2013 Beez

By the time I sat down to write, well I've thought about writing a couple of times but didn't feel so inspired, it's about time to shuffle up a post.

Party Look

Christmas was a mixture of do-das with me staying put in Melbourne with mum and the rest of the tribe to Sydney on a 5-day drive; With two stops - Albury and Tumut.  I had some work to do and with mum around it's best to stay put and enjoy the essence of peace at home.

Post run Feast

Had a good Christmas party at the Club's annual bash.  Runners turned up looking awesomely different without their shorts and tees.  I was probably taking them by surprise with my first last-minute decision to join.  Thankfully there were no silly party games, just plain chatting and meeting partners and kids of other runners.

Prior to the big bash was the Tuesday running group break-up (not in a heaertbroken sense) where the 5k handicapped run was held followed by our plates of sinful indulgences.  

Ran on Christmas morning at 7.30am without waiting to join the 8am group as it's just not time efficient for me.  A good 11k solo and met Kathy and hubby on the opposite side.  

Christmas Day was spend at a friend's big house party.  Timing prevented my pool dip in the nice 25m heated pool.  It was a splendid 20deg day and food was not overly indulgent but enough with some teens making their specialties for the rest of the family.  

The tribe didn't move off to Sydney till New Year's Day as I thought it might be better traffic on the roads.  The same arvo, brought mum to a girlfriend's place for lunch.  Hung around for two hours before calling it a day.  Mum had to take her arvo nap by the time we're home.  

The sea view room 

Part of the finishing course trail

The second weekend was at Lorne with my first event Mountain to Surf and you roughly get the idea of what the elevation is with Mountain.  The second steep hill did my head in and I walked 20m before chugging on again.  Subsequently, went along the creek trail for almost an unending path.  In between crossing the creek, a runner behind me splashed and I heard later that there were a few who fell.  Most likely attributing to the overtaking at the narrow point.  Silly!

The trail branches out to the Great Ocean Road where the sunray kissed the full face. Thankfully the sunnies were on.  While running in the shady creek trail, I had to pushed it up to watch the uneven gravel path.  From road to another trail going towards the Jetty (where the great Pier to Pub start line was) was another 1.5km.  Once the jetty and the shops were in sight, it was a relief though now the path is 2-persons wide.

Clint under the eaves

The finishing was at the Life Savers Club and it's almost common that I wouldn't be able to pick up spectators until they shouted my name.  Clinton was ready to charge that morning with 3 packs of caffeine in his drink.  Bad luck hit when he was warming up.  His calf muscle tore. :-(  He had to give up the idea of running (but swam 3km in the sea to spend his caffeine score).  Pros - lots of Pink Lady apples, white peaches, nectarines, bananas and each runner was given a litre of water.  Collected the best T-shirt in my running history. So well fitted that I treasure it the most now.  Next year, I'll be there... for the shirt :-)

Run2sday Group

This is probably the majority of the runners who turned up on Summer 5K handicapped Run.  I really hate to remind myself how badly I fared.  I was obscurely given a projected time of 24.30mins and was about a minute over.  Well, there's always a winter redemption and I will want to do well given the right weather conditions (no blustery wind please)

With our bellies well filled, don't we all look a happy bunch!  And it is just a week before Christmas.  
I looked daisy fresh as they always say.  And the downside, again as they always say, I did not run hard enough :-(

Cooked and Toasty

Today is the beginning of an almost week long heatwave.  I've always dreaded hot Indian summer especially when the cool change doesn't come soon enough for a good night's sleep.  Just like now... another 30 mins to midnight.

Tomorrow is hitting max of 41deg and if you're training for the Sahara desert marathon or the Les Sables, this is perhaps the perfect training temperature sans the fine sand.  And I'm having tea (means dinner) at a friend's at dusk and the heat is still relentless.  It's ultra vital to be properly hydrated throughout the day.  I'm beginning to enjoy fridge-cold drinks now and above all, I drank the same cold drink during winter.  It dawned on me why the kids were drinking cold drinks in winter at a friend's place in New York 4 years ago, it was just refreshing albeit 'room temperature' the body welcomed the quencher.  The body behaves ever so differently when it's cold and dry.  

The one good reason to cheer up is the heat is not going to drag its ar@# to next Friday where my Mountain to Surf run is.  Fingers crossed it's going to be a fantastically cool teen temperature.

Did a fantastic run last Saturday on an annual club course in the bush.  And ran the same course with my BFF who was only too grateful that I introduced her to the most wonderful scenery.  Lucky that the roos, wild rabbits and wallabies were so close to us on our paths.  They probably have seen more human movement here given that they did not flee.  The ones in the Outback are like 100m away and gone in a second.  My iphone didn't do enough justice and speed to capture those special moments.

And we'll definitely run the same 18k course periodically to boost our hill strengths (hopefully).

School starts almost the last day of January if not February.  The kids are on a road trip to Sydney with dad and stopping a night along the way.  Sydney and any big cities do not hold the magic for me anymore.  I'm frankly quite jaded with city views.  I adore the isolated bush and the night quietitude.  Star gazing and looking out for the planets, Saturn, Jupiter, Venus, Mars and the common star constellation, the Southern Cross.  I must have been a closet nature person in my entire life.  And the timeliness of being here is the big continent just opens up a new phase in life.

The sleep bug is working on me and it's still today!  15 minutes to boiler day.  

5 Sleeps to Chrissy and a dreadful 5k

Christmas Day falling on a Tuesday seems perfect in the office world especially when an extra day will almost be definitely off.  It's rather typical to close the office for a week in almost all offices here.  An enforced holiday period and folks are already winding down at least 2 weeks before.  State schools are finishing this week whereas private and independent schools ended their terms on the first December week.  Mine are just hibernating for a while homewise as I've started on a bit of part-time work since last month.  Pays pittance but it's distracting.  Since I 'retired' from office work for almost 9 years, it is never easy to get back to work force especially in my 40s and with the work economy on a slide.

In any case, let's focus on the positive side of the festive season.  There's gonna be a bit of Christmas parties happening here.  Saturday is the club's party and I haven't decided if I should go.  Sunday is a big music night with a party for the old and young kids www.musicinyouth.com

Eve will be delighting in a little gourmet feast for the kids.  Baby back ribs, swedish meatballs, apple strudel and icecream.

Christmas morning starts with an easy run at Jells with a couple of runners then I'll be heading to an arvo party at a friend's place with a 25m heated pool to indulge.  Weather forecasted for that day is 20deg so the barbie is going to be a little cool. 

I may pop into Myer on Boxing Day to get an item which I hope will be on sale.  

My Tuesday's 5k handicapped run was awfully slow at 25.25mins.  Damn the long gradients to and back which I started a bit too fast trying to keep up with Kathy who did a 22mins.  Too fast too soon.  Having said that, I'm so happy to see the end of the summer 5k.  Another scheduled is in winter.  The 2 big 5k trials for our weekday group.

Brought my specialty - curried egg sandwiches - for the party do after the run.  A long table of feasting and some catching up with other runners. With long daylight, many of us didn't leave till about 9pm with a bellyful of yummos.

Summer and Christmas Ho Hum

The build-up to Chrissie is just about the only thing folks are so much drawn to.  Gone are the days when you get blasted with Christmas jingles and songs all through the malls and radio.  I'm still counting with my fingers the number of Christmas songs I hear when shopping.  The caveat is I do not shop much.  Fair enough. Spending a bit more time on the road with the radio didn't keep me in the Christmas mood.  Seems like the festivity of Christimas has paled this year.  Or that I'm just not exactly in the celebratory mood.  

The whole of last summer was spent outside of Melbourne with the best being a Parisian Christmas and New Year.  What more can one ask ?

Had a great ride on the Ducati yesterday morning, in time to avoid the searing 37C heat at its peak in the arvo.  Wearing leather at 28C was still as comfortably warm to Warburton and at the same time, the adductors had a great workout.  Hot days are the best bike days on country roads.  

Ran a lazy 11k this perfectly cool and sunny morning with bestie.  Chatted bits more than noticed the pace we're in.  Did 5 laps while catching up with her adventures on The Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin.  Two nights of luxurious buffet speads, the cardinal sin of any calories watcher, she ate more than she would seriously wanted to.  Payback time is working out with more running and pump classes to keep the flab in check.

Signed up (finally!) for the King Island 32K handicapped race in March just to keep the Early Bird fee.  Another confirmed event is Lorne's Mountain to Surf in mid January.  The world's biggest open water swim is also being held the same weekend.  It's the busiest summer event in this coastal town, next being the Great Ocean Road Marathon in May talking of which my running mates have all booked their accommodation which is the first to go months in advance.

With just the wind as your friend

Awesome Owlet

Miss Owlet has once again surpassed her academic expectations when I received the letter from the school weeks before the awards night on Monday.  Her first year in high school saw her comfortably adjusted to the new environment and making new friends in addition to upping her academic pace.

She never knew what the award was for and underplayed the importance with her reluctance to attend. Until that very night, we were kept in suspense and when she sauntered up the stage with the rest of the recipients, she might have then realised the significance of the night.  It was like a school Oscar night without the glam and blink blink.

Miss Owlet has and will be growing into a wonderful unassuming young woman in this school environment where she excels.  We're happy to have made the right single-sex school choice.

Brumby Run 2012

Brumby Run is named after the horse that the host runners have in their stable of 5 horses.  I was quite eager to run the half marathon distance this year with the fantastic dry weather.  Last year's inaugural run was reduced to a mere 10k due to the creek flooding.

Feeding the Rosellas before heading out.

This is one run that no money can buy as the start is just in the bush valley where their property sits.  In the six years they have lived there, Bruce reckoned he has 84 trees fallen into his multi-acred land.  That's how I reckon he's gotten those muscular arms!  

The property sits on the left lower edge of the RJ Chambers Fauna reserve.  

There were 4 drinks and gummies stops either at bus stops or at a corner of a property.  As remote as the run was, no one will give a second look at the drinks and food left unattended.  That's one of the many luxuries in the bush.  Of course not to be confused with leaving food stuff in the native animals vicinity.  The sugar fixes helped powered my legs up those treacherous gradients.  I surprised myself with overcoming the long hills after so many hilly runs for months before.  The fruits are just bearing well.  Absolutely delighted with my form.

The runners were all rewarded with a good spread of brekkie of sorts.  Excellent homemade swiss bircher muesli (with and without nuts), platters of fruits, homemade raspberry white choc muffins, American cheese eggs, gingerbread, asparagus broccoli quiche, leek and chives quiche.  No junk food other than the chocolates for dessert.

I'm already looking forward to next Brumby run and it wasn't the food.
Brumby Photos