Reaching a Century!

Thursday track

Tonight I competed in the 3000m and the 6 lap spiral (about 2.4km).

Firstly I ran a short warm up before lining up for the 3000m at 6pm. I felt ok but still ran marginally slower than last week.

Distance: 3000m

Time taken: 15:00:77 (so near and yet so far!)

I ran a few km warm up before the spiral handicap as there was quite a long break between these events. The field was not as big as usual probably due to the late start of 8.15pm. However, Bronwyn was still there vying for leadership in the pointscore. Bron was in Group 43 and I was in Group 33 and fortunately tonight she didn't quite catch me. Thus I still lead the pointscore by a very narrow margin in this 'novelty' event. There is one more spiral (this time 7 laps) in a couple of weeks.

Total distance: 2.4km

Time taken: 12:31

Total distance for night including warm up laps: 8.5km

Friday - Gym

Body balance and abs class

Saturday - long run

I met up with the Molonglo group at 7am and ran with Jen, Bronwyn, Andy and Ewen anti-clockwise round the whole of Lake Burley Griffin. Liz joined us for the last and toughest 10km of the run. I ran with Bron and it was fun as I found out all about caching which I had always been curious about. Part of our run was through the wetlands but when we reached the foot bridge it was closed as they were rebuilding it and we had to detour over a disused railway bridge and through an old dump. We had to cross over a sort of trestle bridge with big gaps between each board where you could see a long way down to the water. As I am most definitely height phobic I just froze. Ewen and Liz were already out of sight but Bron clambered back over that scary bridge, gave me her arm and helped me across. On the other side we had to negotiate a steep rocky bank to get up out of the gully and reach the top of the ridge so that we could finally run on the flat again. From there it was mainly flat again on the bike path back to Molonglo Reach.

Apart from that little detour I found the run generally easier than last week - possibly because I was engrossed in Bron's stories. If I had any sense of direction and could read a map I would certainly find caching lots of fun!

After a short recovery chat Ewen, Jen, Andy, Liz and I headed off to Campbell Shops for a really good coffee and snack - lots of fun.

Total distance: 31km

Time taken: 3:22:14

Average pace per km: 6:31

Calories burned: 1817

It was a stunning morning, the temperature was perfect, cool to start and gradually warming up. There were hot air balloons floating over the lake and the company was great.

Sunday - Vets's Monthly Handicap

Today was my 100th Vets' Handicap Run and after the run I was presented with my specially inscribed oversized t-shirt which fits me more like a nighty than a t-shirt but that's ok, I will just save it for wearing after each monthly handicap event. I ran my first run with the vets in 1996 so it's taken a while to get this far!

Today's run started from the south side of North Curtin and the first half was up, up, up the cycle path to the top of the hill and from there it was downhill for most of the way. Near the start of the run the rain started and it was gentle and refreshing. However, it didn't last long and the weather turned really muggy. By the time I reached the finish I was soaking but not from the rain! I was very glad that I did a short warm up with Andy before the run began as my legs felt very stiff and sore before the warm up. However, I felt ok during the run and enjoyed the downhill!

Distance: 6.2km

Time taken: 34:57

Average pace per km: 5:38

Group start: 26

Finish place: 100th (that was auspicious on my 100th run)

Total runners: 118

Total distance with warm-up: 8.5km

Later Ewen, Andy and I headed off to join some other speedygeese for coffee but the queue was challenging so we headed for an alternative venue and called in to say hi later. Coffee, cake and good company after a run is always fun!

Total distance for week: 85km