Attack of the flying chicken!

So yesterday I went out for my last longest longest run before the Half Marathon.  I was planning to do anything between 18 and 19km.  Ouch!  I knew I wouldn't have a chance on Saturday or Sunday as I had two 5km fun runs to do, so my day off Friday it was to be.   Except I woke up and it was raining.  I mean REALLY raining hard!  So I had some brecky and decided to go out a few hours later.  Also I realised with a distance like that unless I wanted to go stir crazy running round and round and round town, I would do an out and back.

I was also trialling my new Nathan Sports Speed Draw Plus water bottle which arrived that morning in the post ... see there must have been a reason it was raining or I would have gone out before it arrived!

So an out and back of this distance means I was going out through some countryside, long road, running on the side of the road.   I run against the traffic, and always pop a hand up if I hear a car coming from behind me (albeit on the other side of the road) or I see a car up ahead, just so they know I've acknowledged them, they know I am aware of them, and I get over into the grass verge and when they pass I'm back on the side of the road again.

So I'm halfway back into town, and I see a dirty white tray truck ute approaching and like normal pop my hand up to acknowledge him and as he (I'm going to say he, not from what he did, but it was a REALLY dirty tray truck ute, no right minding girl would be driving it) ... so as he got closer I thought for a fleeting moment that something white had flown out from the back of the ute and came flying in my direction.  Until it landed a few feet in front of me and bounced and exploded and half eaten fried chicken and chips went flying everywhere, not to mention a cup of dipping sauce.  It was then I realised that hadn't come from the back of his ute, that came from him, aimed directly at me!!!!
I was shocked, did that really just happen, I looked back but couldn't get his rego number and he went up and over the rise.  Then I panicked, I was in the middle of nowhere, still a couple of kms from the outskirts of town, what if he did a u-ey and came back, so I grabbed my phone out ready to call Mike, just in case.  But no, he was long gone.

You know it's never entered the equation that someone would deliberately throw something at me while I was running.  It's not something that has been on my radar.  And when discussing it with the Runners Group I've realised I'm not the only one this has happened to, some far worse.  One lass had an empty beer bottle aimed at her, and another had a glass bottle smash in front of her spraying her legs with broken glass, and a fellow from my work had a Macdonalds parcel thrown at him.

WTF is going on people????

Anyway result was I made it home, 18.2km so was thrilled, after eating/showering I put my compression socks on and left them on till I went to bed.   The hand held water bottle was a rip roaring success, it didn't worry me having it in my hand, and I was able to pop two GU's in it with room to spare.  It goes say it fits all iPhones, I have an iPhone 5 and without the case it would fit with a squeeze, but I prefer to wear my Spibelt for that anyway and have my headphones up through my shirt.

And the best part of all of this, I pulled up fine.  My legs were tired of course, but I remember last year when training for the Half, I was doing distances like this and I could barely walk after it, and there'd be a big lie down on the couch.  But all good, tired legs, but not achey.

Just as well as I had a 5km fun run on Saturday, I'll do a blog post about that tomorrow, right now my bed awaits!

Running a deux

Pardon my French, no I mean REALLY pardon it.  No idea what that means apart from there's a two in there.  

So back track a bit - I did my long run on my plan on my day off on Friday this week as I knew I would not have time for it over Saturday or Sunday, with a plan to do Friday's run on Sunday.  Got it?

Saturday I went to a terrific master class, if you will, on preserves, relish, chutney, sauce making with the CWA.  It has really got me thinking.  I've had a foray into making jam before, those luscious Timboon strawberries, but I resorted to using jamsetta to set the jolly thing.   I got to taste test lots of different flavours that she had there, plus now have the recipes.  Family, you can expect many jars of chutneys and relishes this year, once our tomatoes finally turn red!   I did taste test a green tomato sauce but didn't much care for it.

So anyway today rocks around, eh, I slept in, a well deserved sleep in I might add.  I decided to do my run later.  Pottered around, Mike picked one of the humongous Lebanese Zucchini he has grown and I set about making zucchini fritters for lunch and to freeze.  Well I could hardly run just after lunch so I'd wait.  Gets to late afternoon and I told Mike I just couldn't be bothered and my run was off the cards.   He asked me how far I wanted to go, which was anywhere between 5 and 8km and I'd be happy.   So okay, "lace up" he says, "I'm coming with you".

He literally had to push me out the door, but actually once I was in my gear I was semi-happy about it.

Techno nerd working out his tunes, then decided the reason he couldn't hear was because his earphones were playing up, so he ditched the music.   We would just run and walk and chatter and run again.

He decided to venture further afield and came one of the stock routes with me.   Ouch, there are some hills up there.  But I was so proud of him, he was doing a walk run and I was doing a bit of a joffle and we were keeping up with each other.  It was warm this arvo!

I swear though he has Chariots of Fire music going on in his head, he seems to have perfected the hands in the air running style.  Running like a champion.

Then he spots the cows and made me stop for a shot!  It's a giggle with our 12wbt Runners Connect group that we get selfies with cows.  Goodness, even Mike is now in on it.

Got to the lake and around the side of the caravan park and he spots the sprinkler system so decides to do a run through to the delight of a lady standing nearby who chuckled loudly.

Then down to the main road and back home.  End result 7.4km.  Longest run ever for Mike, he was knackered mind you, but so so proud of himself.  And me?  Well he got to say 'I told you so' as I was delighted I could tick off my training run tonight, so so happy to have done it.   He just knew that the pain I would feel of not doing the run was far worse than the pain of actually doing it.  And it was so much fun running with him tonight, it really was.

Mind you, after dinner he sat down and polished off two bowls of icecream and then a bag of chips.  This running gig makes for a hungry husband for sure!    

So so happy with our efforts tonight.

The Great Rail Run - Queenscliff to Drysdale

I've left off blogging about this as I was still processing my thoughts about last Sunday.   I had entered the Great Rail Run - Queenscliff to Drysdale 17km..

I got down to Queenscliff nice and early about 7.15am, after having stayed in Geelong for the weekend following the line of traffic heading down the coast.   Lots of people milling about as they were accepting race day entries also.  It was chilly but up on the platform it was out of the breeze.   Mood was great and the train was getting steamed up, two engines and a handful of carriages.  There was probably about 350 runners I guess.

The race consisted of the full 17km, a 10km (starting from Suma Park, where those competitors got on the train and it dropped them at Suma Park) and a three team relay.  A few spots of rain which soon stopped, and I sucked it up and bagged up my jacket to put in the van to meet me at the end.

Once the race started I soon warmed up.  There was a lovely tail wind and overcast conditions.  The train starts about 5 mins after the runners.   Mind you end result was that 25 runners beat the train, it came in 26th place.  But soon enough it chugged on past and it's smoke was merely a spot in the distance.

There were five water spots, such lovely volunteers - I got offered champers at one and he promptly gave me my cup of water.  What a joker.  Also volunteers stopping traffic at the road crossings as the rail trail crosses roads in a few sections.  At one road crossing there were no cars, so the cheeky volunteer held up the slow sign to me!  I had worked out I'd be happy to finish in 2:20 and by the 10km I was going great and knew if I remained on pace I would be in well before that.

But it was not to be.  At about the 12km mark I came across an incident where a runner was down and having CPR done on him.  His face had cuts and blood and he wasn't breathing and his whole head was a blue/grey colour.  There were about eight runners in a line taking turns to do compressions with St. Johns Ambulance also on the scene.  So lucky it was a section of the trail that the ambulance could get down.  There were also two nurses and a paramedic runner there too taking a major role, what's the odds when something dire happens that you'd be so lucky having those professionals also running the race.

They had the defrib machine on him and when it came time for everyone to stand back and it shocked him, I have never seen that before apart from on TV, it was very confronting.   I and a few others stood comforting his wife helplessly looking on.   I had done CPR in First Aid at work many many years ago but none of it was in my head at all.   The MICA ambulance then arrived and they worked on him very calmly with drips and putting needles into him and he started breathing again thankfully and he would be taken to hospital.

The organisers told us if we didn't want to continue they would arrange a bus for us to take us to the finish but we all decided we needed to finish this.  But the heart of the event had gone by that stage.  I think those of us left were in shock and continued on very slowly.   I've never been more thankful to see a finish line in my life.   Now I will wear this as a badge of honour, but when I checked the results I had come last!  Some people did cross after me but they were part of a relay, so on times I took the wooden spoon.

The organisers had spoken to each of us in that tail end of finishers to make sure we wee okay.  I got a massage on my calves, had a veggie burger for breakfast and then caught the shuttle bus back to Queenscliff, found my car and had a good howl.

Such a fantastic race, it really was and I would do it again in a heartbeat, but this year, just a wee bit more than I bargained for.

In the race recap email, there was a lovely message from the Race Organisers and a message from the man's wife, it was great to read this feedback:

"VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU..

As some participants may be aware a runner in yesterdays event collapsed while on course. In what can only be described as a true demonstration of people coming together to support another in need, many runners stopped and worked together to help for more than 30 minutes. Peter is currently in Geelong hospital and we have been asked to pass on the message below from Peter's family. 

Peter's family would like to thank his fellow runners who came to his aid on the Great Rail run. Words cannot express our gratitude. Thanks also to St Johns volunteers and the paramedics.  Peter is now stable and receiving the best treatment at Geelong hospital."

And then I met her !

So still playing catch up on my blog but catching up posting by phone as I do believe I may have had the screen of death on my computer.  I'm calm as it's not the blue screen of death, it's slowly going through lots of checking files and my computer was fully backed up only last week.  But damn it!

So anyway back tracking to Thursday week ago.  And look what happened!!!  Our 12WBT Guru and the woman who has changed so many lives was in Gerlong at s book signing.   And of course I had to be there.

Now I've seen Mish at other events - at the 12WBT Finale parties, the group exercise sessions, I hightailed it up to Ararat to watch the filming of The Biggest Loser and time after time I have seen people on blogs and Facebook and Instagram who have had their pic taken with her time and time again, but apart from our big group team photo I've not.  And I don't mind saying I've been a little envious of people from time to time.

What I wouldn't give to meet her and tell her thank you for changing my life.  So I got to Westfield early, got a great possie and watched the exercise session and listened to her motivational speaking and lined up afterwards to get my book signed.   

So it got to me and I just looked at her and she was so lovely and asked me what was wrong and completely overwhelmed I said simply "I think I'm going to cry" then promptly burst into tears.  Oh way to play it cool Carol!!!!!

She told me "Oh come here" and gave me a big hug and told me to stop crying or she'd cry and her mascara would run! It was so genuine and real and as I blubbered my thanks to her for turning my life around and giving me the power to gain health and fitness my coherent speech was just completely out the window I rambled.  I remember telling her I was from the Warrnambool crew and she said "Are you kidding me, you've come all that way to see me" like she was genuinely surprised.

I did say to her that I'd seen her a number of times but never had my photo taken with her and she said "Well we're getting our photo taken today girlfriend!"

I can't even begin to tell you how happy I am thanks to the photographer from Westfield to have these lovely memories. (pics from the Westfield Geelong Facebook page)

Happy happy days!!

Still playing catch up blogging!!

So last Friday in February the annual Noorat to Terang fun run was held.  Advertised as 5.92km (who does that!!!! Start another 80 metres up the road people!!) it's a fairly low key annual event run by the Terang Lions Club.

Just arrive, sign in, pay the $10 and they work out what group you are in by a symbol drawn on your hand.  I'm going with V for VICTORY as opposed to (cough cough) perish the thought  I'm a Veteran!!!!  

As usual my support entourage of one was there with me which is nice as he can drive the back way to Terang to wait at the end for me.  Otherwise they run a couple of busses before the race from Terang to the start at Noorat.

Mike made sure he captured my pre-race Noorat jump which I've done each year, mind you he made me jump about 20 times to capture this shot.  I was knackered!!!!

Walkers took off at 6.30pm on the walking track and runners at 6.45pm,  runners were using the south bound lane of the road to Terang whilst the North bound lane remained open to traffic at 40 kmh.  They did warn us that they may make a decision to move the slow runners to the walking track in an effort to open the road as soon as possible.

Alas I was one of the slow runners who the sweeper vehicle came and swept me off the road about half way into the run.  Baaah!!!  Although the (psychological) side effect of that was being able to catch up to and pass the walkers which was a good feeling.  

Anyway it was fun, not my best time but thinking about that my run ended up a little longer a  tad over 6km probably due to being on the walking track.  But all good.  Yet another event for the year under my belt.

Next event coming up is the Queenscliff to Drysdale against the steam train in March.  Stay tuned.

Och Aye for a wee run!

Bit of a catch up from the past week, one day at a time.  It's been a big week!

Last Sunday Mike and I headed to Ballarat to the Highland Festival.  Weather forecast was for a warm day but thankfully most of the day the sun was behind cloud cover so that was a blessing in itself.  Plan was we were to get there about 11am as with typical band jobs there's a lot of waiting around as Mike wasn't playing till about 3pm.  I really felt for them wearing all their clobber.

So we found where the band was set up and dropped our stuff, chair, picnic basket and the like, and my plan was to leave Mike there while I went for a run around Lake Wendouree.  

It's a beautiful running track, the Steve Moneghetti running track with a 6km loop round the lake.  What a jewel in Ballarat's crown.  The running track/pathway was well maintained and signposted every .5km with how far to the nearest public toilets, how far to the closest water drinking fountain, and a bit about the nearest landmark.  I must admit I did wonder if there was an unwritten rule that you needed to run anti-clockwise.  My first lap I ran clockwise and everyone was coming the other way.  So the second lap I changed and went anti-clockwise!  Two laps done for a total of 12km, warm, slow going, but done.

I mentioned the sign posting, I wasn't kidding, you couldn't miss it.  Oh how this would be so great to have in Warrnambool along the promenade, at least to mark the kms.

And of course this area around Lake Wendouree is also known for the famous black swans.  They can be mean and nasty and I tell you this one looked quite ferocious until it neared its arse at me!!

After changing and freshening up I had my picnic lunch and soon enough in the afternoon the band competed.  Ouch, just as the cloud cover cleared.  The sun was biting!  There he is...

Mike needed to hang around for the massed bands after the individual bands had all completed.  By that stage I had had enough of pipes, so I told Mike I was going to sit in the park in the shade and come get me when he finished.  I had a lovely chat to my bestie on the phone and just chilled listening to the pipes sounds floating across from the banks of the lake.

All in all a win-win.  Mike played at the festival, I got my run in, I got to support him and we got to spend the day together.  Yay for the moons aligning.

Me and the Elephant !!

So once again this year I took on the Elephant.  This is the third year they've run this event, and the third one I've done.  Mind you every year on the way up I say (or maybe grumble) to myself that I'm never doing it again, but I keep coming back.

I was going to be in two minds if I would run today, with my back issues.  About Thursday was when I felt a marked improvement, I did a light run on Friday and Saturday (when I say light, I mean light and easy and not many kms just to test things out).  I had made my decision Saturday afternoon that I was going to attempt it, take it easy, and see how I go.

It was going to be a hot one today, est temp 39.  Ouch.  This year there was the usual 5km (around the football oval, through town, up (yes up) the highway to the entrance of the mount area, along the gravel to the base of the mount, up the scoria cutting, dips down into the crater and then up the side of the large mound to the top.  The 8km race put on this year as well also did a lap of the base of the mount as well.

Here I am before the run.   Notice I'm wearing my Run Downunder shirt.  I'll mention more about that another time.     You can see it was already sunny and yep, that's where I was running to.

Now I took these following photos on the way back, so you could see what I saw in order of me seeing it.  I had my phone tucked into my spibelt on the way up and didn't wear headphones today.   Imagine we've run the oval, run through town and up the highway, and then we enter the Mount gates and run up this gravel road to the car park up yonder.  Nope, not much shade is there?  Mind you I kept the flies away with Nature's Botanical.  I swear by this product.   Just a dab on the legs and arms, neck and face.  No flies on me!

So I've passed the carpark and this is the first track, we are only really still at the base at this stage, the real work hasn't even begun.

At the race briefing they had warned us that the area had received 50mm of rain recently, good for farmers, but the first cutting up the front of the mount we had to stick to the right hand side.  The scoria had washed down and the left hand side was unstable.   This is where you really feel it in your calves.  I know for me there's no running at this point, it's physically impossible for me.  I don't know about others, but I did see a couple of people ahead of me walking it too.  No shame in that.  The scoria is rough under foot and the incline is relentless.

You get to the top of the scoria and there's a dip for a little bit, it's heaven on your calves.  I guess this is where you enter part of the crater where it dips.  And then before you know it you are climbing again.  This part of the climb is kind of like grassy hay and tracks.    Almost makes you want to belt out "THE HILLS ARE ALIVE!!!!!"    You head up this track and around to your left and then it climbs steeply to the top, round the knoll bit and hallelujiah you are at the top.  2km of climbing done.   I did a little run through the finish line, ha! 

The spoils of victory of this race is the magnificent view.  360 degrees of seeing forever.  It truly is magnificent.  It was so clear you could see the peaks at the Grampians well over 100km away.  It was breezy too at the top but that was welcome being that it was so warm.  Absolutely sensational.

You really could see forever.  Goodness it is so dry out there.  I had to keep photographing to the west as the sun turned Derrinallum into a glare trying to photograph to the east.  

A couple of panorama shots, we are on top of the crater here, it's hard to get a feel of how high up we were but trust me, by now my legs knew it !   

Here's that nasty elevation where you can see that whilst it's a steady rise throughout the start of the run, those last 2km are tough.  Real tough.  The tough that makes you say, "nope, never doing this again, this is the last year" tough.   And then you are elated being at the top, and then by the time you get down and decide to ditch the shuttle bus and run back to town, and then have a sausage in bread for breakfast at the market, and eh, you tentatively book it into your calendar for next year.  You know at this stage you'll be back next year.

Congratulations once again to the Football Club and the volunteers and the little town of Derri who always ALWAYS makes everyone feel so welcome.  I am very big on supporting local events.  It takes a stack of behind the scenes work to put on something like this and bravo to them for doing so.   So if you take anything out of this blog post, support your local events.  There may not be bling, there may not be huge accolades, it may just be 5km, but they're putting it on for you.  They had paramedics there, plenty of water stations, a big smile and cheer when you crossed the line at the top and besides there's a bonus drink bottle and t-shirt now added to my ever growing collection!  ;-)