One month to go..

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Well I thought I should post.. Not a lot has happened since last week. I took a few days to recover then got back into the running. By the end of the week I was so tired. Today is a significant day. It is exactly one month to go before Comrades. So I thought I should publicly declare that the next month will be alcohol free. If I can do that then I can run 89km. not much else to say really. Next weekend I'll be doing the Williamstown Marathon and then it's 3 weeks to the big day...

WONDERWALL

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So the 65km run is out of the way. Only hit the wall once at the 45km mark.

I’m right on track. Here's the Stocktake..

20-Feb-05 Maroondah Dam Ultra 50km - Done
13-Mar-05 6 Foot Track Marathon 46km - Done
10-Apr-05 Canberra Ultra 50km - Done
24-Apr-05 Brisbane Marathon 42km - Done
8-May-05 Walhalla Wound Up 65km – Done

Still to come….

22-May-05 Williamstown Marathon 42km
16-June-05 COMRADES MARATHON 89km

I had the unique opportunity to be running 15km up to the Walhalla Ultra race start at dawn yesterday. The aloneness and seclusion makes you sing, there is nothing like running through the forest in the freezing cold singing aloud loudly…. To the tune of Oasis’ wonderwall…

Today is gonna be the day that I’m gonna run sixty five
Right now my feet are cold. I don’t care coz I’m alive
I don’t believe that anybody feels the way I feel about Walhalla…

Well I got sick of singing that after 9 times especially since the last bit doesn't rhyme.. So far as a race report goes it probably easiest to paste what I have placed on the CR website…

“This race is set in incredibly beautiful country near Mt Baw Baw, organised by a very enthusiastic bunch from Traralgon Harriers with the support of the boutique hotel in Walhalla. What a fantastic day, great course and perfect sunny cool conditions. There were three events a 19km, 37km and 50km.

Arrived late on Saturday Night and ended up in the wrong pub so didn’t get to have a drink with the crew at the Star Hotel. I was at the Walhalla Lodge, which is more like passive smoking heaven. Met up with a small group doing the race who invited me over had a couple of beers (which I needed after Carlton’s thrashing by Richmond) and head down to Rawson to get some shuteye.

I intended to make this my one and only long run prior to Comrades. So measured out 15km in the car so that I could do the prescribed 15km and thus make up 65km for the day. The Garmin GPS was useless because of the tree cover, consistently under measuring. But who cares. We weren’t here to play with consumer electronics, we were here to conquer the hills.

The first 25km went without incident. Kevin Cassidy picked me up with about 22km to go. With about 17km to go things got tough on a steep section where I pointed out to Kevin that my HR monitor was showing 189BPM. I thought this must be wrong because the formula (220 minus your age) gives me a maximum of 177BPM. Obviously I need to do a proper HR max test. In the meantime I’ll use 189 as my new max.

Soon after I was walking, completely blown. 35km into the race and 50km for me so far.

Struggled into Walhalla where the 50km competitors were pushed back out onto the course for another 13km. The out and back 13km was basically 6.5km straight up a steep track and then back. I managed to survive on 9mins of slow jogging and 1min of walking for the out section on the return my quads were screaming but I managed to run the whole of the last 6.5km on the way back down. I figured I may as well get the practice for the down run in Sth Africa.

The total for me 65km in 7hrs 30min and the official 50km in about 5:55.

Lastly, you know those little tricks that your mind plays on you when you run by yourself? When I was running up to Walhalla before the race by myself I was absolutely sure that I saw a large black cat. Large like the size of a large fox. It wasn’t a fox, or a wombat, It was still semi dark but I saw it it moved like a cat.. It was like a baby panther. Nah forget it, no one will ever believe that.”

Just picking things up from where we left off...

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The trail to Comrades 2005 has littered, in its wake, a number of milestone races that will, hopefully, prepare me for the 89km that is the Comrades Marathon on the 16th June.

After my formal training began on the 1st January there was about 7 weeks of base training then a relaxed schedule of races. The last one being Brisbane Marathon on the 24th April. I am very happy with the results at Brisbane where my time was 3hrs 57min and only 4 mins slower than the first 42km at Canberra.

Main difference being that I was sick with a cold in Brisbane but decided to run and take it easy. So I was very happy with that performance.

Here is the race scoreboard.

20-Feb-05 Maroondah Dam Ultra 50km Done
13-Mar-05 6 Foot Track Marathon 46km Done
10-Apr-05 Canberra Ultra 50km Done
24-Apr-05 Brisbane Marathon 42km Done

Here are the kilometres run so far this year…

2005 MILEAGE
JAN - 279km
FEB - 309km
MAR - 271km
APR - 310km

TOTAL – 1,169km

All I need to do is complete my 65km long training run this Sunday at Walhalla and I’ll almost be set. The Walhalla Wound Up race is situated two and a half hours drive from Melbourne near Mt Baw Baw. If you know this race you’ll know that it is only 50km long. So what I intend to do is start running 90min before the gun goes off at 8am to add 15km to the total. Nutty huh!

Here are the target races still to be done…..

8-May-05 Walhalla Wound Up 65km
22-May-05 Williamstown Marathon 42km
16-June-05 COMRADES MARATHON 89km

For those who want to follow my progress on the night of the 17th June here in Australia. You can do it by logging onto http://www.comrades.com and entering my race number: 54878 apparently it will tell you where I am in the race. I guess they use the information provided by the little transponder that all competitors wear on their shoelaces.

Here are my race objectives for the 2005 Comrades Marathon:

1. Finish
2. Finish in 9hrs something. 9hrs 59min would be good

All that is left to tell you is the fantastic run that I did last Sunday. 39km was a bit far after running a marathon on the previous Sunday but it was a great run all the same. And a great opportunity to test my Camelbak lobo hydration system.. Here is my run report..

Two Bays Trail Run 39km – May 1, 2005

The Two Bays Trail starts in Dromana, on Melbourne’s Mornington Peninsular and cuts across to Cape Schanck on the ocean side of the Peninsular. The trail is 30km long but I did 39km for reasons that you will soon find out…..

I decided to leave from the information centre in Dromana. Which adds a little bit on to the total. And got lost trying to find the Latrobe bridge over the Hwy (The only bit of the whole run I didn't research). But after this it was smooth sailing.

The steep incline up Arthurs Seat seemed manageable give it is at the beginning of the run while I'm still fresh.This is a brilliant trail. Even the boring suburbia (Rosebud Heights?) bit is quaint.

But, wow, coming through Boneo. I looked up to see four adult wedge tailed eagles circling and riding the currents. I never really appreciated how big these creatures are.

I must have done 20km until I saw my first sign of human life, a mountain biker who was lost.To add to the Fauna aspect of the run five largeish (grey with black tails) kangaroos bounded out in front of me with 7km to go, which almost made me choke on the tube of my camelbak hydration system.

3km prior to arriving in Cape Schanck the views into Bushrangers Bay were equal to anything the Great Ocean Rd can dish up. At the lighthouse Garmin said the distance was 31km.My wife was running a bit late and it was cold. With nothing warm to wear I elected to run on the road until she came the other way which added 8km, all up 39km for the morning.

I look forward to telling you all how my 65km run goes next weekend.