydney - the Prelude

Okay, well sooooo much happened last weekend I'm going to have to divide it into three posts, so bear with me.

Sydney - the Prelude

Sydney - the Main Event

Sydney - the Encore

So the Prelude ...

Friday afternoon three very excited runners made their way to Avalon Airport, thanks to Alison driving.  And it was a sign.  In our uncanny way amongst our closest friends in our Athletics Group that we turn up wearing the same colours - we've even done it for the plane flight - all wearing stripes!  It was a sign!

The flight to Sydney and we got in before the scheduled 7pm and decided on a taxi rather than working out the train system.  I think the poor driver thought we were checking up on him, we all had our mobile phones out and he kept explaining the one way streets that he really *was* on his way to our accommodation.  Except he took a wrong turn so turned the meter off and made his way back to where he was meant to be going.  So there's a tip people, you won't get ripped off in a taxi if they think you're GPS checking up on them!  

We were delighted by our accommodation at Hyde Park Inn.   I can well and truly recommend it - in terms of location (right opposite Hyde Park),  location to the train stations (within a very easy walk to both Museum Station round the corner and Town Hall Station a couple of blocks away), and the accommodation itself was exactly like the picture and the slight problem we had with the fridge not working they actually replaced the fridge for us.   The accommodation also gave us free continental breakfast, free newspapers, free wifi and there was free parking (if we had a car, which we didn't).

Alison found a nice pizza/pasta place around the corner called Macchiato, and we were ready for a feed so headed down there post haste.   Ended up with a flirty waiter who asked me for my ID, hahahaha.  Well it was a bit dim in there, the girls quickly got out their phones and used the torches for the menu!  Got to love their ingenuity.  You can take the girls out of the country but ...

Up and ready on Saturday morning to explore we headed to the Expo to pick up our race pack and drop off our bags to the bag drop - warm clothing and anything we needed after the race would be taken to the end for us tomorrow.   I tried on a number of the Asics event tops but they are all such super slim fitting and didn't suit me at all.  I came away with a nice cotton t-shirt with the event on it, which I actually liked a lot better and I have been wearing it ad nauseum this week with jeans.  I also bought some mandarin GU which has been my favourite flavour of late, tastes like Fanta!  What's not to love about that.   The GU man (well what do you call him, he seemed to be a GU aficionado) was showing us the new GU wafers about to come out, a pre-run snack to have to keep the hunger pangs away. 

So right, event bag dropped we headed back to the hotel to take our all important race bibs back so we didn't cart them all over the city and decided we should do a trial run to the event start for tomorrow, being that it would involve a train trip.  Nothing like being prepared.  We had bought our Opal card and timed our walk to the Town Hall Station and then the train trip to Milsons Point.   

Silly me, I don't know what I was thinking, we were on the train and I looked out and it was my first glance at the Harbour, and then the penny dropped.  WE WERE ON THE BRIDGE!  But were we?  I'm looking out the window for the bridge, is it possible we were on the bridge or another bridge?  And I'm asking all these questions out loud in the train to anyone who would listen to me ... "Are we on the bridge, noooo we're not on the bridge, are we? OH MY GOD WE'RE ON THE BRIDGE!!"  

Apologies to my travelling companions for being such a dork!

So we we were glad to have done this trial run to Milsons Point so we knew exactly what we were to do the next day and could work backwards so we knew what time to leave the accommodation.  So we had a little wander down Milsons Point, I'd never been over there, it was great seeing the Bridge and the Opera House from this unique angle.   And as you can see it was a magnificent day.  We were just relishing being in short sleeves after leaving such a cold Victoria.

So as the tourists we were, we thought a ferry trip would be in order so decided on a ferry to Darling Harbour.  Inside or outside?  Doh, was there any question.  We enjoyed the scenery as we sailed.

We really didn't want to walk too far, so took a very easy stroll to the Queen Vic Building to our meet up with the other ladies from the 12WBT Runners Connect group.  Although on the way Alison and I were accosted by "Giovanni" from some beauty salon.

First rule of thumb ... DON'T MAKE EYE CONTACT !!

Too late, he had us in the store and sat down and started applying gunk to our eyes.  He doesn't just take any woman off the street you know, he only takes those he thinks he can help!  What a line!  Need to work on your flattering skills Giovanni.  Once the $300 bottle of diamond dusted encrusted gunk was presented to us, Alison and I hightailed it out of there.  Oh Lordy Lord.

Lunch at the Jet Bar at QVB, yay, getting to meet the Sydney contingent from our runners group was surreal.  It was actually hard to take pictures in the cafe as it was dull inside so by the time the cameras came out a number of the ladies had left.  But not before I got these shots.  I also got to meet my RDU buddy Tamra in the bright pink shirt, we cat and mouse all the time on Run Downunder.

And after lunch we got to see some of the delicacies at Zumbo.  I didn't even trust myself with one macaron, it all looked too amazing.

We utilised the kitchenette in our room that night and Kellie, Alison and I had pasta with a plain tomato napoli topping, parmesan cheese and a bread roll for dinner and it was perfect.  I didn't even do a 'Flat Carol' like I usually do, this was as good as it got.  Red on red, that means fast right?

Alarm set for stupid o'clock 4am wake up as we would want to leave the accommodation by 5am the next day, we said our good nights and I'll honestly say I had one of the best nights sleep pre-race than I've had before.   More to come in the next post.  Stay tuned.

Bush walking

Forgive me blog for I have sinned, not keeping up.  I'm out there running and being active, so that's my excuse.  I'm on holiday from work, spent some time in Daylesford with mum, oh heck haven't even uploaded those photos either.  I'll do some scrapbook pages so you can check them out then.  Here's a quick pic at Trentham Falls.  I also ran in Daylesford both mornings I was there - round the lake one morning and from Daylesford to Hepburn Springs and back to Daylesford the next morning.  Uphill against a head wind all the way back.  Who's great idea was that one!!  

And then last weekend Mike and I decided to go bushwalking, just up at the Picaninny at the Grampians, not one of the grander mounts because I wasn't sure how Mike would go.  I have climbed Mt. Abrupt (see below) before but Mike, even with the bravado, I'm not sure he was up to that just yet.  

The aim of the day was that Mike wanted to get some nice photos to use as inspiration for painting and I wanted to take wildflower photos.  They are on my big girl camera which I still haven't downloaded.  These photos are from my phone.  I carried a Nathan water bottle round my waist which was very welcome as the weather was warm.

It was a magnificent day, so beautiful.  Some pics of the trail.

A lovely view from the top, we sat a while and chatted with some other people up there.

Mike decided to do a Ussaine Bolt impersonation, or was that him telling the time from the direction of the sun, you be the judge.

And being that he wanted a good pic of Mt. Sturgeon and you couldn't see it through the trees from where we were, he decided to go off track.  Yes, it's moments like this that gives your wife a heart attack Mike!

All in all a fantastic day, we had previously bought salad sandwiches from Dunkeld and had them in the esky so when we got back to the car we sat down at the picnic table and ate our lunch, chatting to more people who had just arrived.  Yep, we are a couple of chatters we too!  

We have this area just a mere 1 hour north of us, we need to get up there more often for sure.  Mike has made it his goal to climb Mt. Sturgeon so fair warning, he's in training!!

HM number three!!

So half marathon number 3 was upon me and I had done as much as I could.  I was reaping the benefits of my 100km months I think.   So the night before we had our pasta, Mike was volunteering at this event run by the Athletics Club, so he decided he needed to carb load !  Oh how much cheese on pasta can one person eat??!!

I had worked out my gear, leaving nothing to chance.  I would be proud to take part in my first running event wearing the Aths Club shirt.  Other gear included my new Balega socks which I've been impressed with since buying them at ARC, sunnies because forecast was warm conditions and we would be running into the sun along the rail trail, runners, hand held Nathan bottle which I've been using for my longer runs, it contains a pocket which I can tuck my GU into (I want to be able to have a GU and water when I want, not just where the drink stations were, my Garmin (cause if it's not on Garmin it didn't happen, right?) and my Road ID bracelet.  I would NEVER be without this in an event (see shortly why).

So Mike and I got down to the Aths Club about 7.30am.  The idea was that I would leave him down there and take the courtesy bus out to the start.  My good running buddy Kellie would be joining me on the bus and she was able to point out parts of the rail trail as we travelled along Princes Highway.  We got to Koroit for an easy check in, and as you can see the sun was shining!  Plus first bib with my name on it too.

So I wandered about a bit and quickly spotted my blogging friend (and super amazing runner) Cat wearing her tell tale hat I've seen in photos.  Yay, I remembered to get a photo for once.   Pop yourself over to Cat's blog AlleyCat for a read, she is a running work horse for sure.

So as the runners gathered and the race briefing had been given, a nice touch was a young chap singing the National Anthem (I think the first race I've been to that this was done) and then we were off on the dot of 9am.  Round a few streets in Koroit and then quickly onto the Rail Trail.  For even as fast as I ran that first kilometre (Garmin said it was my fastest ever at 6:33) I was soon running on my lonesome as the pack blitzed away.  Oh well, just keep up the plod I told myself.  I got a cheer from some people on the Koroit Railway Station platform as I ran past, yay for the little caboose at the end I yelled out!

Interestingly I started the race with no headphones in and continued the whole way like that.  I was carrying them in my spibelt just in case the drivel in my head got too much, and although for some reason "Dambusters" was playing over and over in my mind, I did the whole race with no music.

And of course there were cows!  I spotted these young calves all watching from the fence as I was running by so I took a quick on the go snap.

Cat had told me where he relatives lived as we would be running right past their front gate and she told me I couldn't miss it as they would have balloons out.  Yep I could see balloons up ahead so I figured that was them, there were two women sitting outside.  One yelled out to me "Are you Carol?" at the same time as I called out "You must be Cat's relatives".  Imagine my suprise when I got up closer and saw the sign!  Ahhhh see everyone knows the obsession with our cow mascot! (considering I had never met these people before in my life).   I can't tell you how much this bucked me up, considering it was the top of quite a long hill.  Thank you thank you Cat's relatives.

Then disaster hit, I had gotten past Rundells, over the boardwalk bridge type thing and saw a couple of people up ahead as a bike rider rode past me going the other way telling me there was a runner up ahead in distress.   Oh no!  I got there as the Ambulance was coming up from the other direction up a small gravelly path.   There was a bike rider (who just happened to be riding along the trail), one of the walker Half Marathon participants and me at that point, and a runner in pretty bad shape groaning on the ground.  I offered my water but they thankfully already had water for him.  I dare say the sun would have really played havoc on the poor chap.  I quickly rang Mike to grab the Race Director back at the finish with the chap's bib number to get his details for the ambulance officers, and the Race Director came out to meet the ambulance.  What is it with me and medical disasters I happen upon in events, this is the second one this year!  

Once he was safely ensconced in the ambulance we checked with the ambos if we could continue on and they were fine with that.  The young walker lass said she wanted to finish and I did too.  She said she was fine and would keep walking along, and I told her I would do my run/walk/shuffle, I was knackered by that stage!  

I'm not sure how long we were waylaid, maybe 15 mins or so.  Mike had been watching me intermittently on the Garmin live tracker and saw I had stopped, I think he was thankful when I rang and he knew it wasn't me in trouble.  Anyway I was never so glad to see the 20km mark clock over in my life, 1km to go.  The clubrooms were in sight and I hear "Gooooo Carol" and my friends Kellie and Alison were standing at the fence cheering.  Then a lap of the oval and thankfully over the line.  Garmin has me at 3:07:23.  Last runner over the line, I will wear that as a badge of honour!   Gutted I was over 3 hours, but still super proud in hot conditions, and you never leave a runner in distress, even though there was nothing I could do but phone it in.

Big cheer to Kellie and Alison who had run under 2 hours, they waited well over an hour (with very patient families) to cheer me over the line.   Look at us in our Aths Club finery.  I've never been more proud to run in a club shirt, despite being the slow poke of the club, I feel well and truly included.

Completely spent at the end, I turned into a sobbing mess in Mike's arms!  We hung around another 20 or 30 mins to cheer that last walking lass over the line, a group of us still there all stood together as she finished and applauded her.  To my surprise she came straight to me for a hug.  I told her she earnt that medal well and truly.

Mike had had a great day volunteering and following me on the Tracker.  This medal is for both of us.   No sooner did we get home, I had some food and a shower and I came back out to the loungeroom and our volunteer was out like a light on the couch!

It's a rather long way hey?   Whew!  Was so tired last night, I was in bed at 7.30pm and slept like a log and didn't get up until after 7am today.  First official day of my holidays from work.  How sweet it is.

Oh and the day before I read this on our terrific Runners Connect site, it made me laugh.  A few of us said we might try it on our various runs over the weekend to see if it helped.  ha!   There's a section in the half marathon where you cross under the Princes Highway in a little under the road crossing.  I let out a little whoop and it was really echoey.  So then I "vroom vroomed" as loudly as I could.  Wow that was loud.  Mind you I was completely alone so not red-faced.  Thankfully there was no one at the other side of the tunnel, how embarrassing that might have been!

So there you have it, third half marathon completed (second for this year) and all before I was 51.  Just.  As it is my birthday today! yay.   Good or bad timing?  I am starting a new round of 12WBT which starts today.  I have decided I needed to celebrate my birthday and the fact I finished yesterday (albeit walking like a granny today).   So headed out to one of our fave cafes for lunch.  I had a lovely chicken and roasted veg and risoni salad with a raspberry dressing.  And then a slice of raspberry almond cake as a stand in birthday cake.  Win-win.  I get to have my cake and eat it too!  Plus no cake left over.  Just one slice.

Now before I go, I must tell you about the kindness of strangers.  I love instagram and I have "met" via Instagram a rather inspirational runner from Utah, we have hooked up via Garmin Connect too.  Never spoken to her in my life, our only interaction is via liking each other's photos on Instagram.  So a few weeks ago she asked for my address as she had a running care package to send me.  Okay first rule of the internet, never give your address to strangers right?  So what do I do?  She's a runner, she *MUST* be okay.  I gave her our address.  And look what came today.  I was gobsmacked.  Particularly as she had no idea it was my birthday and what timing!   Thank you very much Anastasia, it was incredibly kind of you.   There will be a parcel winging its way back to you at some point in time when you least expect it ;-)

And if you've made it to the end of this blog post, you deserve a finishers medal! ha.  

Brisbane and back !

Since my last post I have had a lovely long weekend up in Brisbane with my bestie and family.  It was just what we both needed, not having seen each other in three years.  How has that happened?  We have become so reliant on the instant technology of phones and emails and texts and facetime, that time passes us by and we don't realise how long it's been since we were face to face.  Added to the fact we don't live in the same state kind of has something to do with it to.   We have vowed never to leave it that long again.

A couple of pics of a fantastic few days which we packed a lot into.  Brisbane however is hot.  Steamy hot.  Steamy hot like you've just walked into the bathroom where someone has had the hot water going in the shower hot.  I guess it's something you get used to, but the same temps down here feels nothing like what I experienced up there.

So on the Saturday I had my first foray into Costco, oh my goodness.  It was nuts!  And Saturday night we went into Southbank to eat and enjoy the riverfront and market.  So many people, it was fun to people watch when we were at the restaurant.  Remember, they sit the beautiful people outside (that's always been my motto!!) and we were outside!!

Candid pic of S and family at the market.  Tee hee, they didn't know I took this and got them all in it.

Brisbane by night is beautiful.  I even got a few light sparkle flares in this pic, 

even without the tripod - I had balanced my camera on my camera bag.

This Brisbane sign was really lovely, the colours of the letters kept changing.

A bit mesmerising.

And we went up the Wheel of Brisbane.  Such a gorgeous night time view from the top

although the windows of the cabin things we were in were a bit gritty so

it was hard to take a clear pic.   Having said that, how gorgeous does it look

in all it's green and gold splendour.

And we had a very unique icecream from Nitrogenie.

Icecream using Liquid Nitrogen.  And it was amazingly delicious!

On Saturday we hit the road.  Can I say, thank goodness for a car with Air Conditioning!

The weather was like a steam bath outside. 

We got a gorgeous view (according to my notes but I stand to be corrected)

somewhere in the Blackhall Range area.

We exercised our legs on a fantastic walk through the Mapleton Falls area.

Absolutely gorgeous.

Love this pic of my fave family.

And we saw the beautiful Glass House Mountain Range.  

So unique, these mountainous structures just popping out of the ground.

Thank you Mark, will treasure this pic!

Despite over the weekend I was missing my furbabies big time,

I did get a lot of puppy cuddles from Otto.

How beautiful is this face, he's too pretty to be a boy!

And the shy Miss Tilly with the white eyelashes.  

Now THIS is a pretty dog.

Australia Day we made pav, had roast lamb, how patriotic

and just hung out and created great memories. 

I got my Lego on with Daniel.

And Eliza played the piano for me, it was so beautiful she brought me to tears.

I wish I had taped it, classical piano playing of the finest.

And Sonia and I were definately not couch potatos, we went out for a walk.

There was no running in Brisbane.  I've been told if you want to run you need to be out

at 5am to beat the heat.  This was 7.30am or so and honestly by the time we got home

it was as if I had jumped into a pool fully clothed, my running gear was wet through.

Now I need to tell you a wee little story about my trip home.   And I will ask you for your honest answer.  If you had checked in, and your boarding pass had your gate number printed on it, would you have bothered looking at the departures screen?  Not I !  Why would I.

So I'm sitting there at Gate 23 a bit early (mind you I was at the airport nice and early so I had just meandered about a bit) and the flight was going to Sydney at that gate was just boarding.  No matter, my plane must be the next, so I sat myself down and waited.  And waited.  I suddenly thought hmmm there's no plane taxiing up to the gate here, maybe I better go look at the board, there's only about 10 mins till my flight takes off.

Then I hear my name over the loudspeaker, Passenger G, last call for Passenger G, your plane has boarded at Gate 17.  And even then I thought, huh, there's someone here with the same name as me!  Until the penny dropped, it was me they were calling.  And I was at Gate 23.  Well no one was safe in my path, I ran like there was no tomorrow and got to the Gate out of breath.  She told me to calm down, breathe, okay and board.  So I got on the plane, averted eye contact with everyone, mind you the hostesses were getting their show and tell stuff ready in the centre aisle for the safety demonstration.

We live and learn huh?

Thanks for a great weekend my bestie, we will NOT leave it so long until the next one.  XX

A few days back home

I've just had a few days back home staying with mum, nice to go down there, do some shopping (where there are way more shops than here!!) and generally hang about and enjoy.   On Tuesday we headed down to Queenscliff for the day, haven't been down there for years and was surprised at the buildings around where the ferry comes in.  

It was an overcast day, spots of rain on and off, but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm for enjoying ourselves. 

We wandered around, up and down the main street and checked out the unique shops.  I like shops where the clothes are a bit out of the ordinary from the run of the mill department store type clothes.  Lovely beads, cute tops, that type of thing.

I ended up scoring a gorgeous (let me repeat GORGEOUS) jacket, half price marked down to $79.  Yeah right like I need another jacket like a whole in the head but you can't argue with a bargain like that and it was worth every cent of its original price.  Also bought a knitted hat for a Christmas gift for stepson's girlfriend, I couldn't have made it for the $15 it was reduced to.   Some chocolates from a handmade choc shop for Mike (turkish delight so I wasn't tempted, urrgh).  And a homemade jar of cauliflower pickles.  Yum!  And a dress, which will be lovely and light for the summer, marked down from $139 to ... wait for it ... $30 !!  Looked great with my long stripey socks on when I came out of the change room and modelled it! ha.   Mum had fun too and got some really cool aqua coloured flat shoes.  And we had a fantastic lunch at a cool little cafe called Gusto.  Note to anyone going down there, the vegie stack with goats milk feta is yummo!

We travelled over to Point Lonsdale, I hadn't been round this area for ages and had a wander out to the pier.

Came home Wednesday arvo and imagine my surprise when I saw Mike.  Just to remind you this is his BEFORE ... Mr-Joe-Cool-I-want-to-grow-my-hair-long-so-everyone-thinks-I'm-hip ...

And I came home to this ...  Woah, didn't see that happening.  He'd gone into town and actually paid, yes don't fall over in shock, but PAID for a hair cut.  See he NEVER pays for a hair cut, as long as I've known him he just gets me to use the clippers.  I went into shock.  And it looks soooooo much better.

So I'm still on hols from work, just got this week and next week to go, but loving every single day.  Had a nice 6km run while I was back home around the old neighbourhood.  And tomorrow I have a lunch planned with some old workmates.  Got to love this holiday gig.