Undamaged goods

….isn’t that right Easy Tiger? ;-)

Apologies in advance for a long post – I’ve been busy :-)

Friday – on the road again..

Distance: 4.68kms
Time: 30:03mins
Aver pace: 6:25mins
MTD: 33.7kms

Given that I hadn’t run in over a week, I decided to do a very easy (and tentative) 30mins around the oval again. Very pleased to say that there were no complaints out of my shins/calves. Phew.

It’s been so long since I last ran at the oval – at least before the CR 5km Challenge in April. This is the oval where I took my first tentative (running) steps in March after my ITB battle & made me remember the early days & how far I have come since then. I certainly wouldn’t have believed that in such a short period of time I would be “ready” (she says adopting a broad definition of the word) to line up for a 25kms race next weekend.

Later I spent my lunch hour in Easy Tiger’s company with my tib-ants getting lots of his attention. Typing this 2 days later (Sunday), there are still a bit tender…

How ‘bout a wedding update – there hasn’t been one for a while – I had dinner with my bridesmaids on Friday night. One of them – my maid of honour (or “Head Maid” as I call her) announced that she is pregnant. 2 months pregnant. Meaning she will be 7mths pregnant at the wedding. Clearly she isn’t a maid anymore – at least it will be bridesmaid & not the bride who is barefoot & pregnant at this wedding ;-)

Saturday – Poor Man’s Comrades

Wow. What a huge day.

PMC for those who don’t know is the “Fat Ass” version of the 96kms Comrades ultra held in Sth Africa each year with an “up” course (Sydney to Gosford) and “down” (Gosford to Sydney) being held in alternate years. Sorry, I don’t have any photos for you – my camera is with Mr Jen_runs in Germany.

Suspecting that my good friend Twopennys was likely to put in an appearance I had planned to make it to the start – 7am on the steps of Sydney Opera House. A glorious morning in Sydney – chilly but clear. After dinner late night, I somehow made it out of bed in time. When I actually arrived at the start there was no-one there so I walked a lap of the Opera House to keep warm, bumping into Truckie amongst others on the way.

Just after 7am there were off so Kevin T, Blkbox & I headed to City Extra for a coffee. I had planned to head up to the gym for the 8am pilates class (as a way to justify heading into the city at such a silly hour on a Saturday morning). I didn’t make it – KT ended up chatting for about an hour. So then I headed home, picked up my bike & headed to Centennial Park for a ride.

The plan was to do about 20kms given my plans to run tomorrow. A good ride – I ended up doing 22.68kms at an average pace of 20.8km/hr (again). I do have a problem with my front gears – they are stuck. I can’t change up. Grrr. My mood didn’t improve much when I had an “encounter” with a car thanks to a woman who failed to give way on the driveway into the park & then had the nerve to give ME a glare. Grrr.

From Centennial Park, I ducked home to grab some food before setting out to chase the runners up the Pacific Highway. While it would have been quicker to head up the freeway, I decided to drive through Bobbin Head as I’ve never been that way before. What a beautiful drive but a bloody tough road to run.

Soon after Cowan, I found Twopennys and stopped for a quick chat. Not far out of Mt White I stopped to chat first to Truckie and just ahead of him, a group of 4 runners including Horrie & Virtual. At Mt White, I found Belinda & Tim at the Bikers Café. Once again, I think I made a couple of biker’s days by getting out of the car & walking the café in my long tights. Why didn’t I learn my lesson after I did the same thing coming home from Warwick? ;-)

By now it was about 2.30 (I think). I certainly didn’t plan to follow the runners all the way to finish but given I’d gone 60kms already, there didn’t seem much point in turning back now – so I joined a car convoy with Belinda & Tim by driving 3-5kms up the road & stopping to offer the boys encouragement, water & food as they ran past us. Our first stop was the other side of Mt White where Aunty K & Uncle Dave joined us briefly & Plu rode past (stopping for a photo opp) before following Virtual up the road. This leap-frogging continued for the next 20kms or so. About 10kms out of Gosford, Virtual & 2 other fellas had broken away from Horrie so I left Belinda & Tim and tried to catch up with Virtual who I knew would need a lift back to Sydney. I caught him – about 100m before the finish. Horrie came shortly afterwards.

An incredible event. 96kms sounds like a long way (it IS a long way) but it’s not until you drive the course – not to mention the mountains along the way – that you truly appreciate what an incredible effort it was – and how mad they are (haha).

After dropping Ken at Chatswood, I got home about 8.45. It was one very long day - I was exhausted & the only running I had done was about 40m to catch up to Virtual to hand him a coke :-)

One concern for me personally was that later into the afternoon I was experiencing a bit of knee pain in my right knee (yes, the knee formerly known as TPC). Quite short, sharp, stabbing, ITB kind of pain. Yikes. Came home & basically pulverised by ITB with the rolling pin. It was a bit tight but not too bad. Will keep an eye on it over the coming days…