23km today & 82km for the week so far
The last day of a great running year...and this would be one of the more memorable runs, so very appropriate it was the final run for the year (unless you count me running to the bar later on :-) ).
Whilst my post is a few days late, due to returning back from Canberra, this will be my second last post regarding my 2005 running year, my final post will be a summary of a good year!
Ewen (wombatface - CR) had invited me to meet a group of people for a bush run on Saturday morning starting at Molonglo Reach car park at 7am and move into Mt Majura & Ainslie and I am very happy I did, because this run was one of my highlights for the year. I arrived at 6:50ish and was introduced to everyone, but of course I don't remember all of the names, the guy leading (organising) the group was Steve Appleby (two fruits - CR), an Ultra Nut, so I discovered, he thinks running 10km is short! As I knew it was going to be hot and I would end up very wet in sweat, therefore have rubbing issues I decided no top would be a great way of getting some rays and not having 'nipple' issues.
We started at a very nice and easy pace and I remained near the front of the pack, getting to know Steve, Ewen & a lady (name gone) a little better. The pace was comfortable, but I knew that some BIG hills were still to come so I was very happy with this. The run was dirt trails, grass trails & rocky trails. Both Steve & Ewen had Garmin's so I was always aware of our pace and elevation (I think I may be hooked and this could be a present to Stu in the coming months...). I got shown many of the tracks and even ran on some of the National Mountain Championship course, I am sure I would not be able to complete one lap of the course without walking, some of those hills were very very steep!!! On arrival at the top of Mt Majura I was told we were 904m above sea level, I knew I wasn't in the flats of Hoppers.... The first km of the run down was probably harder than going up, the glutes were tested.
We made our way down via a zig zag course, the entire run was very enjoyable, good company running and chatting with Steve and hearing some of his ultra stories on track and on 6Ft, but I am still not interested, no matter how inspiring the stories may be... By the end of the run I knew it was warming up quite considerably (today got up to 39 degrees), according to my car it was 32 degrees at 9:45am, quite warm.
According to the GPS units I ran 22.6km today, but not like a typical half marathon distance. A couple of days later I feel ok, but the legs are telling me they did a bit of work, with the quads particularly saying hi, but overall not too bad.
Good bye 2005.
1 comment:
Stu, you impressed Steve on that run! Here's a map of where we ran. It clearly shows the zig-zag and also my 'short-cuts' down the road from the War Memorial and across Duntroon (dodging golf balls).
The lady was Elizabeth - a very talented long distance runner. She would have kept up with you and Steve if she'd run the whole way.
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