Sunday, February 01, 2009

The heat is on

The hot weather has been unrelenting this week. Cools down marginally overnight before the mercury heads right back up the thermometer again. However at least I'm not in Melbourne where son #3 is experiencing unbearably high temperatures, power outages, public transport problems and being surrounded by very cranky, very hot and very tired people.

Yesterday I drove out to Cotter for a 7.30am start. Carol, softshoeshuffle and twofruits were already there preparing for a hot day out. The start is uphill (which is not my favourite way of starting a run but after running back up to Pierces settlement later on, I won't complain again) but the weather was still pleasantly warm.

The first loop of 23km was relatively comfortable - helped along by a brief stop at Vanities to cool the feet down. At this stage my mind was made up - this would be the only loop I'd be running today. However once back at the carpark and reconsidering my position, with some help by a certain person, I reluctantly agreed to do the out and back Vanities run. It was now later in the morning and the sun was beating down but i figured I could cope with 12.5-13km before calling it a day.

However the run starts with the grinding uphill climb to Pierces Settlement - it just seems to go on and on and on. I managed to run a lot of it before succumbing to walking. Passed Nick coming the other way and then a little further behind, Mick - they were almost finished. Things went downhill for me when I had to walk uphill at the next creek crossing and it did not improve after that. By the time I reached Vanities I was not in my happy place at all, as twofruits discovered. I was hot, tired, cranky and felt like absolute crap. But after sitting in the water I slowly regained my composure and things didn't seem so bad after all.

The run back (and it was mostly running with only a teensy bit of walking up the top of one hill) was far more pleasant - I think its easier to run back to the carpark. Plus there was a breeze of sorts to make it more bearable, that, and the thought that the end wasn't too far away. I didn't even have a coffee once I finished, even though the coffee man was there.

So in the end we did 36km, the toughest part being the last 13km.

Total kms for the week: 100.9km

*****************************************************************************

"Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain.
An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind,
but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point.
Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment;
and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey."
- Harold V. Melchert

7 comments:

Ewen said...

You said "crap"! I'm putting my fingers in my ears next time I read your blog.

Must have been bad. Poor Two Fruits.

strewth said...

Hey well done - you did it! Be proud - very proud!

softshoeshuffle said...

Truth is performances like Saturday are character building for you and inspiring for others.

It would have been so easy to call it a day after the first lap, but you didn't and that is what will put you ahead of many others who run SFT.

Clairie said...

Well done CJ. To be honest your blog post could have been mine...we obviously had similar runs on the weekend and both came out of them exhausted but happy with the result.

Yah to us!!

Toasty said...

This is a long way from a few months ago!

Two Fruits said...

Blame me!!

Unknown said...

That's a fantastic weekly total, CJ, and a great run to finish with!

Loved the little poem too!