Le Tour de Warwick

* long post warning*

Friday 19 May

After a few crazy hours in the office, I was able to escape the office at 1pm in order to head to the airport to meet The Owl for our 3pm flight to Brisvegas. Cirque collected us from the airport and after a quick stop at Cirque-vile, the 3 of us (C1 and C2 were following later in the evening) were on our road trip to Warwick.

After arriving at about 7.30pm and meeting Miners at our hotel, we headed across the road to the H&J for dinner, a glass (or two) of wine, to catch up with some CRs & to meet some new ones. Once we headed back to the hotel, the gang presented me with a belated birthday present - a snazzy white cycling top (good choice Miners!) and a bell for my bike -



Yes, Cirque; it will be on my bike soon enough :-)

Saturday 20 May

The first race of the weekend - the Half - started from the road in front of our hotel. The Owl & I contemplated walking out to the road in our PJs, waving the runners off and then heading back to bed for a few more hours sleep. But being the dedicated cheerleaders we are - we didn't. We did what any sensible cheerleader would do - we went in search of breakfast! After a leisurely breakfast (read: slow service), we headed out towards Yangan (pronounced Yaaaaaaaannngan). Unfortunately we missed most of the runners (opps) but did manage to give a few a cheer from our CR-mobile:



After the Half we headed back to the Rec Centre and then to the hotel to get ready for the next event - my first - 4.6km cross country...

4.6kms cross country - 29:41mins

I was excited and nervous about this (and the 10km) race. Firstly, it was my first official race since my comeback (*woohoo*). However since I started running again in March, I haven't done any hill work. All of my runs have been relatively flat in an effort to build my base back up without taxing my body (and my legs) in particular. Combined with my glute problem I've experienced over the last few weeks, I was really quite nervous.

An 'interesting' course. Lots of soft sand (*groan*) and horse jumps (a first). Quite a fun course actually. Unfortunately I felt heavy and unfit the whole way - but I can't complain. I ran with the lovely Hannah who kept me honest when I wanted to slack off and there were absolutely no complaints from my legs - yippee!!!



Back to the hotel once again for a shower, some food and a change of clothes, it was time to get ready for the reason for the trip to Warwick - to run with Cirque in the 5km road race...

5kms road race - 41:51mins

The Owl has posted a long report on the race so I won't go through it again. Suffice to say that Cirque is one of the strongest and gutsiest people I know. I would have stayed in bed had I been in the same circumstances. This run - and the 1500m on Sunday - were the highlights of the weekend for me (and Plu would be proud - I ran with my camera - hence the photos)

The gang (L-R) Miners, The Owl, Cirque, C2 (Jordan) and C1 (Owen)



And yes, we sang to keep her entertained. All together now "she'll be coming 'round the mountain when she comes..."



I love this one.



Cirque & I after her big race :-)

After the race it was back to the hotel for (yes, you guessed it) another shower & some more food. Dinner was at the Rec Centre where, for the grand price of $7, it was a 3 course meal (including unlimited cake!) not to mention wonderful company while a video of the day's events played. A great way to end an evening. I think we were all too tired for any shennigans so we crawled back to our hotel for an early night.

TBC - stay tuned :-)