Sun 25 Nov 07, 90 minutes at the You Yangs

I arrived at the You Yangs in our normal meeting place, only males today were me & Cookie and then a bunch of junior girls. Just before we were taking off, Buster Mottram arrived by himself. A quick hello and he helped Burkie get his bike over the fence then finally one of the girls asked me who is the really tall skinny guy, I told the three girls and they became VERY excited, we told them to go and say hello, within seconds they were over there and Buster ended helping one of the girls fix her HRM monitor. :-)

Today I wanted to run between 75-90 minutes, Cookie & I ran the Branding Yard Rd loop (5.35k), hydrated and I dropped my singlet, then we made our way along GCD and took the first turn off which is a 9 min deviation from GCD, about 3 minutes off the beaten track. Once back on GCD we had to go up a hill and then we turned off and went towards the Stockyard area. Cookie suggested we make our way up the Quarry Rd which involves a long grinding hill, which I thought it was about time I seen where that path goes that I see Troopy run up regularly. Whilst we were jogging, Cookie pointed out a big hill with two boulders on it (Buster told us later 'No Tree Hill') and he was telling me that he would like to camp there so he could check out the city lights at night. Yep...once up the Quarry Rd hill Cookie pointed to our right, No Tree Hill is right next to us, so off we went, up the grass (no track) to the top, I had to walk up the last 50-70m, it was very tough to walk it. Once at the top the views made the whole trip very much worth it, 62 minutes so far. After checking out the view, we could see the shooting range, the Holden testing ground (I didn't know it existed here) and of course the Geelong beach and the city. We then returned back to the Stockyards area, then following the No. 1 MTB track up the hill back to GCD. Whilst back on GCD making our way back to our starting spot we were passed by Buster who was cruising along for his 1h 45m run. We arrived back at Toynes Rd on 90:50 (I stopped my watch when sight seeing) off running and a little bit of walking up the BIG hill. A really satisfying run, the hills tested me and I'm sure I will feel them tmrw, but a worthwhile trip.

Buster too had finished up, so myself & Cookie chatted with Craig about his plans before the OG, I also wondered about his racing here which he said a couple of Telstra A Series before taking off for the World Cross. We chatted about the CG and his experience and yes we asked about 'that fall'. Cookie even had his digi camera in his car, Cookie asked if it was ok, so a pic of me & Craig will be coming!

A nice guy who was happy to talk about running with two guys for nearly 15 minutes, distance runners just seem to like talking about running! :-) Oh...and btw Em...no I didn't pass on your mobile number, sorry!



Geees I'm looking a little tired & concerned, maybe worried about me not looking great for my photo.... :-)