a time to be thankful

I don’t mind Easter. Admittedly, I’m not sure about the whole basis of the holiday – celebrating nailing some guy to a cross 2,000 years ago (although I concede I may be missing the point there). And nothing, but nothing, could induce me to watch a minute of the Good Friday Appeal. Vacuous nonentities from Channel 7 soapies congratulating one another and feeling like they’ve done their bit.

On the plus side, there are hot cross buns, which are seriously addictive, and rabbit shaped chocolate. Also, Melbourne is often at its best, weather-wise, at this time of year.

Self, wifey and little people headed down to Venus Bay on Friday morning, for a few days R and R. For once, both Rs were had, as well as some adventure and not a little running action.

Le tour
Yesterday it was “Le tour de Tarwin” down there. I’ll choose to ignore the gross infringement on copyright of the legitimate tour as the Tarwin version was a fundraiser for the local CFA. It’s a massive tour – almost 9km for the bikes, and 4km for the walkers. I’d already run that morning, so I was in charge of driving the car with little kids and meeting wifey at the end with suitable cheers etc. I played my part, but she didn’t.

Somehow, she got lost. I still can’t work out how she managed it, as there is literally only one road that leads between Venus and Tarwin and there were 200 other people walking the same route. She did manage though, and after close to 90 minutes I decided I’d better go look for her. I made about 5 trips up and back looking for her, and was about to see the local cops when I found her, red-faced with anger by the side of the road.

She’d managed to get 6km off course, then flagged a ride with a local, who spent the journey telling her about his favourite local nudist beach.

An adventure.

Long run
This morning I ran 28km along pretty quiet country roads, from Cape Liptrap to Venus Bay. It was a beautiful morning, and I didn’t mind too much that what felt like a dead flat road in the car turned out to be something of a cross between the Alps, the Rockies and the Andes. The sun came out too, along with a nasty little head wind that persisted, in fact increased, as I went along. I pushed along regardless, with the famous JH pluck, courage and determination and finished strongly in just over 2 hours, including the time it took to buy a Powerade at the Venus Bay General Store.

Then I mowed the lawn, drove back to the city and cleaned up baby vomit. I’ll sleep well tonight, all being well.

bucolic bliss

What with one thing or another – mainly the necessity of earning a living – I haven’t had time to write these last seven days. Apologies, dear reader, most humble apologies.

I have run a bit in the intervening period, mostly on my lunch break, but when I make it back to the ‘puter, I’ve been assailed by emails, phone calls and people standing over me demanding attention.

Sigh.

So, all up there’s been 69km. 14 on Monday, 15 on Wednesday and 13 on Thursday. And yesterday I had a singularly enjoyable saunter from Inverloch down to Venus Bay (mapmyrun.com). It was sunny, with a slight cool sea breeze alternating from side to tail direction. There were a few dead kangaroos about the place and three noticeable hills but not enough to dampen my mood. It worked out as 26km in right on 2 hours, including the time it took to buy some Powerade at the Tarwin Lower shop (there is only one!).

It was a fairly amusing conversation….

Me: Just this Powerade please.
Checkout chick: Sure. Been for a jog?
Me: Oh yeah, just a little one.
Checkout chick: Where did you start?
Me: Inverloch
Checkout chick: … … … … (sound of jaw flapping open in disbelief) … How far is that?
Me: About 20km so far, but I have another 5km to go.
Checkout chick: … … … (more jaw flapping)
Me: Well, toodle-oo

And off I toddled, sure in the knowledge that this conversation will live on amongst Tarwin Lower urban legends.

Having lost about 30,000 calories and three litres of sweat yesterday, I’m putting it all back today, and then some! It’s both father’s day AND my birthday, so those near and dearest to me seem to think I should be scoffing down mountains of eggs and entire pigs worth of bacon, chocolate cake and a small loch’s worth of beer.

It would seem churlish to argue.

venus

I’ve been down in Venus Bay for the last couple of days. There are worse places to be on a hot summer’s weekend. You can dawdle along with your feet in the water and chill out.

As there’s pretty much nothing to do, you don’t have to rush around taking in the sites. You can just sit around in the shade, imitating lizards. Nice.

I woke this morning with the earliest types of birds and sauntered out into the countryside, which actually was countryside. Birds were chirping and tootling, a fragrant mist lay about the place, the air was clean and cool and the sun was a fairly benign fellow on the horizon. So the run was off to a good start.

It continued good for about 25km, which took 1 hour 50 minutes, including the time it took to buy the Sunday paper on the way home. Very satisfactory, and all done before the sun turned nasty.

Speaking of nasty, I’ve just looked at the extended weather forecast. I’m not impressed.

safe and sound

km: for the weekend 27, for last week 60, this week 10 so far

Yes I made it back safe and sound from my adventures in the countryside on the weekend. You can all breathe a sigh of relief.

For those of you who missed my last missive I planned to run from Inverloch to Venus Bay on Saturday. True to my word, I set off from the roundabout at the edge of town in Inverloch at about 2pm for my “25k” run which subsequently turned out to be 27.

The first 22k into Tarwin Lower were quite comfortable, and quite strong. I had to keep an eye out for traffic, upset cows, snakes and dead animals on the side of the road, but this was all achieved with some aplomb.

There was a particularly nasty hill at about 17k which conveniently had a cemetary at its peak. I did consider checking in (it was a really nasty hill) but kept going, mainly because my mobile had no reception. I couldn’t perish without a last text message….

A brief stop in Tarwin Lower for a drink and to scare the locals and then the last 5k was an easy trot. So all up, it was 27k in about 1hr 50, which some quick arithmatic on the back of a coaster says is just over 4 minute ks.

menace 2 society

km: 11, for the week 37

It’s always the way: I write a beautifully crafted blog entry, positively brimming over with exquisitely phrased rage at minor breeches of train etiquette. Then the very next day my own lack of etiquette not only makes me known far and wide as a byword for all that is crude, uncouth and buffoonish, but puts the general public at serious risk of sudden verlent death.

“What on earth are you talking about?” I hear you ask.

Yes, well, I was getting to that. Hold your horses.

This morning, as I was huffing and puffing my way around the eastern suburbs I saw ahead of me a female runner, with long blonde hair. I was going to overtake her so I did my usual thing of stamping heavily, coughing and weezing so she’d realise there was someone behind her. Thinking about it now, having a heavily breathing, stamping bloke running up behind you is probably pretty scary for a woman at 5:30 in the morning. I may have to reconsider my approach.

Anyway, my “advanced warning” system had absolutely no effect. When I got level with her she jumped back, no – make that “recoiled in horror” – and displayed all the symptoms of a serious coronory.

I panicked a bit myself at that point, mumbled something like “sorry about that. YoooooOK?” and then sort of beetled off on my way.

I hope she’s okay…

Anyway – a good run otherwise. Tomorrow I’m going down to the seaside. More importantly, I’m going to attempt to run from Inverloch to Venus Bay (where I’ll be staying). It’s about 25k, well within my normal long-run range. I haven’t done this course yet, and I’m a bit concerned about traffic and/or being bitten by a snake and being out of mobile range. I’ll let you know how I go.

If I haven’t posted again by next Wednesday, can someone send out a search party? Look for a tired runner passed out, and possibly in advanced stages of rigor-mortis, somewhere on the side of the road around Tarwin Lower.