Big Tick

A very hot day in the bush today. So very, very, very humid. There was a couple of Palm lily Lantana infested gullies to walk through. A big shellback tick attached itself to the area just under my armpit. When I got back to office I put some Savlon lotion on it, and I was able to remove it from my skin. It left a bif red welt.

The highlight of the day was seeing an owlet nightjar up in a tree. A cute nocturnal bird with big eyes and whiskers.

20km run number 11

it’s a perfect day for dreams come true
for thinking big
and doing anything you want to do
let’s get happy!

Doing the Unstuck The Cure

Runnning in Coffs Harbour is like swimming in the air. Humidity. Decided to run without my water belt because it was overcast. The sun came out at about 10km, which I did in just under 50 minutes. I stayed at around 5:00km until about 15km. Then my radiator cap started to overload. The temperature gauge on my dashboard was sneaking up into the red.

I was up near 6 minute/kilometres mark.  My pride wouldn;t let me go any slower than that, so I psuhed a couple of 5:20s. It’s the humidity that slows me. A young runner went past, he looked really good, not sure if I know him. I wondered if he was the schoolboy who ran 2:04 down in Sydney.

Anyways it was 20km in 1:43.31

20km 1:43.31 (5:28, 4:55, 5:05, 4:58, 4:57 (25:23), 4:50, 5:06, 4:54, 4:55, 4:59 (24:44), 4:51, 5:05, 5:04, 5:19, 5:15, (25:34), 5:43, 5:26, 5:57, 5:36, 5:18 (28.01) @ 5:11

Last five was shocking

The Week that was

Sunday: 10km race (Jacaranda Fun Run 47:19 5th/37)

Mon: rest

Tue: 12km (62:56) with hills

Wed: Field Work

Thurs: 5km (including 3km race 11:45) (200m 31.7, just call me Usain!)

Fri: 16km (81:01)

Sat: 8km (41:49)

51km

I think I will try to run 60km plus the next two weeks, and then taper for the Half Marathon, 0n 6th December.

Sutho

My registration numbers for membership of Sutherland District Athletic Club are in the mail.

I am a Sutho runner again. My club. I will wear the club colours with pride.

On track

Another fun night at the Coffs Harbour Athletics.

First up was the 200 metres.

I scorched round the bend and up the straight in 31:65, which is at least an improvement from three weeks ago.

Once the novelty sprint event was out of the way them came the blue ribbon 3000m. I wore my new Brooks ST-4 racers. They felt really good.

Off we go, and I decide to really go hard the 1st km, make it hurt and see what I have the last 2km. I’m out in the lead going hard, and it felt really good.

I did the first 200 metres in 44 seconds, which is about 11 minute 3km pace. The first lap was about 83 seconds. I started lapping  some of the back markers.

1st km 3:32 per Garmin, about 5 seconds up on last race.  Not long after this I hear breathing on my shoulder and I wonder who it is. The early pace is stinging my lungs, and I’m losing form quickly and blowing hard.

Obviously I need to work on speed endurance.

The guy behind me stays there for a lap or so. It’s a guy called Greg who is running some handy times for 800s and 1500s on this track, faster than I am capable of at present. In the back straight he decides to make a move, and goes past,and I am unable to respond.  

2km 3:45. I think the Garmin is not measuring very well around the track tonight. This is 13 seconds faster then the last 3km race on this track.

Greg has built up a 30-40 metre lead, and I lack the guts to try and eat into it.

Matt the Jaca Fun Run winner is on the side of the track cheering me on, but I don’t have the energy to thank him.  I’m really winded and blowing like the Kiama blowhole in a hurricane.

3km 3:45. The Garmin is not accurate tonight.

The Garmin 3km time I get is 11:02, which is way out.

I start to take stock of the energy I have left, and I wonder if I can go hard with two laps to go.

My heart and lungs and legs say no.

I hear the last lap at 10:15, and I want to at least improve on my last run of 11:55. I lift the tempo with one lap to go, and aim to see if I can sprint when I hit the 200m mark.

I feel as if I might loose my breakfast, but manage a kind of sprint in the final straight.

I finished in 11:45, which is a ten second 3km masters PB. I finished second in the race.

My Garmin says 3.23km. I did the last 227m at 3.14/km  pace, which is not a bad finish.  

I think if I did some track intervals, I could improve my speed endurance, and stop that 2 and 3rd km fade. Perhaps I should start with 3 X 1km with 90 second recoveries. I’m confident I could do these without injuring myself.

Running

Under the drowning blue sky

far enough, fast enough 

a dance on

the soft grass

the rough trail

the hard road

one step ahead

of time

I’ve noticed that on some of my training runs for short periods I seem to get up on my toes and run. It is more leg extension, a longer stride.

I think it is related to more strength coming back into my quads and glutes. I can feel this when I walk. I walk much smoother, I’m looser around my hips, I feel the extra strength in my thighs.

I guess that the muscles and fibres that enable you to sprint are the high end tissues that take longer to develop. I’ve built muscle that at first was strong enough to hold my knee cap in place, and then to build slow twitch fibres and muscles to let me run slowly, and then get slowly faster.

No I am reaching the final stage of muscle development that lets me get up on my toes and sprint.

There is a difference to the way I run now, to the way I could when I was younger. When I was younger I remembered that when I went really hard, I was up on my toes, really sprinting, and I could sustain this, and it would feel relatively easy. Now when I go hard, it has been a kind of straining shuffle, without much leg extension, that really hurts.

On my cycle path runs, there have been a couple of occassions that I have gone up another gear, where I have felt like I’m up on my toes. Just like the way I remember running all those years ago.

I remember running from Miranda Fair, up Kiora Road Hill, finishing the training run strong. There was quite a hill that went for several hundred metres, but I could go hard up that hill. Then I’d sprint past the round about, the corner shop, turn left down the hill at Wonga Avenue to build up speed, and go hard the last few hundred to finish at 12 Kiwong Street.

Ticks and leeches

A day in the bush today, recording trees. We saw a nice patch of rainforest with a big strangler fig and many Bangalow Palms.

At the end of the day I had several ticks on me. I can stand leeches, of which there were many sucking blood off my feet. What I don’t like are ticks, they are hard to remove and reallt leave an itchy lump.

I’m Famous

There was a Yowie sighting in Grafton on Sunday the Photographich evidence is in the Daily Examiner.

I’ve had my name printed in the Coffs Harbour Advocate, The Woolgoolga ‘tizer, and the Coffs Harbour Advocate. My name was hidden in the Gold Coast Times and Sydney Morning Herald amongst thousands of others.

There was even a photo of the giant yowie in the Sports pages of the Independent.  

But now I have finally made the big time!

http://www.dailyexaminer.com.au/story/2009/11/09/dash-to-start-line-cant-stop-chloe/

The back Page of the Daily Examiner!

Hold the phone we have a winner.

Thank you fans, I owe it all to my parents

RR Jacaranda Fun Run 10km

Pre race. Last year I injured my achilles tendon in the 5km verison of this race. So I was keen for redemption.

The Jacaranda Fun Run is held as part of the Jacaranda festival celebrating the late spring flowering trees the town is famous for. 

I wasn’t sure if I would be able to get to Grafton, the way it was raining on Friday night. The Pacific Highway was covered by water at Corindi on Friday morning.

The rain held off most of Saturday, and it only rained lightly during the night. I woke up early, not being able to sleep, and was really excited about the prospect on another race.

Saturday morning dawned cool in Coffs Harbour, and I thought these would be good conditions to race in. So I jumped into the car and drove the hour or so north on the Pacific Highway.

I arrived at Grafton, and drove out along the Gwydir Highway, an anvenue of purple flowered Jacarandas at this time of the year.  The race was held just outside Grafton at Waterview Heights.

I first noticed how humid it was. When the sun came and mixed with the high humidity it was energy sapping. I had a sip of gatorade. There was a cross country section of the course and it was a quagmire in places.

The race.

The race started around the edge of a football field. The pace felt like an amble. Up a bit of a hill onto the bitumen. Out into the lead went two young five kilometre runners, Matt a local Coffs runner, and a young lady runner from Grafton.

The leading 10km runners were local Grafton runners, Kevin and Scott. There’s another guy called Gary, who has a big tatoo on his arm, he was in the Forest Foot Race and North Coast Running Champs. I have talked to Scott a few times, he was right behind me when my achilles gave way in last years 5km. And he came to the Bunch Fives Beach Run last year. Before the race he asked me how my achilles was doing I said fine.

Another slim fellow wearing glasses came crusing past, and without much effort caught up to the early pace setters.

1st km 4:03

The race headed into two cul de sacs in Waterview Heights. Another couple of runners go past. One is high fiving and yelling at other competitors coming back in the other direction.

Another chap in ankle length black tights goes by. So I’m definately in the top ten in the race. I try to figure out how I’m place in the 10km. I figure about 7th.

2km 4:05.

The race goes downhill into a grassy cross country area. There is also a hill, I don’t push hard in this section. The worst part is a boggy patch that lasts for about 100 metres or so.

3km 4:16.

The race winds its way around a tennis court, and through a parking lot, up onto the road. The race heads along a cycle path, which turns left onto the Highway. The young gun from this years Emerald Beach race passes me, running a blinder in the 5km.

4km 4:26 I can feel the humidity having an affect, and I am slowing and there is little I can do about it.

The leading 5kers come flying past and Matt has opened up a lead on the young lady runner, who is really making a close contest of it. Two more runners turn at the 5km, the young gun, and Gary with the Tatoos.

So I’m up in 6th place. There are two guys about one hundred metres ahead. I think of trying to gain on them, but they hold their distance and get away.

We turn out onto Friars lane and now the race begins to get hard. It is so warm and humid. Stifling in fact.

4km 4:50. The heat and humidity is slowing me. I don’t handle these conditions well at all. And I have doubts whether I can run a good Half Marathon in December. I think I am  a autumn to winter runner. Still I’m up in sixth place, and I figure that I’m not the only one struggling in these conditions.

Friars Lane seems to stretch on forever, and I’m feel like I’m working but not getting anywhere.

I see the leading 10km runner coming back the other way, he has built up a big lead on second and third.

Then comes Scott and Kevin, going neck and neck. I give Scott a big thumbs up, he’s running exceptionally well. They are both in my age group too.

Then comes black tights and the high fiver with a movember mo’. I gratefully accept a cup of water from the water station.

7km 4:58. Wow, these kms are getting slow now. I have a big lead on 7th though.

I feel better as we turn for home, but I’m already screaming for the finish. Back along the cycle path I go. It’s sort of undulating with a gradual incline of over a hundred metres at one point.

8km 5:07. Oh dear! This is tough.

There are signs marking each kilometre. And I’m especially glad to see the one signalling 9km.

9km 5:21. This is  a wall of Lady Carrington Half Marathon proportions I am hitting. This is slower than my easy run pace. Maybe I should wear my water belt in any race where the is a prospect of heat and humidity. I think the conditions slowed everyone down.

Up ahead I see Scott walking and I wonder what is going on. As I get close I see he is swaying from side to side. He’s badly dehydrated. A lady is helping him stay on his feet. This is an upsetting thing to see.

The lady asks me if I can get help. I tell her that I’ll get help as quickly as I can. Matt and his Dad enocurage me, and his Dad warns me there is a bloke on my tail, so I sprint a little at the end. As soon as I finish, I tell those at the finish that there is a guy struggling out there with dehydration.

Jason at the finish line goes and gets the help of the St Johns Ambulance Officer at the scene.  The St Johns vehicle parks near him and he sits Scott down and adminsters a drip. Eventually they have to call an ambulance to take him to hospital.

Hope you recover well, Scott. He ran very well, and was within a couple of kilometres of finishing in the top three.

10km 5:00

So I finish the 10km in 47:19, in fifth place overall. Because the second place getter was in my age group, I get a medal for first male 40-49. It’s a really nice medal engraved on the back.   I feel bad for Scott because he was so close to at least winning the age group if not coming third overall.

I also win a random draw prize and choose a T_Shirt. So all in all a pretty good day.

Land slide

During the heavy rains, the shallow soil holding the Headland Brush Box vegetation in place gave way. The soil with the trees attached slid down the hill in situ, and finished up covering the Tuckers Rock road.

The vegetation on the bottom of the hill in this photo used to grow on the light coloured area on the hill.

Where’d the road go Mal? Buggered if I know Mike.