Back on track!

I have updated the circus infomercial post, now that Blogger is letting me upload pretty pictures.

Waters of promise, waters of hope...

I grabbed a coffee with Mark on the way home at some place in West End (he gave me a lift), and he nearly got killed crossing the road in a daze. It would've been worrying if it wasn't so fscking funny, especially seeing as he still had his helmet on. He may have died tragically, but it would've been without sustaining head injuries. I showed him the article 0n Tara Moss from the Weekend Australian, and about how silver is the new black. No, I don't care about the clothes... I was applying that logic to carbon fibre bicycles, like this one.

He bailed out of swimming though, which was very disappointing. Karen and Adrian were late, and Karen blamed it on Adrian. Normally I wouldn't believe that a man was delaying a couple, but after seeing how long Adrian spends in the shower after a swim (Karen and I are always out first), I believe it!

I water ran with Karen for a bit and we caught up on some news, about such interesting topics as my new key, our upcoming job interviews, and the various untrue things that people have said about me recently.

Ashley is back in Australia for a bit, so I might have to go for a run with him. He's training for the Oxfam Trailwalker... Hong Kong! I might drag him down to Coomera.

My weekend: an executive summary...

Hippy has been complaining that my blog is turning into more of a soap-opera, so I'll try to keep this entry short. Just for you, Stu!

On Friday night I went out to dinner at a place on Brunswick St with Rob. I can't remember what the place is called, but I'm pretty sure it started with an A. Maybe Rob will read this and will leave a comment *nudge, wink* or maybe not. The burgers were amazing but we weren't allowed cutlery, because that would make the front bar a "food service area" and therefore people couldn't smoke there. Friday night gave me the opportunity to discover that Rob is very ticklish (and now the entire world has access to this information). Also, he appears to have a never-ending collection of bad jokes. The big brown bear joke is particularly bad; I highly recommend it for presentation at statistician's parties.

On Saturday morning, I struggled out of bed and into the car and headed to Toohey Forest for a run with the RC Runners. I blame Mark for this, because on Friday night he sent me text messages saying that he was out drinking and not sleeping, and he would be running in the morning, and therefore I had no excuse. So I showed up with flat-feeling legs (hopefully a massage later this week will fix them), without breakfast or coffee.

Coffee is essential in the morning because it ensures an early trip to the loo. Without the coffee, this urge only hit me after about 20 minute of running, so I took my first ever training-run bush dump.

I also met a woman who seemed to want to be a bit competitive with me, and then left me on my own when I stopped to see if John was still doing well (he was following further back). When I asked Mark about her, his only comment was, "How does she run without a bra? That's got to be uncomfortable."

I only train if I get breakfast, this time it involved me explaining (to the masses) the virtues of pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. We had a good chat about not much except for running, and I met some of the Sherwood runners as well, before slipping away to buy some sports bras and socks in Kmart.

The rest of my Saturday was quality bike time. I took my Miche pedals off my Dozer and put them on my Silver Bullet; I put the Shimano pedals back on the Dozer. I lubed up the Silver Bullet and removed the tyres to ensure the casing wasn't damaged at all; I cleaned and lubed the Dozer; then I finally got around to cleaning my MTB after the Epic (yes, it has been 3 weeks).

I had a late Saturday night, with Lotte and Paulie filling Kurt and me up with pot roast and then a flourless choc hazelnut cake with icecream and strawberries. The cake "only" has 32.5g of fat per serve, she told me. Mmmmm, no wonder it tasted so good. Abby and Nic were there also, with Caitlin and Emma, the little cuties. I have now met Simon and Cadence (Lotte and Paulie's babies) and they are incredibly beautiful.

On Sunday morning I met Mark at about 7.30 because I was so damn tired. It was already quite hot (although it didn't get much hotter later), and to make me feel better, the bastard dragged me up Logan Rd and Creek Rd straight away, because he spotted some familiar runners and wanted to chase down Adrian. We bailed early and I can't remember feeling quite that flat in a long time - I felt about a day away from catching a cold... But the bike felt nice. Near the Southbank end of the Goodwill Bridge, it was my turn to get swooped by the magpie. Grrr.

Breakfast at Peloton was awesome, and I highly recommend the Eggs Benedict with sauteed mushroom and baby spinach, mmmmm. Plus I got to see my new love again; she's gorgeous, isn't she? Karen and Adrian are now caring for Gilly's wetsuit for me, which I will collect tonight at swimming. We all went our separate ways and Mark and I headed for his place. Suddenly, with a meal and two cups of coffee in my belly, my legs felt okay. The mysteries of life.

On Sunday arvo, I went hiking with Mark and Jen in Daisy Hill Forest, which was a bit strange because of a noted lack of my MTB... I've never actually been in there without a bike before! The weather was lovely and I ignored my phone calls. We met a walker who was recovering from injury and felt the need to tell us about his personal Ironman history. He seemed like a nice enough bloke; we just listened and didn't add our own stories! In the end, he looked at our dodgy MTB map and pointed us in "the right direction" to get back, but it wasn't. Fortunately Mark and I had better navigation skills and knew exactly where we were on the dodgy map, and had no worries finding the main trail again.

I was meant to see a movie with Rob last night, at Southbank, but we missed the early session and I was worried I would fall asleep in the late session. We went for some average Indian curries instead and gave each other crap for a few hours before heading back to our respective busway platforms.

I slept in until after 0730h this morning and didn't get to uni until almost 0930h as a result. I've eaten junk food and drunk coffee and sent email and looked at jobs online. I also received an email about a job I really wanted, offering me an interview after all. And now I sit here and blog... okay time to get back to work!

Oooh, one more thing: some ugly photos from the River Run last weekend.

Circus infomercial...

Have you ever dreamed of soaring through the skies and taking death-defying drops with only a thin sheet of material to cling to your costume-clad flesh while audiences gasp at your breathtaking grace and beauty?


Perhaps you're more interested in defying gravity by balancing in precarious positions over yawning gaps and captivated audiences?

No? Then maybe you're just scared of heights, but like doing things that are really hard for both your mind and your body, in a really supportive, all-female group environment? I know that sounds more like me!

Check out the Workshops offered through Vulcana Women's Circus!

I have done five terms of aerials, including static trapeze (and a few swinging trapeze sessions thrown in for the hell of it), tissu (aerial silk) and lyra (aerial ring). I've also done a little bit of cordelisse (rope) and webspin. There's also static cloud and cloudswing, which is like a big tissu but hooked up at both ends. At the Tasmanian Circus Festival, I also had a go at flying trapeze.

It's good to do some general training classes first, which offer an intro to acrobalance, juggling, tumbling, aerials, stilts, clowning... but if (like me) it's just aerials you're after, jump in the deep end. Aerials are great for core strength and upper body strength, and especially for testing your head if you're scared of heights!

(And just for the male readers - check out Circa, who offer men's and combined classes as well!)

About that job...

I read somewhere that it's a very good idea to ask for feedback on job applications when you're unsuccessful. I didn't even get an interview in the last job; I got told they had many skilled applicants and they chose to only interview three. I sent an email requesting feedback once they were finished with the interviews and had some time. I got a reply saying they were very impressed with my application and was in fact the fourth on their list; further to that, one of the three had taken another job, and therefore if I was still interested, they were keen to interview me... YAY!

No fair!

I didn't get that job either. I suppose that's how it goes, you miss out on jobs. I wonder if I sounded underqualified, overqualified or just not what they wanted. That's okay, I've seen a better job advertised now... it looks interesting and it pays more!

I went to circus training this morning and decided not to do any big drop tricks, but rather to just work on getting my strength up. So I hung from my hands on the tissu and alternated feet on a Russian climb; I did a few knee climbs and two-knee hangs and even tried the hocks climb. I also locked both feet in and did the splits up nice and high, and got very deep (slightly inverted), which was a big improvement from last week.

After delicious laksa from Jackpot Noodles with Mark, I got to uni and checked my PO Box to find my R4YL with a bonus freebie hat! I haven't done much else, but regardless, I need to go shower and catch the CityCat back to New Farm.

Magical speedwork!

Can you tell I'm excited?

I went to my first speedwork session last night. Not my first ever, but my first in so long that it might as well be my first ever! Yep, it's been at least eight months, but it might be over a year. I was ill-prepared and had left my race shoes at home, but I had my Asics Gel Magic Racers at uni. I never wear socks with those shoes, because I don't want to stretch them; with a little bit of BodyGlide, they fit perfectly and never blister. I was a little worried about the lack of orthotics, though.

I've watched the River City Runners train at QEII stadium many times and it was great to finally join in - I would've joined in sooner had it not been for illness and tapering. After the run, I felt a tweak in my left foot, in the flexor digitorum brevis. I very quickly guessed that it was the road camber that caused me problems, so I switched to the outside of the ring road and sure enough the pain vanished. Next time I will know to do my warm up and cool down on the left hand side, and my speedwork on the right hand side.

So now, for the session. I was hoping for something easy, like 500m hard, 500m easy repeats, but Mark was more of a bitch than that:

• 2km hard (8:14), rest
• 500m hard (1:52), rest
• 2km hard (8:03), rest
• 500m hard (1:43), rest

So this is why I'm so happy. At the peak of my fitness, I was only running 1km repeats on about 3:52 average. I never knew that I could hold (approx) 4 min kms for more than 1km. And more than that - I haven't been training for speed at all - just have a look at the races I've been doing! And I wasn't overworking my cardiovascular system, I was just dying in the legs, which probably wasn't helped by 40km on the bike that day! So I really can get faster... my 10km time really will break 42min one day.

Before that - I collected Mark from the gardens and we rode to his place, and then he drove me to speedwork. As we rode up Annerley Rd, we encountered one of those hybrid commuter types who desperately wanted to prove he could go just as fast as those posh roadies. Clearly, he didn't notice that, while Mark's bike is nice, mine is a Dozer, and neither of them are posh. Anyway, the poor thing, there I am happily spinning up the hill chatting away to Mark, and this guy is first behind us and then on the footpath, working his guts out. I always find that entertaining, and I kept speeding up just a little bit to see how hard he'd go. Of course, he eventually disgusted me by pulling across the road to get to a crossing and then running a red light. Loser.

Important information for PhD students.

For a long time, I have lived by this: Structured Procrastination, by John Perry. Especially recommended for academics and PhD students. I should've blogged that long ago. I also should've blogged Piled Higher and Deeper, a grad student comic strip by Jorge Chan.

I found my food!

I've decided that when I do a bigger ultra, I will need to consume Bi-Lo tinned spaghetti in tomato and cheese sauce, 220g. I just had a craving for food and, seeing as I'll be running later, I thought a proper serving would be good, instead of just junk. Anyway, I needed my FRED to open it so I guess I'll need a crew if I do a longer ultra.

So what has the last 24 hours held for our heroine? I mean, for me? Well, I had to explain why boys should never, ever consider sending me flowers... unless they're attached to a living plant. I just feel so cruel. Yes, you can slaughter a cute little lamb and roast it with rosemary (the herb, not a woman) and I'll enjoy it. But don't kill the flowers!

I made another discovery last night: the best place to park a bike on the CityCat is behind one of the back seats, up against the mesh and railing, and then you can still sit facing the other way on the seat, but you're not stopping anyone else from sitting either, and they can't knock your bike over. Yeah, I am very protective of my bike!

I went out to dinner at Arriva in New Farm; the boss-type guy was a bit of a grumpy poo but the food was really good. I ate all my dinner but was embarrassed by not being able to finish the hugest, richest Italian hot chocolate that I have ever seen. Not to worry, though - real feralultrarunners can eat (almost) two of them.

As I rode to Mark's place this morning, my legs felt a bit flat. I was pushing, but I couldn't get my speed up. A short while later, I realised it wasn't my legs. It was my rear tyre. We pulled up along the side of Fairfield Rd to change the tube, and Mark acted as the official bike mechanic. This was very cool, because he is much faster than I am.

So back on the road... until five minutes later when I had another flat. Upon inspecting the tube, which wasn't the patched spare one that had been in my bike bag, I realised that we (i.e. Mark) had reinserted the busted tube. So we put the spare on and had no further worries.

We stayed on Coro Dr instead of taking the bikeway, because it's a T3 lane inbound at that time of day. (For the overseas readers, T3 is a transit lane for taxis, motorcycles, bicycles, buses, and cars with more than 3 occupants.) At the lights near the Wesley Hospital, a guy in a 4WD towing a trailer started yelling and waving at me to get out of the way, not that he had any right to do this, of course. But he had 3 occupants and was otherwise doing the right thing, so I didn't really want to hold him up.

It gave me flashbacks, but I kept my cool and merely indicated that I would pull over to the left once we were clear of the intersection (as the lane is quite wide). I don't think he understood but I turned my back on him anyway. As soon as the lights changed, I clearly directed my bike towards the left, but only gradually, so that once I reached the far side of the intersection, I was just pulling in behind Mark. As the car passed (giving me plenty of clearance), they gave me a wave. So yay me for getting over the past and promoting good driver-cyclist interactions!

We went to Kenny's bike shop, Peloton Cycles (link still not active!), where I fell in love. Kenny's bike is really, really sexy. Like, it's sex on two wheels. My next bike is going to be even sexier. Back to the story... Mark and I scored free coffee, which was a bonus, and after Mark left, I got the try-before-you-buy saddle put on my bike. It was hard to tell if it was a great fit, because my saddle sores had already been making me aware of their presence.

By this stage, I was very late to uni and didn't get much done before heading to the NTEU seminar on energy alternatives for the future. And I won't get much more done before heading off to a speedwork session with River City Runners.

Another definition for the record...

FRED
a small utensil that serves as a bottle opener, a can opener and a miniature spoon, supplied in Australian Army one-man ration packs (which are made in New Zealand); acronym for f*cking ridiculous eating device.

Love at first sight...

I am in love. I met her this morning. She is a silvery full-carbon Bianchi L'una. Paul (the bike mechanic) insisted upon bringing her outside into the sunlight and then she shimmered with all the colours of the rainbow. I must have her.

Actually when I asked the price (she wasn't too expensive, and certainly worth it) I said, "Oh good, I only have to prostitute myself for a few months then," and he said, "No worries. We'll pay well."

I did not "testride" her, because I don't have enough money to make her mine, so I must not take the relationship too far at this stage... It will make it all the more painful that I cannot have her... yet.

(The photo above is taken from the Bianchi USA website... my girl has prettier components...)

Quick run down...

I visited Rada on the way to work for a chat and a cuppa. She can now do more chin ups than I can, which is really despicable on my part (because I've dropped so many) and brilliant on her part (because she's worked so hard to gain a few).

Last night was work and that was standard, except that I started later than normal and prior to work I ate a little chocolate grand piano filled with chocolate mousse - delicious! Unfortunately, I got some tummy cramps from something I had eaten earlier (yes, for the second time in a week) and felt quite crook for the first hour or so of work. I pushed through, though, and felt much better later. Katie and I worked on the training program and on instructions for future activities.

I had a late night and was very tired this morning, but I managed to haul myself out of bed at 0500h and was even on my bike before Mark showed up. A few moments after we had ridden off, Adrian called Mark asking where we were, and we headed back to get him. We took some back streets over to Sherwood Rd, so we didn't have to deal with any lights. I didn't have any problems keeping up with the boys because they had both smashed their legs up last night at running (which I missed, due to work).

Glenn joined us at the designated RV and soon enough Lotte arrived. Then we just had to wait for Paul. He didn't take too much longer but I didn't want to let him off easily, because he was actually meant to meet us at my house. Mark and Adrian left us a few minutes later to head off to important places, so we continued around uni. Paul and I did a sprint around the ring road (but only one!) and we all followed Lotte right into the City Gardens, where she turned off for work, Paul headed home along Logan Rd, and Glenn rode with me as far as Toowong.

I even managed to get in a very short run off the bike so that I can feel really good about doing the Gold Coast Half Ironman. By this time, I was starving, so I headed up for a shower and some breakfast. That concludes the interesting parts of my day... tragic, isn't it? But the ride was incredibly fun!

Interesting links and so on.

Lady Jove is an ultra runner, like me, and she wrote this excellent opinionative piece on eating disorders.

Yesterday I went into the city for ice cream after uni, and then caught the bus home. As I walked up the hill to my house, I saw Mum walking George on the other side of the road, so I ran across and gave George a pat. Mum said she still had a bit to go, and once she was a few hundred metres away, she started running. She calls it jogging, but it's far too efficient for that. I know she's always been a swimmer but I hate to break it to her - she would've been a brilliant distance runner. It's not too late, though, and I have a sneaking suspicion she's been increasing her running/walking so that she can do a faster fun run with me next year... at least, I hope so!

I went water running with Karen as well. Adrian didn't come, because he was held back at work. He sent me a text message to let me know, but it didn't arrive until half midnight! So I collected Karen from her place, and took a "back way" up to the main road, so that I would come out at a set of traffic lights. I think she was moderately impressed by my navigation ;) hehehe. After we had done a few laps, I moved on to swimming, because I thought I should train if I'm going to do the Gold Coast Half Ironman, which I have entered. The swimming felt okay, and Karen said that I made it look easy, which was nice of her... it felt better this week, anyway.

I spent all night writing a job application, but I'm pretty happy with it; I'll put the finishing touches on today and then send it off. Mark checked it over for me this morning and made a few suggestions for improvement, which I'm extremely grateful for. He also gave me coffee (yummo!) and toast. I've lost my 256MB USB stick, so I'm using my old one, but I had to file it down to plug it into the computer here at uni, which was an excellent waste of five minutes.

Oh here's a link, just for Karen: http://student.uq.edu.au/~s370253 (but if it doesn't work, sorry, it's an external access issue).

Oooh, I've been a bad girl!

Not really, really bad or even just really bad. Just bad. I haven't blogged for ages, sorry about that! When was it... Wednesday? Eeek! I have a lot to write, so maybe I should break it down into days... I could do that dodgy thing where I backdate my blog entries so you don't know that I've gone so long between entries... hehehe yeah that'll trick 'em...

Nah, too much effort. So here's the rest of my week in summary:

Wednesday (the rest of it)

I had to get changed and get to my interview, and I was pretty stressed. I arrived early and straightened my suit skirt before heading up to Level 2. Reception turned out to be a phone and a single page directory, lacking information on which employees worked in each section. I wondered briefly if it was an aptitude test, but before I could make my selection, a woman walked past and I introduced myself, and a few minutes later I was shown into a conference room, filled with random office equipment, mismatched furniture, and potted plants of the genus plasticus.

I will call my interviewers Adam and Eve, although they actually had far more interesting names. Eve was wearing a horrific yellow suit-like shirt. You know, those summery jackets that you don't need to wear a blouse under? It was bright yellow, and there I was in a grey skirt suit, just past the knee, with a pale pink, pinstripe blouse. Adam wasn't exactly a power dresser either. They explained the job, and I told them why I was the best person for it. Not why I thought I was the best person for it... why I was the best person for it.

They answered most of my questions before I could ask them, so I had to search for more. I came up with one about the anticipated duration of the project and ongoing work, and any final deadlines that were in place. It threw me when I got asked how much pay I would like - the recruiting agent had told me that they would negotiate rates of pay. However I was well-prepared and knew the award wage, so I added a few dollars an hour onto that... later noticing that Eve had not turned the page since the last interview, and the other candidate was requesting $10 per hour more than me. I came out feeling very, very positive about my interview.

I called Mum to let her know, and then caught up with Mark for coffee. Mark very nearly didn't recognise me. Lotte joined us as soon as she finished work, which was awesome, because I hadn't seen her for almost a month! It was great to catch up and hear what was going on, and she was also suitably impressed with my corporate image, although my lipstick was gone by then. I showed off my clicky shoes, as well, which later ate through my heel. 50(+2.9)km in my Mizunos with no blisters... 2.9km in my court shoes and some nice bloodstained pantyhose resulted.

I told Tim that I was too tired to go back to his place for dinner and then get to New Farm to watch the Vulcana aerials show-and-tell. I then called Rob and told him it was a good time for that race debrief he'd promised, so we met at New Farm (outside Mary Ryan's, because it was already shut) and went to Coles, so he could cook me dinner. It was delicious - one of his housemates ate with us, and she thought I must have an important job... perhaps I was a lawyer? (Yes, I was still in the suit.) The New Zealand beer was delicious as well. Rob was kind enough to accompany me to Vulcana despite the fact that he was so tired I thought he would fall asleep standing.

I was amazed at how much the girls had improved - they all look so strong and graceful now. It wasn't meant to be a polished show, but it was far beyond my expectations. At the end of the night, I got invited into their check-out and I know I need to make a comeback... but I'm not sure now if it'll be this term, because I miss a few weeks due to courses I have to do. It was nice to feel wanted though.

I hitched a ride to the city with Rae-Ming, and Rob insisted on walking home, which was polite but surprising, given that his quads were sore enough that he struggled to get up off the floor at the end of the show-and-tell! I was home not too late, and made it my priority task to slumber as soon as practicable. That was after I peeled the bloodstained stockings away from my blister. Mmmm, yummy.

Thursday

I got up quite early to ride with Mark. It was freezing when I got up, so I was fully prepared with legwarmers, armwarmers, earwarmers and a windvest (with newspaper backup); by the time we were ready to go (he rode to my place first), it was warm enough to ditche the legwarmers and earwarmers. This was great, because it meant I got to show off my new, sexy, black and white cycling outfit. We stopped at Park Rd for some coffee and then went down to check out Kenny's shop, which is looking extremely sexy, with all those nice bikes. It's at 55 Railway Tce, Milton, and it's called Peloton Cycles (webpage not up yet)... go on, check it out, you know you want to!

I went to see Tim, to tell him that I was not keen on getting dressed up in 20s clothes for some party on the weekend and that I wasn't even keen on going to the party. I guess I also wasn't so keen on getting involved with someone whose idea of the perfect relationship was sitting on the couch, watching TV until it was time to shag and then sleep. I left that bit out though.

By this stage, the piercing in my right ear was nastily infected, from stupidly wearing earrings to the job interview the day before. So I wasn't very happy when Eve called me to let me know that I did not have the job, because I was unwilling to get a professional software licence at my own expense for a $25/hour job that might only last a few months. I emailed her a list of the prices and wished her luck with the project. Gee, aren't I just Little Miss Professional?

I met up with Lotte and Glenn for the ride home; Lotte has lost a lot of fitness due to a month of bike-light issues and illness, but she improved rapidly last time she made a comeback and she'll do it again this time. She just jumped right back on and did a 75km day, complete with a "leaking saddle sore." She also gave me shit about my tiny knicks, and riding with my hair out.

I got lost on the way out to QEII stadium, by not paying enough attention. I ended up at Mortimer Rd and had to backtrack along Beaudesert Rd. When I got near QEII, I decided to push up Kessels Rd, to save some time. I wasn't counting on the hill (and in particular the back entrance to QEII) being so damn steep and I thought I would fall off, even in my granny gear. By the time I got there, Adrian, Mark and Karen were finished their sessions; Mark drove me home because I'm lazy.

Friday

Friday morning was a bit of a sleep in, because I intended to have a big evening. The day at work is a bit of a haze, except for the part where I entered both the River Run and the Gold Coast Half Ironman Triathlon. The latter one was a last minute decision, but I figured that I'd want to do at least one triathlon this season, and it might as well be a good one.

Early Friday afternoon, I headed out to the Powerhouse to make my circus comeback. It was great to catch up with everyone but I am so weak at the moment that it's all a bit frustrating. I can only do two unassisted chin ups. My hands got incredibly tired after only a short time on the trapeze or tissu and being up high again was really doing my head in. I'll get back there, but it's going to take some time. Emma (the instructor) begged me to not take my strength for granted - she pointed out how much training she needed to do to maintain her upper body strength, and she doesn't want me to waste mine. Emma also trains at my friends' studio - Race Elements.

I went to Rob's place and waited for him to get home (he was jogging for the first time since the Glasshouse 100 Mile). I took a shower with my expensive analogue watch on (oops!) but fortunately it didn't become a spirit level and it still works. After a few beers, I dragged Rob to a party at Shannon's place, where we continually paid out on each other, just like in the "good old days." It must have been fun for Rob, because he was the only male in a party of about 12, for a while. After a lot of Sweet Chilli Philly, we headed off to Steffen's farewell party. We went by taxi, because the wind was incredibly strong - we were experiencing gusts of up to 90km/h so it wasn't great for walking in.

I was surprised to see Paul at Steff's party (held at Mark's house) - he's an old friend of mine from Physics, and we had a great catch up. Gilly and Mart left soon after we arrived, and then AB followed. After some more alcoholic beverages, we moved on to coffee. Mark was absolutely trashed, or as he would put it, "had on [his] wobbly boots," but he managed to make some good coffee at about the same time that Paul's taxi showed up. As soon as he was done, I had to grab his arms to stop the wobble, and I helped him walk into his bedroom, because he had decided it was time to go to bed. Rob and I were feeling surprisingly healthy, given that I had snacked but not eaten after training (and similar for him after running home). Still, we decided to crash that night, because I couldn't afford another cab.

Saturday

My alarm went off at 0500h, which was about the same time Mark got up to go to the loo, and Rob got up to go home. Rob was well prepared, with maps that he had photocopied from a street directory, so I pointed out the nearest train stations but suggested he might like to catch a bus instead. Of course, it was far too early for buses, so Rob walked the entire way home.

Mark was supposed to be running at Toohey Forest and giving me a lift home in the process, but I was keen to go back to bed. So after checking on him and determining that he was in no condition to run anyway (nor to drive), I went back to sleep and didn't manage to get up until 0930h. By this stage it was disgustingly windy, so that planned bike ride never happened. Mark wondered aloud if I had made coffee the night before, and I had to explain to him that he had donned the barista role. Hehehe, memory loss. Mark was very polite and offered to drive me home so I wouldn't have to catch the bus, and I greedily accepted.

Saturday was supposed to consist of washing clothes and sheets, and preparing job applications. However, Karen told me that she and Adrian were heading over to Kenny's shop (now open), so I went with them. Kenny's private blend coffee is delicious, and did I mention that I want a new sexy bike? Sponsors welcome!

I had completely forgotten to collect my costume from Mark, so I arranged to pick him up early the next morning. On Saturday afternoon he was still complaining about a queasy stomach, so I was pretty sure that it wasn't just the alcohol that was making him ill, but rather something he ate - maybe the wet (rained-upon) sausages and bread that he had offered Rob and I the night before?

On Saturday afternoon I walked into the city, and there I had more beer (but not too much) and mussels (mmmm) and I even ate a snail. The snail was chewy, kind of like bad calamari. I'm sure that's a bad way to talk about a delicacy but it wasn't my thing. Something from earlier in the day had clearly disagreed with me and I felt a bit gassy, and soon after my guts were twisted in knots, so the bus trip home wasn't comfortable, and neither was the act of putting sheets on my bed.

I fell into bed without doing any race preparation, so I knew it would be a very early morning - I had to be at Mark's place by 0600h.

Sunday

I got up at 0500h, wondering why my alarm was going off. I soon figured it out, and took my usual pre-race shower, and dug out some clothes that I wouldn't normally run in (a cotton-lycra singlet and cheeky shorts) along with some brand new, untested shoes. The shoes felt uncomfortable with my orthotics in them, so I left them out - crazy but true!

As soon as I arrived at Mark's house, he made vegemite toast and coffee, both of which I desperately needed. He was still feeling unwell (definitely not just a hangover) and didn't eat breakfast. Down near the start, I donned my costume: a surgical suit, with mask and paper hat - very hospital style. I figured it was appropriate, given how flat my legs felt.

I think I was the only person in costume. Rob later said that he had seen some other people in costume, and I asked who. "Some fat people," he replied. I was intrigued. "Well, what were they dressed as?" "Runners." It's so mean, but crikey it was funny.

I took the mask off my nose before we finished the little out-and-back near the start (because it was hot, and difficult to breathe through) but that stupid paper hat stayed on my head the entire way, despite it being disgustingly hot and sweaty. The gown stayed on as well. I ran past some familiar faces from CoolRunning drinks, but I think they tried not to recognise me... surely they couldn't be embarrassed?

I had anticipated finishing in approximately 50 minutes, less 3 min because I'm always faster than I expect, plus 1 min for a stupid costume, plus 2 min for being tired and flat. But I was way off because I ran 46:39 (gun time; 30s of that was before I crossed the start line, placing me 13th in my age group and 27th female overall), which I was incredibly happy with. I even caught my friend Fiona, at about the 9.5km mark. I was hesitant to run past and then, without looking at me, she said, "Took you long enough!" That was a bit freakish. And Pat Carroll did his usual 101 Variations on Tamyka's Name as I crossed the finish line.

It was great to see Karen and Adrian out at West End and to see Tesso at the finish line; also to see all the other CoolRunners I got to chat to before running off to find Rob (who was spectating - 10km is just not worth it when you're used to 100 miles) and Mark (who had won his age group).

I should apologise to the guy I threw water over. I was aiming for my head, seriously. It was just that stupid paper hat. Anyway I was very, very happy with how I went, even though it's a fair way off my PB, because in light of all the other stuff I've done recently, it means I'm not as slow as I feared and the Gold Coast Half Ironman isn't nearly so scary now. Except for the swim.

After the race, I went for breakfast at the Pancake Manor on Charlotte St, with Mark, Rob, Checkers, Emily, Fiona and Dave and the kids (plus one extra). I had the first option on the Set Menu for breakfast and I highly recommend it: two buttermilk pancakes with whipped butter and maple syrup, crispy bacon and a fried egg, with a cappuccino. Mark still did not look well, and even excused himself for a while, in fear of his meal "bouncing."

Sunday afternoon, I went hiking with Mark and some of his friends, around Mt Coot-tha. This was heaps of fun, but my bum is really sore now. Really, really sore. And my calves aren't great either. We went up a ridiculously steep hill that was dry and loose, and I kept slipping backwards down it. It would truly be terrifying to go down on a mountain bike. When we hit some steady trails, I had an incredible urge to run, so we might make a (good) trail runner of me yet! We all had a picnic afterwards - yum!

Last night I was very tired, so I went to bed fairly early, but without having prepared the job application that I had intended. This morning was another big sleep in followed by a bus trip to uni, because I was too tired to ride my bike. I'll go water running tonight, and I'm looking forward to seeing Karen and Adrian again. I think I scared the students in my tutorial, but hey, they've done the best out of all the tute classes, so it must be working for them!

Hmmmm, I should definitely post more regularly.

Floppy muscles...

I just had a massage and Scott said that my muscles were all floppy. He couldn't believe I was in such good shape, given the races I have done, and we put it down to the water running and swimming that I've been doing as recovery. I didn't do any today though, because I was late to uni and then had to immediately supervise an exam. I have to go and get ready for my interview now, but rest assured that I haven't left anything out - it's a really dull day.

I am feralultrarunnergirlTam! - Race Report: Glasshouse 50(+2.9)km

That title should say it all. If you've been following my blog, you would've read about my crazy plan to jump to ultramarathon at the Glasshouse 50(+2.9)km (I can't let those extra kilometres get away, because they make it more ultra) and you might even have read my goals. Well... I did it! It took me 6:48:02 (placing me 3rd female) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I should warn you out, this will be big. Lady Jove posted her race report with an executive summary and I've done things like that in the past... but I have to get all of this out first. From now on you are to address me as Princess Plod, feralultrarunnergirlTam! (FURgirlTam! for short), or Ultra Tank Girl.

Phase 1: Getting to the start line

Mark collected me from uni (in my car, which I left in his care) and we drove up to our motel, which turned out to be just north of Australia Zoo and just south of the caravan park that AB and Chook were staying at. He had filled the tank up and refused to let me pay, which is very nice of him, but very naughty.

On the way up, I sent a message to Adrian, asking, "Where is dinner and are you coming?" to which he replied, "Are you asking me on a date?" which is seriously the best call. I nearly wet myself, I laughed so hard. (It's okay, I was in the passenger seat. I don't often sit there.) Then he sent another reply saying that he'd checked CoolRunning but couldn't find any details. So I tried AB and very soon became very scared, because he confidently answered that dinner was at 1800h at the school. It soon became apparent, however, that he'd just been bluffing: Mark's phone beeped, and it was AB, checking where the dinner was.

The dinner was delicious, with a creamy chicken pasta, vegetarian pasta, shephard's pie, and some salad, followed by fruit salad, trifle, and ice cream. Mark was well prepared, so beer was readily available for our crew. I got to catch up with Lady Jove and her friend Arnstein (whom I had met at the Warwick Pentath-run), Nic (whom I haven't had much to do with, but always seems to remember me, and he promised me some donuts with pink icing and sprinkles), Joe (who emails me on a regular basis) and some other very cool people who I could list, but I'd probably spell their names incorrectly.

Dinner incorporated the race brief, which was pretty confusing. I understood this much - I'd have to run a long way; I should follow the white tape and red arrows in the trees and the dolomite arrows on the ground; I'd have to run around the oval at the finish. That's not much to take out of a huge race brief, but everyone reassured me I would be fine.

After dinner, Mark and I drove to AB and Chook's caravan where we got started on card games and red wine. This went on until 2230h, with Mark struggling a little with the rules of arsehole as he drank more! It was a great evening until I got really hungry and desperately wanted pizza; AB offered me some from the car, but I was smart enough to ask how long it had been there, and smart enough to avoid pizza that had sat in the car for 12 hours.

Back at the motel, I sorted the last of my gear and went to bed. I'm not sure whether it was then or in the morning that I did a bit of maths and figured out that the start time must be 0600h, not 0630h. I knew AB was starting at 0530h, and that his drop bags had to be ready half an hour before mine... eventually it clicked into place and I knew I had to get a wriggle on.

I don't even know where I got the timings from, but they must have been old ones, perhaps from a previous year. Anyway, I took a shower, scoffed some toast and coffee (instant, ew!) and drove very quickly to the school. I was pleased that I'd sorted everything out the night before. Adrian called Mark's phone as I was getting in the car to ask where I was, which is hilarious, because he's notorious for last minute (or late) arrivals.

I arrived at the school car park, ripped off my tracksuit (I was so glad I had the one with the zip legs, so I didn't need to take my shoes off), put on my Camelbak Catalyst (mine is blue) and my hat, and listened to the start gun fire from my car. Oops. Hey, better to be 30 seconds late to a 50(+2.9)km run than a 5km run, right?!

So, I made it to the start line... eventually.

Phase 2: Getting to the finish line

Yeah, so this is going to be the long part of the story, of course. I mention checkpoints - if you're interested in what I mean and where I went, you can look at the map.

My original plan was to run with Lady Jove for the first 20km or so. As I ran through the start line, yelling that I weighed about 61kg (they need to know that for ultra runners, but I wasn't really an ultra runner - I was doing the shortest event of the day!), I saw her looking back and she looked relieved for me, that I had made it. I later found out she had tried to call me, but my phone was already turned off. I quickly caught her and started to chat, but then she took a toilet stop - at about the 300m mark! I wasn't keen to stop so soon after starting, so I kept running with Arnstein for a bit, and then with some other runners.

I was determined to take it really slowly at the start, so I was happy to keep with some of the 100km runners (who shared our start time). Mark was at checkpoint one (CP1), which I wasn't expecting, but it was good to see that one of us was organised. I walked up a few of the little bumps that the other runners jogged up (but didn't lose any time in doing so) and was careful not to lose my footing on Hamburger Hill as I came back to the school. I am no fleet-footed mountain goat! It was a perfect morning for running - the skies were clear and it was cool but not cold. I felt good, but uncertain about my pace.

As I came back into the school, I shed my long sleeved shirt and grabbed some blue Powerade from Mark. I didn't know the distances between CPs so there was no point in checking my time, but Mark was worried that I was going too fast already. I didn't think so, but given that my goals were so humble (to start, to finish, to run 30km of it and to smile), I was happy to take his advice, and slow down.

The ultra runner that I had been chatting to stopped for a nature call, so I kept going at my steady pace. Before too long, I met up with Joe, who was doing the 100 mile race and had just come down from Mt Beerburrum. He had a great plan and from the very start, I was 100% certain he was going to finish. I asked him if he was keen on walking up hills with me, and he thought that was a great idea. Soon enough we came out on one of the roads I remembered from the Glasshouse 25km back in July, which I knew had a hill leading to CP3... and when we got to the hill, we walked.

I was surprised that I was already out of water. Mark topped me up (fortunately my bladder wasn't leaking this time, as it would've made my bum wet - yes, have a laugh), and I grabbed some more Enervit GT, which seemed far more appetising than my gels. I stuck with Joe for the next section, which was singletrack and then went back out onto forestry roads... and then I stuck with him further!

There are a lot of race-occurrences mixed in my memory... where and when did they happen? I know that Rob passed me somewhere between CPs 3 and 4, and he looked really strong and comfortable. By the time I got to CP4, I was getting hotspots under my arches. The Mizuno Wave Inspire seems to have a slightly straighter last than the Mizuno Wave Maverick that I've been wearing lately, but I hadn't wanted to wear new shoes for a trail run, because they'd get dirty! So I quickly put some BodyGlide on the sore spots while Mark put sunscreen on my shoulders.

Mark was still worried I was going to fast, but I reassured him that I had walked up the hills and was taking it easy. He warned me out that there were some rough sections going up the CP5 asI guzzled some more blue. Then I headed off after Joe, who scolded me for running up the little rise, but I wanted the company.

Mark was right - the next section was rough! There were some really deep washouts, with sections that I could barely walk/slide down. I remember standing on one crest, looking across to someon on the next section of track, level with me. He was about 20m away and there was a 5m deep hole between us! Some of the hills were so steep that, even walking up them, my heart rate (HR) jumped above my randomly-selected limit of 170 bpm! (I was wearing Mark's transmitter, as I thought his would cause less discomfort than mine, and it worked well.)

As Joe and I struggled up one particularly steep hill, we had the added insult of being photographed walking. A few other walkers also got snapped, but the photographer was at ground level and shooting down the hill at a strange angle, so we look soft. I swear, it was steep!

Near CP5, I felt a faint urge to answer the call of nature, but it didn't seem too significant, and I didn't want to detour to the lookout, so I just kept going. Joe was paying more attention than I was, and spotted the CP ahead as we came over a rise. This early warning meant that we could be seen running into the CP! Karen and Ann (Joe's wife) were there; Karen ran out to meet us.

Joe used CP5 as an opportunity for a t-shirt change, and I scoffed a sandwich and some more blue while Mark refilled my Camelbak. This was one impressive CP. The CPs are run by Brisbane Road Runners Club (BRRC) and Caboolture Road Runners, and they've got a huge spread of food - pretty much anything you could think of (but no alcohol), including strawberries, cookies, cakes, sandwiches... Having CPs manned by runners makes a huge difference, and it's one of the things that makes the Glasshouse series so good. If you had the crazy little kids like in fun runs, it'd just be Hell.

The temptation to trial everything was strong, but I resisted! I probably should've started eating solids before I got to this point, though, because my gut was feeling a bit sloshy. I decided to wait for Joe, because he was doing a very good job of keeping me relaxed and it was good to have someone to chat to. As we headed down the road, I began belching at a higher rate than previously, and it tasted like my sandwich. He laughed and belched in return. You have to do these things when you run, or it gets very uncomfortable.

Eventually he confessed that his "bum [was] causing problems," i.e. he needed to visit the bushes to relieve himself. So he pulled off the road and I kept running and pulled off further up. I couldn't actually go, but I peed and that made me feel better. I was very glad I had brought a little pack of toilet paper with me!

Somewhere on our way to CP6 (which Joe informed me was the long way, because the road would've been far more direct), we found ourselves following a crappy track up a huge hill. Absolute madness. After a couple of minutes, I told Joe that a pause sounded like a good idea. He (very rightly) powered past and told me that we would pause at the top. Not long later, he told me a pause sounded like a good idea, and I confirmed that we would pause at the top, as I powered past. When we reached the summit, we didn't pause. We kept walking, and I did a stupid dance, and told Joe that later in the day he would climb a really big hill and think about how silly my dance was.

CP6 was a bit sad, because Joe and I parted ways. That's the downside of running with someone who is actually in a different race. I told him that, despite the fact that his motivation was just to prove himself right and others wrong, he wouldn't be proving me wrong, because I believed he would finish, and I knew I'd be right! As with every CP, I replenished my Enervit GT stash, and Mark refilled my Camelbak while I drank blue and hoped that soon enough my gut would feel normal. I think I also ate some choc wheat cookie, mmmm...

There was a large downhill and then an equally large uphill out of CP6, and Mark walked with me until I turned to go deeper into the forest. He told me it was a big climb and to take it easy, and once again he was telling the truth. Soon enough I reached what was my favourite part of the run: my own powerlines. These aren't to be confused with The Powerlines, that the 100 mile runners suffered through.

I turned a corner and came out of the forest and literally gasped. I could see the road ahead for over 2km. It was gently undulating and there was a strong headwind, but what struck me most was how incredibly open the area was. The road itself was wide, but there was a several hundred metre gap in the forest. There was no one out there.

The headwind slowed me somewhat, but provided a little relief from the sun that beat down relentlessly. I felt like I was crossing a desert, but it was a beautiful experience, almost spiritual. I only stopped to walk a few of the steeper sections, maybe 200m of the entire stretch. When I reached the far end, I looked back, but I couldn't see any sign of Lady Jove. I turned back into the forest at 6a (not manned).

I took this section more slowly because my head was starting to feel fuzzy, like at Epic, and I was worried about getting lost. From this point until the end, I made a few stops to put the flagging back up in the trees. I kept taking Enervit GT and water, but the section was full of devastating hills and rough washouts that I would slip and slide down, filling my shoes with sand. My HR didn't want to slow down and I repeated found myself looking for a good, smooth MTB line down a tricky bit, instead of a nice, rough, grippy section for running.

CP5 seemed a very long way off, and I eventually recalled that the loop around CP5 was 9.2km. This was a bit of a boost, as I was pretty sure that by the time I got there, I'd have less than 15km to go. When I arrived, Mark had run down the road a bit and was looking very worried. I was suffering from the heat, especially now that the wind was at my back. I washed myself down with some ice water at the aid station and went through the usual routine with one addition - a sock change. I couldn't believe how much sand I had collected.

As I ran past the lookout, I began to get my strong mental state back. This was probably a combination of consuming more salt and sugar, together with hitting a section that I had run up during an intense training session last year. I ran through the forest alone and, aware that my brain was still a little fuzzy, I made sure I concentrated at every intersection, but let my mind wander in between. By this stage, running was a lot less painful than walking, but I didn't want to finish weakly, so I still took walk breaks.

Mark met me at CP4a, which also wasn't manned, to check that I knew where I was going and to point out some of the harder-to-spot turnoffs, and I suspect to help me cross the road. I figure he knew the sort of state I was in. He still looked worried, but at the same time he was confident enough that he didn't feel the need to tell me I could make it. That was good, because I also knew I could make it. He told me I had about 6km to go, but I think it was more than that. Either way, I was past a marathon, and on the home stretch.

The 4WD tracks were nice and dry this time, unlike when I did the Glasshouse 25km, and this did wonders for my mood. I guess the dirt bike riders had been through, because I found quite a few bits of tape on the ground, which I hung back up. It was obvious to me where to go next, but it wasn't just Lady Jove behind me (who I later found out had been harrassed by some wankers in 4WDs) but all the 100 mile runners who would be running through the night.

At CP1a, which was manned, I got offered sports drink and all sorts of lovely snacks, but I just wanted the same things I'd been having, including a water top-up. I told Mark to have my towel wet, cold, and ready at the finish line, because the heat was seriously getting to me, but I didn't want to run in my crop top because of the likelihood of developing sunburn. This time around, I didn't even come close to getting lost in the Macadamias, and I didn't doubt myself. Hamburger Hill didn't even scare me. And when I reached the cemetary (I considered a lie down...) I remembered from last time that I was about half a kilometre from the school gate.

About 100m up the road, I saw Karen. She ran up to me and ran with me to the school gate, to point me in the right direction to the finish line. And she did it just perfectly! She didn't try to make me run faster (it pisses me off when people do that - if I could run faster, don't you think I would?!) and she explained to me how I had to run around the witches hats on the oval. It was like having an angel to guide me home and I nearly cried, because I knew it was almost over and I had made it.


I had fumbled with my HRM at the start and didn't actually start the watch until about ten minutes into the run, so I didn't bother using it. As I crossed the finish line, I called out to ask if I had broken 7 hours. I did - 6:48:02 was my official finishing time. (Although if you subtract the 30 seconds for the late start... hahaha!)

Phase 3: Post race recovery

Mark had my towel ready and cold and draped it over me; someone was shoving a barbeque ticket in my hand; soon a woman asked me if I wanted a cold shower, and once my shoes were off, they sat me in a chair and washed me down using a garden hose with a shower attachment. It was heaven! It felt so good on my head and on my legs - it was just what I needed.

The thought of the barbeque seemed horrible! I drank some more blue and found a towel to dry off with, and took a suck of some Ventolin (I had taken a puff out on the course, also). About three minutes later, it was time for a burger. I have never tasted a burger so good. (They are very good burgers, but they taste even better after an ultra!) I couldn't get enough of the beetroot - it was the right combination of sweet and salted and preserved for my gut's interesting state. I attempted to buy a second burger but they gave it to me for free - it worked out well, because they were running out of strawberries (which I passed on), but they had plenty of burger action still happening.

I chatted to the other finishers, who were well ahead of me... Adrian had won in a time of 4:36:52, not far ahead of first-time ultra runner Dom (4:37:39), and Tamsin won the women's race (5:18:48). Tamsin was really inspiring because apparently she's appalling at downhill running, which means that my lack of skill in that department isn't really too much of a disadvantage. One lady came up to me and commented on how fresh I looked, not at all like I had run 50km. I pointed out that I hadn't run 50km - I'd walked some of it! She laughed.

We heard that Lady Jove was still two hours away, so Mark drove me out to CP7 where we saw David Waugh (the leader and eventual winner in18:17:09) run through, looking clear and sounding coherent, even after 86km (approx). Soon enough Karen and Adrian joined us. Rob came through looking really strong, and happy, and I was very impressed at his effort.

When Nic and AB ran through, they looked pretty sore. Chook was amazing, taking care of AB. She's so cool, calm and collected all the time, that one has to wonder how someone like AB can have such a well-adjusted sister. AB was ill already and later he was throwing up pretty badly and had chills; he withdrew at the same checkpoint as last year. It will be a huge mental barrier for him next year, but I have this feeling that next year he'll have no worries. When a race really matters, it's often harder to pull out than to keep going, even though it's the smart/only thing to do.

On the way back to the school, we pulled up to chat to Chook and her parents for a few minutes. It must've been hard for her, being in the middle! She did a great job, though, and it's lovely to see siblings that love each other so openly. Back at the school, we saw the 100km winner, Shaun Cooper, finish in 9:57:21. He didn't even look like he was hurting... not even a little bit!

After chatting to Lady Jove (who finished in 8:56:59) and Arnstein (5:30:55), it was time for me to guzzle a coffee and head back to work. I would've loved to have stayed all night, supporting the heroes and helping the wounded. I kept texting Joe throughout the night, and Mark kept providing race updates, but it still hurt to not be there at the finish. It also hurt to not be able to drink beer!

Phase 4: the verdict

I reached all my goals. I finished strong, and am recovering well. I think it's a fine balance between taking it easy and taking it too slowly and I'm not sure which side of the line I was on. I think if I go faster next time, the extra effort will be balanced out by the benefit of not being in the sun for so long. I think that I should've started eating solid foods earlier... I definitely should've started the race earlier (oops!) but I ran really, really well. I can't wait for my next ultra... yep, I am definitely feralultrarunnerTam!

Now I really have to get to work! I'll post photos soon.

Eating pikelets, mmmm...

I'm pigging out on pikelets at the moment, with lots of butter and blackberry jam, and justifying it on the grounds of being in a recovery phase. "Recovery from what?" you ask. Well, I haven't blogged that yet, because I've been so busy with stuff and things. But I'll get there, and then this post won't make any sense.

After Saturday, I went straight to work, which was very hard to do. In part, that was because I was smashed, but mostly it was because I had witnessed part of the journey of the 100 milers, and I didn't want to leave them.

I started working as soon as I walked in the door, pretty much, but fortunately we got sent to sleep at around 2300h. I kept sending Joe text messages throughout the night, about belching, dancing, and hurting. As long as he replied, I figured it was okay to send him another one later.

Katie and I went for a walk on Sunday morning; it was only for about half an hour, but it seemed to help me loosen up a lot.

Despite pacing Rob throughout the night (and therefore getting very little sleep), Mark backed up to come second in the 12km. Karen had a great run despite forgetting about pre-race nutrition, and Lady Jove even backed up from the 50km!

Oooh, apologies... I just took a break to eat a jam donut. Now I have given myself a bit of a headache and I need some water.

On Sunday night, Frenchy called to see if I wanted to come over for some DVD-watching, beer-drinking, junk-eating fun. He had done a big long trek on the weekend, and it sounded like a great way for us to refuel, so I agreed. My clothes were in the wash, so I said I'd be there once I'd hung them out.

Then Rob called. He cracks me up endlessly and is one of the people who finished the 100 mile, so I was really looking forward to hearing how he felt about it. He ended up on the wrong side of 24 hours after getting lost, which is really awful for him, but at least he knows that, had he not been lost, he would've done it. You see, 100 miles is just not enough for some feralultrarunners - some of them have to add a few extra. So I had a good laugh with Rob for about an hour and then really had to get going.

Frenchy and I watched The Extra with Jimeoin, followed by an appalling movie called Amazons and Gladiators, which was made even sillier because of watching it after a movie about struggling actors. We also consumed pizza and red wine and paid out on each other a lot. Eventually we looked at my race photos and his weekend photos and then I realised it was midnight so I drove home and crawled into bed feeling very tired.

I woke up on Monday morning and immediately began working on my résumé. This began with researching what employers want to know about me (Graduate Careers Australia had all the information I needed) ; somewhere in the middle I stressed out about whether to try a chronological, targeted or functional format. In the end, I decided to use a combination of the latter two. This took me until lunch, and when I went to print it, things went to poo somewhat with Dad's printer, so they don't look very beautiful.

I dressed for the interview and discovered that I had not washed my white shirt, so I had to change to the purple shirt. I then realised it looked hideous with the swirly skirt, so I changed skirts as well. (At least I'm sorted for tomorrow - I have my clothes ready and ironed and hanging up at uni. Tomorrow is my interview with the employer.)

So I was running late, and I had full length pantyhose on even though I was wearing a long skirt, and the blasted things wouldn't stay up. I tied my hair up in a bun very quickly and completely forgot about jewellery. I pretended to forget about makeup, but that was actually a deliberate overlooking.

I even decided to drive my car to the bus stop. I had left my bus tickets at home, so I found some coins and paid up, probably pissing off the bus driver. I had to explain to him that the $2.20 was so he could give me 50 cents change, so it was just one coin. I got into the city with enough time to grab some water and still arrive just before my scheduled appointment with the senior recruiting officer, Natalie.

Natalie was lovely. Apparently, the other candidate is from a very different background, and therefore the decision should be clear cut. Natalie also said that, with my listed skill set, she could get just about any job for me as temporary work, which I'm quite pleased with.

Afterwards, I grabbed a coffee with Mark and then headed home. I walked past a clothing shop that had a few polyester shirts hanging up and a pink, pinstriped blouse caught my attention. It fit well, so I bought it. Then as I neared my bus stop, I passed Payless Shoes, so I bought a pair of plain, black, leather court shoes. I felt very corporate.

I stopped at BiLo for some groceries, and around this time, Tim called to see what I was up to. I was pretty tired and was planning on some light training, so decided to pike.

I wasn't at home for long before heading out again to go water running/swimming with Karen/Adrian. I bought a 10 visit pass for the pool this time, as I quite like swimming indoors. I did 300-400m of water running and then took a quick toilet break. When I came back, I did 50m of backstroke, 50m of breaststroke and then 300m of freestyle without stopping. I'm wondering if I should do the Gold Coast Half Ironman Triathlon. I'm keen, but it would cost me a lot of money.

When I got home again, I waited for AB to call. We spoke for quite a while, which is strange, as he's not a phone-talkative guy. It was good to have a chat, and I think he's in an okay spot, after his DNF. Plus, it's been ages since I spoke to him. Everyone kept asking me if I'd spoken to him yet, but I really didn't know what I would say to him. In the end, it wasn't so bad.

I grabbed another coffee before bed so I still haven't changed my sheets. Then around midnight, Timmy called me because he and Son have split up, and he's not a very happy boy at the moment. I was very happy that he'd called me though, even if I wasn't first on his list.

Today has been mostly clearing my inbox and eating. I hope to get Saturday's race report done now!

Thank you, Queensland Police.

Mark and I went to the police station last night to lodge a complaint against the road rage we received yesterday. I found it very unusual that police use first names... I spoke to Michelle (I think). I explained what happened and she agreed it was inappropriate behaviour and wrote down all the details.

She made some comment about the threat of violence being difficult to charge for if there was no clear intent, i.e. if they were not actually wielding a weapon, "For example, if he said he was going to kill you and was holding a knife at the time." I said, "But he was wielding a weapon. He was threatening to run me over with his vehicle, and he was driving the vehicle at the time. He intended to use his vehicle as a weapon. Surely the law would see it that way?" She agreed with this.

I made it very clear that I am not easily intimidated and that I experience minor road rage on a daily basis; the fact that I found this event scary was a pretty good sign that a less confident/experienced rider would have ended up in a bad way. I also explained that, had I not managed to clip in quickly or had I been in a bad gear for take-off, he would've hit me.

She asked what I wanted done - did I want them to look at it as a traffic offence, eventually end up in court... I said I just wanted them to call him. I didn't think any good would've come out of taking it further... I just wanted him to know he wasn't anonymous and he wasn't getting off clean.

By the time Mark dropped me off at home, Mum was already answering the phone call from Michelle. She had phoned the offender and told him his actions were inappropriate, that it was perfectly legal for us to ride two abreast, and that what he had done was a chargeable offence.

Of course, he claimed that we had ridden around him to take the front of the lights and block him in. Now, even if we had done that, his actions would've been inappropriate and illegal. However we didn't do that - we rolled up to the lights as they turned red, and there were no other cars there at the time. And the next two cars that came along chose to use the other lane (which in hindsight is a real shame, as they seemed quite sensible and would've been nice to have as a barrier between us and the wanker).

He's now been recorded as having a complaint made against him, and he's had a nice phone call at night telling him off. I'd call it a minor success. I never wanted it to go further - if I had, I would've gotten witness details at the time of the incident.

Quick news report...

The remainder of Tuesday was rather like all Tuesdays, with me being insanely busy at work and not getting any of the returns that were sent to me by email, because I didn't get a chance to log on until very late. When I did log on, there was a hilarious message from my good mate feralultrarunnerRob! regarding his new product feralultrarunnerRob!soap-on-a-rope, which should be released as soon as the ad is made at Glasshouse this weekend.

I've been eating a lot of food to aid in recovery from the Epic and to help me prepare for Glasshouse, but I'm still hungry all the time. There's nothing I can do about it. After a three course dinner, followed by a chocolate bar and later some bar snacks, I was still tempted to cook myself a steak when I got home from work on Tuesday night! Last night I had a delicious salmon, leek and tomato risotto at Tim's place. I tried to not eat too much, but I was hungry when I got home. Just now I've been loading on Twisties and earlier on strawberries and dark chocolate melts.

Yesterday I bought a whole lot of books about writing and publishing. The Writer's Marketplace has a list of magazines, newspapers, publishers, competitions, awards, associations... pretty much everything I could need to know. I also bought books on grammar and on editing. It cost a fair bit, but I think it'll be worth it.

I went for a swim and water run yesterday and a fellow came up to me and thanked me for the heart rate advice. This confused me until I realised it must be Jimbo Jones from aus.bicycle. I wondered aloud if I was that recognisable and he pointed out that there are many pictures of me on the internet!

No one accepted my offer of secret training this morning except for Mark. It was an exciting session, to the point that Mark and I are off the the police station tonight to register a complaint. I had an irate, small-truck driver demand I get off the road, while Mark and I were waiting side by side at the traffic lights. We were there first - it's not like we had pushed through, and there was another lane anyway. He told me to get out of the way. I pointed out I was doing nothing wrong and I would not move. He said, "Fine, I'll fucking run over you," and I pointed out that such behaviour was illegal and would result in prosecution. He went on with these two statements for a bit.

When the lights changed, Mark and I did a very clean, fast take-off. Despite the fact that bikes accelerate better than trucks, this guy
revved it, laid on the horn continually. He sped up until he nearly clipped my rear wheel, then slammed on the brakes, and did this repeatedly as we crossed the intersection. Once we were across, I could move over to let him through... which would have been my intent from the start, had he asked. I yelled out to onlookers, "What the -? Did you see that? Did I deserve that?" and they looked at me blankly, except for one guy who looked pissed off... at me or at the driver? Anyway, it was a white truck, probably a Mitsubishi Canter (?) with a tray, 464DEP, happened around 0645 this morning at the Logan/Kessels Rd intersection... and we caught him before Klumpp Rd.

Finally - it turns out my MTB friend Adam knows my uni friend Andrew from way back, and they've just re-met via a mass email I sent out after Epic. Six degrees of separation... unless you know me!

It's almost home time.

More on the Epic...

My Epic photos are now online and so is Kurt's race report.

Half princess, all cavewoman!

Yesterday afternoon, I left uni early so that I could post off my entry for the Glasshouse 50km. While down at the shops, I also bought a chocolate cake, because I was hungry. I ripped into it with my hands. I am such a cavewoman. Today I brought it to uni and quickly neatened up that ragged edge so no one would know.

I went water running and swimming with Karen and Adrian yesterday evening. We went to Chandler and as I drove up near the pool all the car parks were filled... so I followed the road and ended up in a car park near the velodrome, which freaked me out because I was lost. I came up with a plan: I parked the car and started walking. Soon enough I found a map and I knew I headed in the right direction because I also found small children clad in towels and pluggers (thongs, jandals, flip-flops) getting dragged towards me by enthusiastic parents.

Karen is a really good water runner and it appears I have been misguided by people who would have me think Adrian was a shocking swimmer. I had fun, and I think I'll go again sometime.

I took a shower at the pool and the shower/toilet area was a labyrinth - I thought I would never escape! I told Adrian and Karen I had nearly gotten lost and they laughed at me, but Karen was nice enough to say that she sometimes gets lost when she goes to Chandler alone. I asked if it was only at Chandler... which cracked Adrian up, and I was lucky to get away with it.

It's still early, so I have to get some work done.

Useful word for the Epic next year...

This one by Ando:

shart
a fart that is accompanied by a little bit of shit.

Ando attempted to call us near the end of the race, as he was worried we may have sharted ourselves, and was concerned for our welfare.

I SURVIVED - Race Report: The Epic

Yesterday was the 100km Flight Centre Peppers Hidden Vale Cycle Epic and, despite my very limited skills, I did it. This is all Kurt's fault, as he's the prick who suggested it when I was drunk.
Preparation began on Friday night, when I went for a short run at uni (which seemed to clear up my cough), and then rehydrated with CoolRunning drinks at Caffe La Plaz. I met Lady Jove, who is in my age group and is also doing the Glasshouse 50km this weekend. I got to hang out with my favourite feral ultra runners, including Karen and Adrian, Steff, Mark, Rob and Tesso. We drank lots and lots of alcohol and then went to Slice for pizza and then to Verve for more alcohol. As midnight approached, I found myself at a bus stop, with Adrian singing You're The One That I Want to Karen (who was dressed a lot like Sandy in that scene in Grease).

Despite the late night, it was a moderately early morning - I was up at 0630h so I could wash all the Canesten out of my cycling knicks. Before you get too grossed out - that's Canesten antibacterial and antifungal in-wash liquid. It goes in during the final rinse but I figured out it was the cause of my saddle sores, so I was desperately re-washing my knicks. I didn't think to wash my shirt, though, and I had a rash at the end of the Epic. But I'm jumping ahead.

After washing my clothes and taking a nice hot shower, I headed to Toohey Forest to catch up with the River City Runners for breakfast. For $5 I pigged out on crumpets, toast and coffee. Mark had managed to back up for the long run and Adrian made it for a shorter run; Karen went water running but joined us for breakfast. Mark was to be my crewman for Epic, so we made plans, but of course they fell to shit later in the day and we just winged it.

I packed everything I could think of, then freaked out about my saddle and bought another one as backup, in case I had problems during the race. The guys at Riders Cyclery on Kessels Rd said I could return it if I didn't use it, which is great, because while I intend to replace the saddle anyway (it's a men's style) I'd rather take my time and test them out in shop.

Mark picked me up around 1600h and we collected Kurt, who nearly forgot our race packs. Once that was all sorted, we headed for Toowoomba. We didn't get too far before our tummies started grumbling and as we passed the rose shop at Marburg, Mark spotted coffee and decided that would be our stop. It was a sudden stop - just marginally short of a handbrakey. Once inside we decided that snacks would be good as well. Then I managed to go without food until we arrived at the Colonial in Toowoomba.

We headed straight out to dinner and the options were limitless, but we decided on Montezuma's. This had several advantages including very big portions, lots of carbs, lots of protein... and lots of sangria. It was delicious, although I thought I was going to starve until our meals were served. (They were really quick, but I was incredibly hungry.)

There was a moment of fear when Kurt chose to do handstands near the car park, and ended up performing this trick in front of a moving police car. Oh and as we ate dinner, and felt apprehensive about race day, we both half-hoped that someone would steal our bikes!

Back at the hotel, we drank some red wine and readied our gear for the morning, so we could sleep in. We read Saturday's newspapers (I normally don't manage this task until about Wednesday) and went to bed.

It was great having Mark around to help us out. In the morning, while I was showering and lubing up (love that Bodyglide!) he was making coffee and peanut butter toast for us. He drove us to the race start and then helped me adjust my seat and then lined up my rear derailleur and cleaned my chain off a bit (because I was very lazy and didn't do it on Saturday), and put my race number on. I felt like a pro cyclist - shame I can't ride like one!

I saw Hamish down near the start line but once we hit the road I didn't see him again. I also saw Brett but didn't spot Rients out there. Kurt and I started really slowly, waving for Ando (who was doing official photography) and Mark (taking the funny photos, which you'll see later), and generally just cruising. I knew the first 25km was supposed to be highly technical (and 100km is a long, long way), so Kurt and I were just happy to cruise up the first big hill, which was bitumen.
The first shock to the system was a massive, rocky climb. I made it only a few metres before bailing. I let a bit of air out of my front tyre as well, because it had been bouncing a bit. Now, what else can I remember about the first stage... cramping calves as we pushed our bikes up steep, loose slopes... the steep descent where a guy sped up behind me and didn't call track and absolutely freaked me out... the creek crossings... "This section of track is brought to you by the pricks at iRC tire"... carrying my bike up sections of rock so steep I had to hang onto a tree... getting my leg scratched open by Canungra-style Lantana... scraping mud out of my cleats... riding through and over stuff I never thought I could, just because Kurt said to, and Lady Luck was on my side... a brief pause for a GU...

Somewhere in there, Kurt had a bit of a stack over some rock. His bike hit him in the helmet and we didn't notice until after the race, but it was pretty messed up. He'll need a new one. He also knocked his knee - the same one he did a few weeks ago at Daisy Hill. Ouch!

... oh yeah, my final memory of the first stage? I made it all that way, and then hit my bars on one of the star pickets as I entered checkpoint 1, and stacked it. I nearly wet myself, I was laughing so hard - I brought down half of the bunting. The volunteers were all worried about me and I couldn't stop laughing. I nearly cried, however, when I saw that Mark wasn't there. I really wanted my peanut butter sandwich. I figured he'd just decided we couldn't possibly be that slow, and had headed further along the course to meet us; I was correct!

A quick toilet stop (which would've been very messy if I hadn't brought my own paper, because by the time we arrived they were all out!) and we were back on the road. It was a bit of a climb to start with, but Kurt was doing really well. So well, in fact, I had to tell him to slow down, because I thought I was about to pull a heartilage or maybe bust a gut! Soon after, I gave in and took some Ventolin. I was wheezing like a... wheezy thing. From this point on, the major climbs involved a bit of walking - but we nearly always managed to get back on again.

Once we were out of CP1, we started seeing people again. Kurt kept pushing me through stuff that I wouldn't have done on my own. He kept yelling at me, "Just take it fast, you'll be fine," and I did, and I made most of them. Sometimes I was geared badly and had to bail before uphill bits. Once I missed a line so badly I hit a low rock dead on, and my wheel flicked left. I threw my weight left in an attempt to recover and was saved by another low rock that flicked me back on line again. And I squealed the whole damn way. So basically I was just lucky. In some sections I bailed part way, but I always did way more than I thought I was capable of... and I also bailed far more effectively than normal, i.e. I actually managed to unclip and land a foot.

Mark met us before we reached CP2 - he had worked his way back to find us, and had picked up a rider with GI upset as well. I grabbed my bidon with blue Powerade in it (mmmm, blue) because I just wasn't enjoying the GU2O anymore. We rode pretty well to CP2 but they were still packing up before we headed out. I enjoyed a slice of bread with peanut butter and some choc wheat cookies. On the open road, I was kicking arse, and from the 60km mark I was feeling awesome.

Kurt said we were hitting 38km/h on some of the open sections - this was my chance to give something back, after he'd coaxed me through the first sections. Basically, he sat on my wheel, except for on big descents, where I like to brake early because I know I've got small, weak hands and a tendency to get the death wobbles. We also picked up another bloke and let him wheelsuck for a while. Of course Kurt did some turns so I could rest, but being more of a MTBer, he didn't deal with the flat, constant sections as well as I did. He learned very quickly to tell me immediately if I dropped him a bit, so we had no worries keeping it together and we caught quite a few "rabbits" along these stages.

Coming out of the third CP (where I'd made another toilet stop and Mark had refuelled us with more blue Powerade and peanut butter sandwiches) we quickly passed people but Kurt cramped up so I had to slow down to give him some Enervit tablets, which are just about the best thing in the world for cramps.

Before too long we found ourselves walking up a big hill, and then catching a guy in an amazing yellow shirt and fluoro socks. He was 61 years old, had taken up cycling in December and was bloody fit. He had a nice dual-suspension MTB and did a demo for us, where he dropped it from up high and it didn't bounce. As soon as we started descending, he was long gone (because he descends like a man, and I descend like a nanna).

At the 10km to go mark, I was confidently flying along (we had passed some more people at this stage, and devastated them in the process)... I even changed gears the wrong way and ended up crunching up a hill in the big ring without too much pain - a sign that I had done very well with my race nutrition (lots of sports drink, lots of water, peanut butter sandwiches, half a PowerBar, and 1x Hammer Gel plus 2x GU sachets).

With 8km to go, we got sent off the bitumen again and my body was devastated. Kurt and I were both struggling to get out of granny gear on the flat. When the ground started to rise, it didn't make much difference - until we had to get over small logs and had no speed to use! Eventually we started pushing again (yes, next to the bikes, not on them!) but it was largely because when it flattened out, it was rocky, and there was a big edge... and I didn't want to fall off and die! At this stage, my brain was getting a bit fuzzy.

I suggested another gel, because walking would give us time for it to kick it, and this time I took the Honey Stinger, which was pretty much an instant hit. We crested the hill and started riding... looking at more hills in the distance. On one of the smaller bumps (after a grassy descent that I managed easily), the volunteer at the point said, "You're the first guys to ride up this hill in ages - everyone has been walking!" and we thought that was very tragic, because I'd managed it even with my chain skipping.

Right near the very end, when we thought it was all over, we found little rocks. Nasty little ones, because I no longer had the mental ability to recover when I hit them. We managed to remount before arriving at the finish line, and got happy-snapped side by side, in just over eight hours. And we weren't last! And I hadn't injured myself!

Other vague recollections... disgusting people had dropped gel packets and water bottles all over the course... I gave a girl tips on how to ride more efficiently on the bitumen - she was good offroad... Kurt's back wheel falling off (maybe the wing nut got flicked open by something?) fortunately on an uphill section... Kurt telling me that he'd be "too tired to fuck [me] right now, even if [he] wanted to" and me responding that I'd be too tired to lie there... somehow getting off my bike but not stopping the bike and having the nose of the saddle jab my butt cheek, bruising it... still being able to do the splits after the race, and run around when I got home... Mark giving us beer at the finish... Ando giving me one of the unclaimed prizes, because my stack must've been the best for the day... Kurt doing a brilliant mono and then stacking for no reason at all... passing the Duff residence and bursting into song: "Duff beer for me, Duff beer for you, I'll have a Duff, you'll have one too"...

I'm sure I'll come up with so much more, but for now that's all I can say. It was hard, but I couldn't believe how good I still felt after so many hours on the bike. I am so much fitter than I thought... and I have not relapsed into my cold today, but am feeling much better. My legs aren't sore (I've been taking stairs instead of the elevator) and I'm in a much better mental state for Glasshouse next weekend.

Update: my official time (and Kurt's) was 8:02:35 and you can see the rest of the pictures here.

On the prowl...

Sorry for not blogging sooner. I have been job hunting. It has been difficult, because I don't even know what I want. Enough on that, though, let me tell you about the events of the last 24hrs or so.

I got a massage from Scott yesterday. We always spin shit for the entire hour. (For non-Australians, this means talk about crap that may not be true.) One of the highlights of the conversation this time was the news that, despite the fact that Scott doesn't get sex very often (he's married, with three kids), I have managed to send him a text message while he was having sex... on three different occasions! Eventually he decided that I should text him more often.

Last night I had dinner at Tim's place before heading to Stones Corner for some beer and live music. Dinner was amazing - thanks Tim! We (Tim, Gabriella and I) had seasoned Atlantic salmon, mashed potato and vegetables. I had a look at some of Tim's photos and it was pretty funny to point out to him that (for example) when his under-15 footy team photo was taken, I was three years old. Does that make me feel young? Or does it make him feel old? I don't know, but all my friends are older than me, it seems. After dinner, Tim drove us to the T-Bar at the Stones Corner Hotel, with a few stops on the way to pick up people and drop off a surfboard.

It's my first time at the venue, and it was an open mic night. There was some talent and then some distinct lack of talent... but I went and chatted to the guy who runs it. His name is Sam, and he said that if I'm there by 8pm I should get a slot on the lineup. So I decided that Kurt and I will have a go... maybe in a fortnight. Sam also played coaster-flipping games with us, and asked for my phone number. Or, more accurately, he asked, "Should I ask for your phone number now, or in two weeks' time?"

Tim drove me to the Busway station, which was ridiculous, because it was only a few hundred metres up the road. There were some drug-fucked losers hassling us for a ride but eventually I got to the bus stop only to find that my bus route doesn't actually stop there. (I'd had the sneaking suspicion since early afternoon that this was the case.) So I used my backup plan - I jumped off the bus at a later stop, and fortunately my bus route did stop at this one and I hadn't missed the last bus. *Phew*

So it was a late night and a not-very-late start today. Dad offered me a lift into the city, where I was planning on meeting Mark for breakfast at 0730h. We had plenty of time... until Dad needed cash from the bank... then needed fuel... then drove past his job site but got stuck behind a truck... and so on. Fortunately Mark is patient, and it was fun sneaking up behind him - he figured I'd be on a bike or on a bus, but I came from the opposite side of the GPO.

Breakfast was delicious also. I can't remember the last time I ate at home, come to think of it. Anyway, I had fruit and nut toast with honey and cheese (mmmm) and a whole lot of coffee and it put me in a great mood for the rest of the morning. My morning was spent on important jobs such as replying to email, drinking juice, and being social. Then I had hot chips for lunch. I am going to get fat at this rate! Actually, I could do with another coffee now...

I've been coughing all day; I think the air conditioning is irritating it. Anyway I haven't got much to report on, except perhaps I should mention that someone on CoolRunning is asking for photos of me and I know about it!!! (Hahahaha! just trying to cause some embarrassment, that's all.)