Woodford to Glenbrook

Two weeks ago I was in a training run and my HR was reading above my effort. FSF said "you'll have a cold by Monday " and I just laughed. He was wrong - I had bronchitis by Monday! and was out of action completely for about 10 days. A couple of 5k runs (which left me coughing) kinda said I'd be ok for W2G but just to take it easy. So on Sunday morning, after picking up Brick and Gogirl we headed to the mountains. Thanks to Gnome being our chauffeur, we drove straight to the start at Glenbrook with about 30 mins to spare. Fortunately when I decided to join the toilet queue, I found my running buddy, Amy, just ahead of me and I didn't need to search for her amongst the heaps of CoolRunners and Striders who were there. I have to admit I was a bit scared of how the day would go but knew I could walk if needed. A quick kiss goodbye and I left Gnome with Emjay, Helmet, Nick and young Tim to go and have coffee while we raced.

We took the first few ks easy as advised and didn't worry about people going past us. From about 6k we caught up with some and started to make some little gains. Around 9k we were running near about 4 other girls and kept changing places over the next few ks. At about 15k this really negative fellow who'd been near us for a while, barged through the middle of us without warning and in my attempt to suggest he warn people of his passing I went flat on my face. I got up quickly with some new beaut grazes but also, a new determination to get pass him if only for safety reasons. From about here, Amy and I stopped using the water stations and just used what we had in our fuel belts. This enabled us to keep up the momentum and ignore the little aches that were starting. I have to admit for the last 5ks my back ribs were aching and I knew my lungs were being tested. We ended up having a really good run over the second half maintaining sub 6min k's and passed at least 20 runners to finish 2.41.52. (and beat that man!!).

Our time was so much better than I expected after being sick but I had a really scary reminder when I stopped at the end and realised I couldn't breathe and was wheezing so badly a first aid person came and took me to the tent. Fortunately sitting allowed my breath to return, so they patched up my grazes instead. Amy and I took our shoes off and cooled our feet on the wet grass and then laughed as we both discovered that after my fall, secretly we had both decided to beat that fellow home. A few minutes later the other 4 girls who'd been near us came through and delighted in telling us that they had beaten him home, too. Maybe we should all thank him for being so painful.

We then enjoyed a lovely lunch with some CR friends and celebrated with chocolate of course.

This was my first every trail race and my longest distance ever and I feel really pleased with how it went. I just wish my body wasn't so sore today and that Gnome would stop laughing at me :-)

First attempt at a run

After a few more days walking and cycling, I attempted a run/walk (50m on, 150m off) on Thursday night. It felt good for the first few intervals, but progressively my hip started to whinge at each step. I pulled the plug after 8 intervals, feeling a bit sore and a bit depressed. However, there were no after effects on Friday and I went for an hour's walk today with absolutely no issues, so I guess I'll give it another go in a couple of days. Until then, it's back on the bike.

Gnome

Back on my feet

I went for my first walk yesterday (1/2 an hour, 2.5k) and the hip came through fine (can't say much for the rest of me though :-) ). Repeated the dose today (same time, but 3.3k this time - the dog didn't know what had hit him!).

Last Thursday I rode to work in the morning (that's the downhill bit) and felt really tired afterwards. I was intending to ride home again, but as it was pouring rain and TA had to take Micro to footy training at the Uni, she picked me up and we went to the Uni swimming pool instead. The pool is heated (slightly warmed?), but sheeting rain and a blowing gale made the task of getting in interesting, to say the least. As usual, tiger angel swam all over me, doing 2k for my 1.3. I wish I looked like her when I swam...

We both entered the C2S during the week. I don't expect that I'll be in anything approaching racing condition by then, but C2S is always about the atmosphere, not the racing. TA's got a green bib and I've got a red one. Maybe with the timing chips, I can hang back so we can run together. Hmm. That'd be nice :-)

Tiger angel is likely to be doing her first Woodford to Glenbrook, so it'll be driver/cheerer/coffee drinker duty for me that day. Hope it's a nice one for her.

Depending on how the weather is tomorrow, I might be up for a ride while TA is off on her long run. Hopefully I can do a few longer walks this week without the legs complaining too much, and then maybe trying a run/walk next weekend. Onwards and upwards.

Gnome

Great Nosh 2008

Late last year I got Gnome to take me on a couple of bush runs and then in January I did the Party Pooper option of Beyond the Black stump
and really enjoyed it. So after tri season was over, I decided I'd like to do some other bush races and Great Nosh
appeared on the calendar. As many of you know I've been working very hard to manage a hip issue and it's improving so I decided I'd give the run a go. I started the race with Emjay and Amy right at the back as I needed a late toilet stop before the start!

The run follows a gentle meandering narrow track over the first 5ks. I did manage to roll my ankle twice in this area but just worked on trying to land it safely and the pain subsided. We headed up under the Roseville Bridge and Amy and I took the left side path and ended up moving ahead of Emjay. We crossed the bridge and as we ran down the other side we waved to Gnome who was taking photos. From here there was a lot more uphill, the track got really narrow and there were times of scrambling up rocks and hopping over little creeks. At times we appeared out of the bush to run behind houses and then back into bush. We caught up with Nihao about here. Over the last few ks we ran along a wide trail covered in mulch which you just sunk into then back into the bush for the last k and finally onto the oval to finish in 1.57.23 watch time. Poor Gnome saw Nihao and got some good finishing shots of her but wasn't expecting me to be a second or two behind her :-).

Afterwards the RunClub group headed out for brunch and dissected races. A nice end to a good run.