Melbourne has been struggling through a cold winter. Continually cold and /or wet and/or windy or sometimes all three it can make getting out for a long run something of a trial. It has been said that there is never a run that you will regret but it is also true that there are runs that are less fun than others.
What to do when the weather is poor and motivation hard to find ? Go to Mudgee. What? Where did that come from? George was looking at marathons that were available and within a recovery time frame for our overseas trip. Mudgee up in New South Wales came up in conversation and the seed was sown. Not long after it was noted that Dubbo, relatively just down the road also had a marathon the following week. Hmmm.
A plan was hatched to run, catch up with family and friends, run and catch up with family and go home. Nine days, two marathons, three lots of family and one of close friends, several hundred kilometres in the car (probably around two thousand all up) and invaluable experience.
We headed off on the Friday before the Sunday marathon and stayed overnight in Yerong creek south of Wagga. This took about five hours out of the trip to Mudgee. Saturday was up early and on through Wagga, Junee, Young and into Mudgee in time to catch up with Wayno and George, pick up numbers and have a relaxed pasta dinner.
Mudgee marathon
A very cool 2 or 3 degrees and foggy greeted the small field of marathon runners mixed in with those running the half. It took a while to get going and to sort out those going the full distance. The last thing we needed was to get caught up in the pace of those who would be turning around after 10 km. We went out past some pretty vineyard areas but nothing was open at 7 am on a Sunday. Hard to believe isn’t it? The elevation profile on the website suggested we were going up a reasonably solid hill at 15 km and it was right. Up we went, cautiously. No point in burning out with most of the event still in front of us. At the top of the hill was a deviation down for about a kilometre and then straight back up. Ouch!
At this point I could see that I was in about tenth place overall so was pretty chuffed. I was still running well although having to concentrate as the bitumen was uneven and I was trying to hold pace. We made a big loop and then hit some unmade road around access roads to a couple of cellar doors. The road was fairly uneven and undulating but we were heading back to town. Starting to tire and running solo for much of the last part took some concentration. The last 1500 m deviated from the advertised route passing through Logan park instead of along the roads of Mudgee. Much safer and prettier but not as obvious where to go.
Finished in 3.18 and in 9th place overall. Small field but I’ll take a top ten finish any time. Won my age group by a fair margin. Pulled up a bit sore but a week off and then to Dubbo.
Dubbo Stampede
After a week of visits with Aunty Marg in Gilgandra and friends in Guyra we moved on to Dubbo more educated on rural life and farming practices. This year it is flooding rains now that the drought has broken. Someone should write a poem.
The events in Dubbo are themed around the Western Plains Zoo with the marathon being the Rhino Ramble. A slightly warmer morning of about 8 degrees and slightly overcast. In this case the marathon was a stand alone event so a smaller number on the start line but all running the marathon. It was slightly larger number of marathoners than in Mudgee being around 80-90 runners.
From the start there was only going to be one winner. The first guy took off like he was being chased by lions and was first out of the zoo gate by 50 metres. We only saw him again coming back the other way on the two lap course and he won by many minutes. We ran down Obley road to a turn around, back past the zoo entrance and headed towards town. One notable feature of this event was chalk drawings on the bike path that were really well done and provided a welcome diversion later in the event.
I was tracking along pretty well. I was expecting to feel a bit of tiredness from the marathon a week before and the travelling but I was rolling along as we headed off the bike path on to the dirt river trail. This is a very scenic area with the river on one side but had been chewed up in sections from the rain. At this point I was fourth overall and the third male runner. I knew this wasn’t really viable as I was going to flag at some point but there were prizes down to third place so I decided to run it as hard as I could until overtaken and then take it easy coming in if there was anything left in the tank.
At 30 km, on the dirt, starting to feel pretty sore a nice young man (about 50 yo) finally overtook me. As I watched him slowly edge ahead I drew comfort from the release of the pressure of maintaining a pace that was by now way beyond comfortable. By 36 km heading back to the zoo it was a get to the end job. Sometimes we talk about the bear jumping on our backs at this point but in this case it might have been a rhino and not the little pygmy one either.
In to the zoo and there is a little 1500m loop. It’s a little out of the way until the finish chute. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing as no one can see how much it hurts or whether it’s a good thing because you can shuffle along alone until the last tiny weeny bit. Anyway, across the line in 3.23, finished 7th so a second top ten finish and won my age group. We ran two marathons in two weeks and now the following Tuesday I actually feel better than I did last Tuesday after the first one.
Where to from here
So to summarise where we are at.
- I’ve run four marathons this year. Canberra, Brisbane, Mudgee and Dubbo.I’ve won my age group (60+) in all of them and finished top ten in the two smaller events.
- I’ve built from a single marathon in Canberra to half-marathon-half over consecutive weeks in Brisbane to consecutive marathons in Mudgee and Dubbo.
- I’m in reasonable shape health wise. I’m having a skin spot removed this arvo but apart from that and a little inflammation in my left heel I think I could nearly go around again.
Berlin is now three weeks away next Sunday. Flights and accommodation are booked, shots are up to date and paper work is in order. This will be the first outing for passports that were issued pre covid. Barring the unforseen we should get there and be ready to run. The aim at the moment is Berlin easy, London (the World Age Group Champ) harder and Chicago with whatever’s left.
Getting closer…..