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

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’t 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.

Are one element of my training runs that I feel I am neglecting. Most of the courses I do are very, very flat.  So today I ran along some hills on Habour Drive and then out along the link road and back. I ran the hills fairly easy. There is no need to go hard on the hills, just incorporate them into normal training miles.

I notice that whenever I encounter hills in my races I slow down. I need to get stonger and hill running will do that. In Sydney I used to run President Avenue, and it had some big hills, I think I was a stronger runner for it.

12km (7.5 miles) 62:56 (5:42, 5:21, 5:03, 5:19, 5:21, 5:04, 5:10, 5:05, 5:05, 5:10, 5:28, 5:09) @ 5:15/km

I’ve booked accomodation for the December Half Marathon at the Entrance.

Sometimes a sad old tree struggling to grow for years will flower in unexpected profusion. Long may it bloom.

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

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.

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.

If I have any creativity at all I got it from my mother. She used to make dolls and clowns on the Singer sowing machine. Every one wanted to buy one. She gave most of them away, because she was too generous.

She also used to turn our scooters and bikes into prize winning creations with coloured cellophane and tape. She turned my scooter into a telephone booth, and Colin’s bike into a Giraffe. there was a hat she turned into a lighthouse. I won a John  Sands car game at primary school as a result.

My mum was proud of my running. I remember once I went in a 800m running race. I was late to the start, I hadn’t even got my tracksuit off.

Mum was talking to another parent in the crowd. She later told this story to me and dad.

‘Oh, your son missed the start,” the lady mum was chatting to said. “That’s a shame.”

I took off after the other athletes who had a big start on me.

“He’s catching up,” says the lady to mum.

At half way the leaders were still way ahead. I started to pick them off on the back straight 0f the second lap.

“Ooh, he’s coming third.”

“Yes, he is” says my mum all cool, calm and collected.

“Now he’s second.”

The last person to catch was Richard White.  I had him in my sight and was mowing him down, but it would be touch and go.

“He’s going to win!” she said as I just pipped Richard White on the line.

You could sense my mother’s pride as she related this story.

My mum did everything for me and I took her for granted. Once she went all the way to see the principal of the high school to argue that I should get a prize for modern history. I had topped my course in first semester, but they decided to only give prizes for end of year marks.  I finished up getting a book prize.

This was quite something, because I realise now that my mum was an extremely shy person. I get that shyness from her.  Going to the principal was a big deal, it took a lot of guts for her as a shy person.

My mum liked Shirley Temple, and she and her friends used to imagine they were orphans. She liked Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and had a crush on  Paul Newman. She liked Judy Garland, the Wizard of Oz. Her taste in more contemporary music was Abba and Boy George, artists with nice voices. She didn’t understand my like of guitar heroes such as Mark Knopfler from Dire Straits.

Mum used to work as a punch card operator at Caltex. Like the forerunner of a computer.  Later on she tried to find work as a typist, but she had no luck. Apparently her little finger was too short to type fast enough.

Once when I was at high school I saw my mum walking up Kiora Road hill, wheeling her shopping trolley behind. As soon as I saw her my heart  jumped, that familiar sense of recognition, a feeling of joy, of comfort, of pride that, that is  your mum, someone you trust more than anyone in the world. I realise now that feeling was love.   I wheeled that shopping home for her at peace with the world.

My mum was a listener, she had time to listen to everyone. Friends and relatives would often ring her just to talk to her. She used to comfort them by being so able to listen. Everyone loved Grace.

My mum’s favourite spot in the house was the back verandah. She’d sit out there and drink  coffee, mittens the cat would curl up in her lap. It was a lovely place to sit in the autumn sun.

My mum was always thinking of eveyone but herself. When my grandparents were getting old, mum and dad and I would go over to Alice Street, Sans Souci to clean up. Dad did the lawns and mum weeded the gardens. They swept up the paths into piles of leaves and grass clippings. And I was tasked to take them down to the heap in the backyard. Sometimes dad would light the heap and it would burn.

It was around this time that mum noticed a lump in her breast, she didn’t tell anyone, and put off seeing a doctor about it. She was too busy helping everyone else.

When Papa passed away in Calvary Hospital Mum was there holding his hand. She told me that he passed peacefully, and my mum said she wasn’t scared of dieing. My mother’s death was anything but peaceful, it was horrible, and it was something such a wonderful person didn’t deserve to go through. Life is anything but fair.

The day I broke 2 minutes for eight hundred metres, my mum decided we should go out for a meal to celebrate. So Mum and Dad and I went to a pancake resturant at Caringbah. The restuarant is no longer there. I wish I could remember more of those days.

When I had my knee arthroscopy at Loungeville Private Hospital my mum and dad came all the way with me. I remember mum was puffed walking up a slightly steep hill.  It was not longer after this she got diagnosed with secondary cancer.

When I left for Mitchell College of Advanced Education at Bathurst to study mature age, my mother cried when I went to get into the car. She was so happy for me, she new I wasn’t happy in my job as an insurance clerk, and to study Environment Science was a huge opportunity. That was 1986 and Mum had only one year to live. She has a masectomy in 1983.  

When I was on leave from college, I remember sitting at home in the living room. Mum went to get up too quickly from the  arm chair. She collapsed onto the ground.

I didn’t know what to do.

I stood over her and asked her “Are you allright?”

I could’ve have helped her up off the ground, but I didn’t know what to do. I froze.

Eventually she came around and stood up.

“I’m allright,”  she said.

The cancer had spread to her brain.

I remember clearly the last time I got to say goodbye to my mother. We were sitting in the courtyard of the hospital.

 Wanting goodbyes

 Sitting in a courtyard garden

at Prince of Wales Hospital, sheltered from the biting December sun,

you talked with my father and I until visiting hours had ended.

I kissed you once on the cheek, and waved goodbye

it was the last time, you remembered my name.

My mother passed away in Prince of Wales Hospital the day Mike Whitney held out Richard Hadlee in a over to eke out a drawn test.

I’m not sure if I deserved a mother like her. And I’m not sure if there is a heaven,  if I’ll get to see her there. I wonder if she would forgive me for taking her for granted. Maybe she deserves to be in a place where she gets shown all the love she deserves. Where people clean up their rooms, and wring out their face washer and hangs them on the hand rail after a shower.

I really feel so wired up after a race. I couldn’t sleep last night. Perhaps it was the humidity?

Maybe it was the nerves. You’ve really got to put yourself out there not just physically but mentally. The hardest part for me is the pre and post race interaction.

I thought a lot about last night’s race. All I want to do is to do what I have to get to the start line and race.  Because I really need that racing outlet in my life.

As soon as the race starts I come alive, it’s like I am a different person. I get it, I get the physical act of running.

I talked to a few people, I congratulated Tim who came third. He is running very well.

I got through without any misunderstandings I think.

Pre race. This was the second of the Bunch of Fives series. It was held on Woolgoolga Main Beach. It is planned to coincide with a low tide. The sand was hard and wet and provided an excellent surface to run on. The afternoon was overcast and reasonably cool creating nice conditions to run in.

I arrived early and handed over the perpetual trophy that I had been minding for three days. I went for a jog with last years “Bunch of Five” series winner on the weekend. He is out injured and unable to defend his title. So he gave me the trophy to hand over.

I was also given a bronze medal for third place in the 5km races over the winter cross country season. My first cross country season in over twenty years and I have medal to show for it!  

A crowd begins to gather before the race. Last months winner Richard is there and also a good young triathlete Lyle who didn’t run last time. Right on 6am, Tim the guy who was running late last month, sprints up to the start.

A line is drawn in the sand to mark the start. The white sign with start finish written in red is the marker. 

The race. Off we go and I’m up in the lead with a group of five. Richard and Lyle pull quickly away,  as does Tim. A young lady runner/triathlete, she’s only 14/15,  who wasn’t there last month is really going well. It takes me the best part of a kilometre to draw level with her. I have raced against he before but she has really improved since last time.

The beach is long and wide, sand hard and packed  flat. The backwash is way to our right. We run past the boat trailer for a Woolgoolga Surf boat. There are people walking a dog. At the end of the beach we head along  a small inlet where Woolgoolga Creek enters the sea. There is a stick marking the turnaround.

Richard and Lyle are having a good battle out front. Tim is about 100  metres ahead. I can’t keep pace with him. The young lady triathlete is just behind. She stays within a second or two of me all the way back to the start finish into a strong wind.

You can see other runners as you double back to the start finish. There is a long way back to sixth and seventh. It is a father and daughter combo, who seem to be running conservatively tonight.

I am not getting any beeps from my Garmin, and I notice that the timer is not working. So now I am just racing without a stop watch. The timer keeper at halfway says 10:14, so I am over 20 minute pace.

I start the second run up the beach. I’m starting to pull away from the young triathlete a little. She doesn’t really drop back until we turn south for the final run back south into the wind.

So I’m running safely for fourth, and I’m feeling pretty winded. I push as hard as I can.

I finish fourth in 20:55. Which I am not too unhappy with for a run on sand with a wind working against me.

Richard wins again, Lyle comes second and Tim finishes a fair way ahead of me in third. The young triathlete came in first female. She ran very well.

That fourth place means I am up to third place overall in the series.