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.