Sunday, November 19, 2006

The World comes to Canberra!

Sometimes it is very difficult to keep on top of my blogging but now I should catch up before another week overtakes me.

On Wednesday I went to the gym to work on my upper body although I did spend ten minutes warming up on the treadmill, something I find quite difficult as I much prefer to run in the fresh air!

Saturday - Off-road Run
I met our Sat group at Molonglo Reach at 8am and ran our usual run past the Duntroon Golf Course and round the Mt Ainslie course with slight variations - in fact the route we took was a bit hillier than last week. There were six of us running in that group today and I was running at the rear feeling a bit tired after two full days in Adelaide. However the resulting time wasn't as bad as I expected.

Distance: 16km
Time taken: 1hour 38mins
Average pace per km: 6:07
Calories burned: 998
Fastest km: 5:26

After we finished we stopped at the BBQ area for a while where we were joined by others from the 7am group including Ewen. We also had a glass of champagne complete with strawberries and commiserated with the three from our group who had pulled out from the Twin Peaks Run at the last minute and congratulated Steve who joined us after having run it! CJ unfortunately had to withdraw as she has still not recovered from a lingering virus. As I was driving home I nearly fell asleep probably due to lack of sleep over the past few days and the glass of champagne - oops!

Today (Sunday) I have been at Commonwealth Park watching and cheering at the World's Long Distance Triathlon (4km swim, 120km cycle, 30km run) which was held in Canberra. There were about 600 competitors from all over the world and Mr B was a technical official. A group of us were supporting a friend who had been selected to compete in the 50-55 age group representing Canberra. He was in the first 30 out of the water and was doing extremely well on the bike until the last lap. At this stage he had four punctures and ended up walking in cycle shoes, wheeling his bike, for the last 10km of the cycle before running/walking the 30km run leg with severe cramping in his calf muscles. Although he took over 11 hours to finish this event to me he epitomises the courage and endurance of great athletes - a true inspiration. The temperature today was 31deg and it was very hot being a spectator let alone being a competitor. Well done to all those amazing participants including Flashdrake who looked really strong!

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like you've had a very busy few days Strewth. Watching the tri yesterday must have left you itching to get back into it again (well, minus the hot conditions!)

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