At Last!

At last a moment to Blog.

It took me a few days to get over the big Relay and even then, when I was doing 25K on Sunday my legs were complaining.

I have had big ideas of increasing my mileage through the week but that hasn't happened yet. I have grown too used to my 7K circuit. I would like to, at least one morning per week, run the circuit twice. There now that I have put it in writing I am committed. I'll have to do it now.

My right knee, which has been giving me grief for some time now, seems to be improving. I think this is because I have been trying to avoid running on concrete paths as much as possible.

Now the Relay is Over

What next? Now the 500K Relay is over what will I focus on? I think the answer is the Canberra Marathon.

The 500K Relay. What an experience! Last weekend I participated in my 4th 500K Summer Challenge. A fund raiser for the Endeavour Foundation which which is a support group for over 3000 interlectually handicapped people in Queensland.... my brother, Lindsay, being one of them. This year $100,002.00 was raised.

Our team, Brisbane Road Runners, came 8th out of 19 teams. The relay began at Helensvale at the northern end of the Gold Coast at 4:45 AM (I was picked up by our team bus at 1:45 AM).

The relay is broken into stages and sections. Sections average about 5K in distance and times are recorded at the beginning and end of each stage. A stage can consist of any number of sections. A stage begins and ends where it possible to park, off road, 19 22 seater buses, 19 follow vehicles, 19 drop off vehicles, 19 water vehicles, and the Relay Directors vehicle, an ambulance, a police car, and other support vehicles.

This cavalcade wound it's way around southeast Queensland for three days. From Helensvale to Beaudesert to Boonah to Warwick to Toowoomba to Gatton and finishing in Ipwsich.

I ran 8 sections, the maximum a team member can run. I didn't get much sleep so it has taken me a couple of days to get back on track.

I can't wait to do it again neext year.

A Whole Week

Whow! It is a whole week since I last blogged. What a slacko! I have been running though.

Monday was a day off.
Tuesday was 7K.
Wednesday I did some hill work..neally killed me.
Thursday was 7K.
Friday I slept in.
Saturday was 12K.....I surprised myself with a 56 min time.
Sunday (today) 21K from Park Road with my running buddies.

Next weekend is the 500K Relay. I am looking forward to that. The team bus is leaving Toowoomba at 12:30 AM Friday and picking me up at 1:45 AM on the way through to Helensvale at the northern end of the Gold Coast where the Relay starts at 4:00 AM. Then three days of non-stop action. I don't think there is any other event like this in Australia. It requires a massive amount of organisation.

A Sunday Outing

My running buddy, Tegwen, had a birthday on Saturday so she reckoned she got to choose the run. She came up with a plan to run from Park Road along Milton Road to the Western Freeway. then take the bike path to Jindalee, onto Seventeen Mile Rocks Road and accross to Oxley Road. From there along Oxley Rd to the Indooroopilly bridge, through Indooroopilly via Lambert Rd then through Toowong and along the river back to Park Road.

I measured it on Google Earth and came up with a distance of 27.35K. I thought that was an OK distance but none of our other buddies wanted to go that far so Tegwen & I set off at 5:00 AM yesterday. It was a beautiful morning for running and it was nice to be going somewher different for a change. We had no idea where water might be available so had to take a supply with us. My 1.4 L Camelbak came in handy.

It proved to be a good circuit with enough hills to make it challenging. We will be keeping it in mind for marathon training.

My Garmin measured the distance at 27.7K...pretty close to the Google Earth measure. the run took us 2:25. I was happy with that.

Another Cool Night Classic

Tonight I and 4,699 others ran/walked the Cool Night Classic. The event grows in popularity each year. This was my 6th, and the 5th aniversary of my first ever fun run. The distance has been measured as 5.13K and some of the path is very narrow and becomes exceedingly congested. As a matter of fact it is congested right fromthe start. I found it hard to get any sort of break. At one point when I did, I almost ran slap bang ito a lamp post. I said a naughty word.

Early in the race I saw Clairie run past me. Damn! It was hard to keep sight of her on the crowded path. Eventually however..................... well I have to make the most of it while I still can.........I passed her :-)

I crossed the finish line in 21:55. (2005 21:08, 2004 21:04).

My 7K Challenge

This morning I set myself a challenge to beat 32 minutes for my 7K circuit. I started out relly well and finised the first K in less time than usual. A good sign. I did pretty well to the 5K mark but the last 2K is mostly uphill and always hard yacka. I really have to work hard on this section and, to my dismay, it never seems to get any easier. Never-the-less I manged to trudge my way home and to my astonishment I had made it in 31:38. Yahoo!!!

My 7K challenge to date:

Oct 17 40:06
Oct 19 32:25
Oct 22 34:43
Oct 23 33:20
Oct 24 34:28
Oct 26 34:45
Oct 27 32:54
Oct 31 32:44
Nov 1 31:38