The Australia Day Fun Run is cancelled. I’m kind of relieved, I can focus on the Country Champs now.
Half of the Surf Life Saving club car park was under water. A narrow strip of sand left above a swollen and fast flowing Coffs Creek mouth was covered by the branches of a couple of fallen Coast Banksia trees. The churning choppy dirty grey surf lapped the rocks at the base of the ramp at the southern end of the dog beach. To run the dog beach today you’d just about need a snorkel, or tip toe along the thin corridor of sand not submerged by the storm tide.
I wonder if this is the end of this fun run after a short three year life span. Higlights including one of the most constricted starting areas of any fun run. The sight of 200 runners funnelling onto a single file beach access path. Wade O’Malley missing the turn and sprinting north through the bitou bush before realising his mistake. A fun run held on Australia Day along the beach regardless of the tide, starting as late as possible in the increasingly intolerable heat and humidity.
Marvellous!
Wading through waist deep water and rocks on the Dog Beach. That’ll bring the crowds back. What I enjoyed most about this fun run was seeking out shade under the strategically positioned marquis tents placed in that sweltering hot bit of grass at the start/finish line. OK I’m being sarcastic.
The hard slog on soft sand, with an oppoturnity to record some of my slowest kilometres splits in my Garmin
The witty repartie of Coffs Bowling Club patrons entering the establishment to partake of the entertainment on offer- keno or the pokies.
“Haven’t you got something better to do on a Sunday?”
“Indeed.” I’m sharpening my Keno pencil as I write this, so I can be involved in a more useful activity than running.
The apparently random finishing times provided for finishers of the 10km race in 2010. That was more fun than solving a Sudoko puzzle.
Despite all this I truly did enjoy this fun run, it added to its character and charm.
