The Horrie and Belinda Show

22/1/05

Went on our usual easy 7.5km run in the twilight just to loosen up and tune the bodies for our long runs tomorrow. It was very humid with a few drops of rain as the humidity got close to 100%.

23/1/05

Headed out on the Balmain Bungle with the 6.10 group with Blue Dog leading us out. Somebody suggested he might have been chasing fires. He later told me it was to stay ahead of the 6.20 group. Settled into a nice comfortable pace around 5:20 per km running alongside Superflake and Silver Fox who has just joined Striders this week as well as Spud who just 2 weeks ago ran his epic Bogong to Hotham Ultra. As the pace was a fraction quicker than it was meant to be (5:30 per km), the group splintered not long after that. Around the 6km mark, as we continued to chase Blue Dog, the pace increased to 5 minute kms which we maintained for the next hour. During this stretch we had to endure an electrical storm which sent the water everywhere. We were starting to feel like ducks at this point as we waded through parts which were ankle deep. Superflake was starting to worry about his new shoes at this point.

Then as we came to the stretch along the Cooks River, we were trying very hard to not get lost. It was at this point, that we caught up to Professor who was also having his first run as a Strider. We were lucky that Professor had some map reading skills as he ensured that we stayed on track. However as a result of slowing down to navigate that part of our journey, our pace had dropped to 5:24 per km for that section. As our confidence in finding our way to the finish increased, we picked the pace up again but missed a turn. The map said to turn at a roundabout. Somebody forgot to update that roundabout is now a set of traffic lights. After heading up the road to the next roundabout, we realised that it wasn't the street we were meant to turn to. Another check of the map meant to stop and turn around and head back to where we were meant to turn. At least another 800m added to the journey. I now realise that Superflake wants to ensure we run at least 30km every Sunday and as the map only said 29.9km, he decided to add the extra bit in to ensure we reached 30km. Picked the pace back up to 5:13 per km to pass Professor and his running mates to finish 31.2km by my GPS in 2:42 at average of 5:07 per km for a very enjoyable and refreshing run. At least the rain took care of the humidity for us and cooled us down.