With a Little Help from my Friends!!

Dinner at Cape Cod to celebrate Tony Booth's 70 birthday - congratulations Tony!

And today is Mr B's birthday so we had our family celebrations last night and a lovely lunch today.

Back to Saturday and the reason for the title of this post. Mr B and I both met up with CJ, Steve and Michael (the mountain goats) at Molonglo Reach for a scheduled 2hour 30mins run over "gentle" (!!) undulations. We ran out past the golf course, Campbell Park Offices and to the saddle between Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura. We also followed part of the course of the Bush Capital Marathon and the Mt Ainslie and Majura monthly handicap courses. Some of those undulations did not feel gentle at all although compared to last week's effort it was definitely a lot more "runnable". However, the cold southerly wind did tend to make us glad we had taken our long sleeved running tops.

About 19km into the run my foot hit a rock on the very uneven surface and I felt the ground coming up to meet me and with a very loud heavy thump I landed face down in the dust and lay there very still not daring to move just thinking "damn, damn, damn (or words to that effect) - the Gold Coast is in 3 weeks"! Mr B was nearby fortunately and helped me up when I decided to lift my head and gave me a much-needed hug and assisted me to walk very slowly until I managed to start running again with blood dripping from my knee and elbow and dirt all over my face, which he kindly brushed off! We caught up with the others who were waiting patiently at the top of the hill and after stopping to admire the blood we all continued on our way for the remainder of our 27km run.

Back at Molonglo the mountain goats and I stood thigh deep in the icy cold water where I could wash off the blood and last five minutes until the numbness set in and we clambered out again. At this stage I didn't feel too bad and thought the cold water aided recovery.

Distance: 27km

Time taken: 2hrs 54mins (approx) - I kept forgetting to turn my garmin on!

Average pace per km: 6:20

Calories burned: approx 1500

In the afternoon I went out for coffee in Kingston with friends but while driving there I felt my knee stiffen up and it was difficult to limp to the table. During coffee I started to feel worse, the pain increased and those dear friends of mine had to help me to the car and drive me home to lie flat on my back with my leg raised and an ice pack. Needless to say not much sleep was had that night and my knee swelled up like a balloon! The pain subsided yesterday somewhat and although it is still stiff the swelling is going down and I think I'll live!! However, I will rest it for a couple of days before running again - dammit! With only three weeks to the Gold Coast here's hoping I can run again by Wednesday!

Yesterday Mr B drove me out to meet up with Marg, Barb and Carol for a final coffee before Barb returns to live in Aotearoa. I will miss her heaps. It's great having another kiwi accent around. I spent the rest of the day preparing Mr B's birthday dinner very slowly!!

Today the interesting part was negotiating the 48 steps to my office - hmmm. However, I definitely feel improvement happening. I will be back!