Boathouse 10k

Once again, everything seemed to be back to normal on awakening this morning. Apart from terminally dry eyes overnight, I seemed to be firing on all cylinders. I packed my bag with what I thought I might need at the end of the Woodford to Glenbrook race into a small backpack, over packed for every weather contingency during the race and put my bag in the car early. Filled up with petrol, checked the tyres, and then permitted myself to logon the computer. This can always be a dangerous open ended activity; however I kept in under control, and only had to put the drinks and ice packs into a bag when I got home, shower, lock up the house and go.

Picked up Aki and we travelled to the Cross Country 10k run at the Boathouse, where I confounded her with logic to join the club (finally). This invoked a bout of nerves on her side, as she felt overwhelmed by the sight of fast club runners. A short warm up, and then we were off, starting somewhat too fast over the first kilometre before settling into a better rhythm for the second. I started to draw away, and as the light showers came over I continued instead of drawing back. I felt good up the 4km turnaround, but soon after found myself running in a gap on my own and found it hard to retain my focus. Passing the finish line at the 8km mark I attempted to push, but the last two kilometres out and back were rather long, and into the wind for the last part. A somewhat disappointing time of 47:30ish probably equates to the 47:00 flat last Sunday, although if anything the cold, wet, and slightly hillier course was easier with so many people around me running at a similar pace.

Aki put on a massive finishing burst, out sprinting a guy who was equally focused at the end to crack the 50 minute barrier. Despite being warm whilst running, I quickly cooled down to begin shivering and put on ice the idea of doing a decent warm down run. Once I was home, I had a hot chocolate or two, bathed, and hit the road about 4pm.

The light and weather was initially foul for driving, needing a great deal of attention as one drove through showers which needed the wipers on full bore one moment, and eliminated all visibility, then momentarily cleared. Closer to Sydney the weather cleared and as darkness fell it was easier to see than the changing half twilight. Drank a lot of water and my favourite beverage, Saxby’s Diet Ginger Beer during the drive, and at about 5:30pm remembered that apart from the warming Hot Chocolate at 3pm I had not had any sustenance all day. A frequent problem before longer events. Grabbed a Power Bar from the glove box and had this. Not ideal, but not too bad. The driving conditions meant that cracking and drinking a FortiJuice wasn’t feasible.

Found the pub at Springwood without difficulty, and was delighted to see that I had a TV for a quiet evening relaxing. Caught most of Doctor Who, spoke to Bob whilst he was on a train travelling to Hanoi and organised my things for the morning. Had a fortijuice and a couple of cups of broth. At 9pm a band started up downstairs, actually not too bad, playing covers of everything, but loud. Thank heavens I didn’t choose this hotel with Bob – he would be a very unhappy chap. I shall keep the TV on for the moment with the cricket on, Australia v Bangladesh with the Aussies finally working their way through the batting order with some rapidity. Currently 6-139 in the 34th over. Whoops, another just fell to Symonds. 7-fa