Freakin' hot - Race Report: Brisbane Half Marathon

The day dawned warm (not hot) but very, very humid. I had all my race gear packed and ready, so I took a quick shower, ate some toast, got dressed in my cycling gear, and jumped straight on the bike for the easy roll down to the race. Southbank is only a 20 minute ride from home, so it was a great warm up. Once I arrived at our team tent, I headed for the nearest toilet block to get changed into my race gear and take care of the other necessary pre-race activities.

It was to be a hard day at the office. When the half marathon started at 0630, it was already 19.5 degrees Celsius and sitting at 93% relative humidity. It only took me until the Goodwill Bridge (1km mark) to decide that the 5min/km pace wasn't going to help me get a PB of better than 1:35. (Incidentally, the Goodwill Bridge felt more like Mt Coot-tha.) I decided to just go with the flow, but I worked hard the whole way to keep on that pain threshold and not "ease off" like I've done in the past.

It was actually amusing, in a way - my heart and lungs were doing just fine, and I was taking six steps per breathing cycle, but I just couldn't make my legs go faster. I'd like to blame the poor performance on the big MTB race last weekend, but the others backed up okay from Canberra. I also would like to blame the humidity, but I'm a local girl, and it wasn't too bad, since the sun never came out. I'd say it's more likely to be to the grand total number of training runs I've done since Six Foot Track: 1 x 25km and 1 x 2.5km ;)

Despite the course being narrow, it spread out more quickly than in previous years, and the race director from Intraining had clearly taken the CoolRunners' comments on board and had plenty of volunteers controlling the traffic - although when some marathoners were stopped to allow us to cross their path near the finish, I thought that was a bit silly.

Anyway, I pushed on through the race and came through with a 1:40:42 by my watch, and a 1:40:41 officially, which although not a great run time, is evidence that I've gotten the hang of using my stopwatch. I really shouldn't complain about my time though - I've only been faster than that twice, on faster courses, and I didn't really train for it...

Speaking of the humidity, it was still around 85% when I was finishing up, and over 21 degrees C. Nice conditions... not - every day before or since has been much cooler! But like I said, at least the sun didn't torture us as well.

My friends did really well in the full marathon, with Rob coming from behind to beat both Adrian and Siri to the finish, and Siri winning the women's race (only 15 minutes slower than last month's PB, which placed her fourth in Canberra - clear the conditions were nasty). Mark (from uni) came second overall.

Steven only just made it down for my finish, and he managed to take a really unattractive photo of me:



Later, as I watched Charlie in the playground, I saw CR Lady Jove running along the boardwalk and gave her a big cheer. She said I was almost as loud as Clairie - but no one is as loud as Clairie ;) We skipped out on presentations and went to breakfast instead, which was a bit of an ordeal. I needed a nap after the race, and I was sore for the rest of the week - far more sore than after Caboolture!

Other people's race reports are here.

The race was also our work State of Origin competition, and we Queenslanders won it - only to later be relegated when a semi-colon was amended to a colon in the results table.

Maple syrup...

We went to get maple syrup last night.

I recounted a story from a few years ago, when a former housemate told
us he was gay, and then a few days later I had to get maple syrup and
the two on offer were "Queen" and "Camp" brands, which I found
hilarious, and so did my housemate.

Well as we looked on the shelves last night, and ignored the maple
flavoured syrups in favour of the real thing, we discovered there's a
new addition, which is mostly maple syrup but has a little maple
flavouring in it: "Steve's."

Steven was horrified.

Did I mention I made pancakes for breakfast?

Why do I feel so good?

My legs felt so damn fresh yesterday that I couldn't believe it. (Lotte
was looking fresh too.) It lasted all the way home and I averaged a very
high speed (for me, not Lance). I have this theory that the way I raced
on the weekend (ride one lap, rest for a bit while eating lots) is
actually the ultimate carbo-loading plan. My legs felt so good that I
decided to ride my bike to the shops rather than walk. Yay!

Learning how to corner... Race Report: Merida 24Hr Weekend Warrior Mountain Bike Race, 22-23 April 2006

In the leadup to the race, I used my weeknights wisely... well, for the most part. I put on some new tyres (Continenetal Vapors, which were awesome), charged my lights, replaced my front brake blocks... I never actually got out for a night ride, though, nor did I pack everything for the race. And so on Friday night, I was still attempting to get organised. I then believed Steven when he said I wouldn't need to get up early, and as a result we got a very late and disorganised start on Saturday morning, not leaving until after 0900h or something.

Charlie and I enjoyed leftover cold pizza for breakfast on the way down. He then proceeded to repeatedly yawn and tell us how tired he was - well, no wonder, after having woken up so many times in the night (and waking us up in the process). He started to get cranky while I tried my best to stop stressing about whether I was going to make registration. The cutoff time was 1100h. I figured that even if I got nothing else sorted, as long as I was registered and dressed, I could ride. I got to the race venue and registered with about 15 minutes to spare, and confirmed the location of soloist tents. (The idea being that soloists are separated from the noisier teams, so we can sleep if we need to.)

While I went to the toilet, Steven unloaded the car. Then I set up the tent while he moved the car back out of the area - he had to take Charlie home later and so he didn't want to end up parked in by tents and vehicles, which was an apparent possibility, as all the corporate marquee people had parked their cars in the solo area as well. Charlie was starting to be a brat, going in the tent with his shoes on after I told him not to, and looking very proud of it. I got pissed off at Steven for not making Charlie get out of the tent, and then I told Charlie he was bad, he had to get out of my tent straight away, and he was never allowed back in my tent.

By this stage I was sweating badly, getting dehydrated, and still tired from a big week of not enough sleep. I was rifling through one of the bags, trying to find my gear. It was at this point that Charlie picked up the football and, ignoring Steven's immediate, "Don't kick it," he promptly kicked it straight into my head. It really hurt, lots. It shoved my sunnies right back into my eye and my vision was blurred for about ten minutes. It also scratched my sunnies, and my face puffed up and bruised. I walked away saying, "Thanks for that, Charlie, that's just what I need ten minutes before my race."

I had to walk away because it was very tempting to clip him over the ears, but he's not my kid, so I can't. Charlie didn't say sorry, he just looked at me funny, so when I turned back, I told him he was a horrible little boy for kicking the ball at my face when his Daddy just told him not to, that he had hurt me a lot, and that a nice boy would have said sorry, but he clearly wasn't a nice boy. That got him screaming but frankly, I didn't give a sh!t. I really hate it when kids blame someone else for something bad that happens when they're disobedient. I was just waiting for him to start up on the rant about how I should say sorry to him for being mean, but fortunately he never did. He did, however, keep whinging right up until the race started, refusing to put sunscreen on, and so on. Later, our neighbours even commented on how cranky he was!

He did, however, very sincerely suggest that I should put his training wheels on my mountain bike. It was so cute, and so scarily intelligent... he hasn't even seen me ride! If Steven had asked, he would've copped a slap to the face, but Charlie just got a giggle and a thanks but no thanks... or more accurately, a "Thanks, but Daddy didn't bring them."

So eventually, I got everything organised, but I still felt ridiculously flustered and stressed out for someone about to start a race. I hate feeling like that. The race briefing started late, and I was appalled to discover that, not only did I fail to win the random draw NiteRider lights, I also failed to win the random draw Merida bike! The horror! I really could've done with that money...

The start was the usual Le Mans style, with competitors lining up their bikes against the side of the course and running up to them. I found a post to lean mine on, but some fellow up there decided to help anyway, holding it so it wouldn't fall over, which was really nice. I went to the back of the runners, figuring the teams would all be sprinting to the start. There I met a whole lot of 24 hour solo riders who were also planning on taking the start easy. I walked the entire way up to my bike, except the few metres where I passed Charlie - I knew better than to walk there!

I approached my first lap with some caution, figuring I had plenty of time to get my head around it. The same climb started the course, and I already knew how best to get up the little steep bumps. The washed-out part of the climb that I knew so well from the 6hr race was all different - this time, the easiest line was up the right instead of up the left. The same sweet drop-off followed the grassy section... as I rolled through, a lot of it looked like the 6hr course, except some of the short, tight descents had been cut wider, to give more space for the pedals.

In some places, rocks had been painted for clarity at night. The old "steep nasty bit just past the grassy curve" was there and I stuffed it nearly every lap. There was a new section called "the Alps" (which I think replaced an old section that was completely washed out), which was quite steep with a few nasty switchbacks and one that I managed to get right. One of my favourite bits was just after a small climb, where competitors turned a corner to discover a small log pile, and then on the next bend there were some larger rocks. These rocks pretty much threw you around the corner if you could hit them in the right spot. (At one point, I hit the wrong spot, and it pretty much threw me into the bushes.)

The little diagonal rock was still there, on one of the hillside sections of narrow singletrack - it's easy to ride across, but if you stuff it you'll roll down the hill - but as the day grew on, it was to get harder to line up, as the dirt loosened and rocks (and more specifically rock edges) became exposed. The little steep S-bend was just as much fun as ever, I psyched myself up and went for it, as I did the little hairpin in a particularly fun section through the trees.

I stuck with the high track where it split, as in previous years... early on this was good fun, but later it got trickier in a particularly loose section where they rejoined. I tried hard to memorise the sections I could fly along without fear of losing it, and without a doubt my favourite section was the last main descent before the finish - it's a bit bumpy but a really firm surface, and you hit a hairpin at the bottom and then just loop through some flat stuff to another hairpin, then the bridge and the finish. Oh, and I loved the corner just after the bridge, where the line is so well cut that even someone with no skills (yes, me) can fly through the corner at 40km/h.

So anyway, I finished my first lap in about 45 minutes, all hot and sweaty in my ADFCC Mont 2005 jersey and my oldest cycling knicks, but really happy with the course and confident that I'd be able to do it. Not wanting to rush things, I enjoyed a large serving of carbs and protein and then some sports drink, with my feet up. Just before my hour was up, I headed out for another lap. The second lap was much the same as the first, only a little bit faster, and the third was also good. I made one or two gumby errors but was pretty much getting everything right. I was in third place (of three - originally there were two, but there was a late entry).

I continued to sit down at the end of each lap. After three or four laps, Steven left to take Charlie home and I headed out on my next lap. I turned a corner up the hill at the start and my chain made a horrible noise. I tried to shift it but it went nowhere and then fell off on the front. I jumped off to have a put it back on but upon closer inspection I discovered there was a link that had been twisted through almost 90 degrees. There was no way this chain would go back on! Having no chain tool with me (because I'd forgotten it), I had to run back to the start. Fortunately I'd only ridden a few hundred metres into the lap, but there was also a shortcut back down to the transition area, so I ran straight back down. But Steven was well and truly gone, so it was a matter of finding my credit card and visiting the mechanic tent.

They were pretty quick, and my mate Craig was hanging around, seeing how I was going. I kept the dodgy chain and then went out on my next lap quickly. As I arrived back, it was almost dark, and I quickly squished in one more before full dark. During this lap I got a small native been in my helmet, which was interesting. I tried to pull up but people were very close behind me and it was a bit narrow, so I had to ride a few hundred metres with said "bee in my bonnet". I got him out without being stung, though.

I then took a decent sized rest, to eat some creamed rice and drink an Up'n'Go and chat to mates like Hamish and Simon who were off with the teams. Eventually I psyched myself back up, put my lights on (Sigmas on the handlebars, but only one light on, courtesy of Steven, and the NiteRider HID on my helmet courtesy of the Australian Defence Force), and faced the darkness.

The lights in the trees looked so pretty, although the dust was up quite a bit and the course was deteriorating rapidly. I took it a bit easier and made a couple of mistakes on the course, mostly through lack of confidence. However, I made it through unscathed, but slowly, moreso from pulling off to the side to let faster riders through. When I arrived back at the race area, I spoke to Steven on the phone, and he said he would bring me pizza from Beaudesert. So I went out for one more lap, so I could enjoy the pizza when I got back. It was pretty cold by this stage, so I headed out with armwarmers and a vest and full gloves, and I think also my earwarmers.

On my second lap that night, I took it faster and I made it through some of the tough sections without any close calls. The promise of pizza was really driving me on. I suddenly noticed that I had less light, and realised Steven's lights had gone to sleep and weren't coming back. I didn't even think to turn up the intensity on the NiteRiders, which were on the lowest of three settings. I probably should've done that but I just kept riding and I was fine. I noticed strange things happening as I rode at night. I stopped worrying so much about the line I was taking, and just let the bike react a bit more. Also, as I nearly lost it on one hairpin turn, I threw out my inside foot and pushed off, but I didn't touch the brakes. I've never done that before, but I guess it's a pretty natural instict.

Check out those quads!

So the pizza went down really well, although Ross, the soloist in second place, didn't look keen on joining us. After dinner, I got changed into some shorts and a thermal shirt, and went to bed. I suppose this sounds like a really soft option. But I wasn't really prepared for this race at all. Fitness wise, I was fine. But with moving house and then having Charlie around on the night before the race, I was so sleep deprived that I was on the verge of falling asleep as soon as I sat down. At Caboolture, it wasn't a problem for me. But when I get tired on the MTB, I make mistakes, and this race wasn't important enough for me to risk a broken collarbone when my goal for this year is the Glasshouse Series. So I went to bed. Steven put my battery packs on to charge and then he joined me.

So I was in bed by 2300h and set my alarm for 0400h. This way I'd have breakfast and be riding by 0430. When I got up, it was so damn cold that I went for a lap in a vest, armwarmers, legwarmers, earwarmers and full gloves - and I was still cold when I started! I was using fresh knicks so I reapplied my SportShield. I wore fresh socks but I threw the same jersey back on, just because I could.

Heading out on a night lap.

Having all the lights back on was great. I handled this lap okay, but I was still finding the night riding a bit stressful and I decided to have more to eat and then get back out there as soon as the sun was up. I asked Steven to pass me a can of creamed rice out of the tent, and he did. It wasn't until I opened it that I realised he'd handed me a can of baked beans instead. Yuck! I struggled through. He got up shortly after and had a plunger coffee ready for me at the end of the next lap.

Spot the Queenslander... a very cold morning!

In all, I only did three night laps. I got back out there in the morning and pumped out a few more laps. My legs were starting to cramp up badly but the most interesting problem I encountered was on my last lap, when my forearms were aching. People were telling me to relax but that wasn't the problem - they hurt when I relaxed. The ground was so bumpy that the wobbling action on my forearms was pure agony! I met Andrew Bell (the eventual winner and all-round nice guy) at checkpoint 2 where he was taking a rest and enjoying a drink. He had taken to getting in and out of transition as quickly as possible because the announcer, Stu, kept hassling him. I had a chat and he and his mate said I should get a duallie for these enduros. That was probably a good point, but then again, some skills would probably help me more...

I was already deciding it was my last lap, based on the fact I was getting unco (and some of the team riders were getting very aggressive now, pretty much bullying me off the track when I was going slower to take a corner, etc). One guy had offered me advice to take a section faster so I didn't notice the bumps. That sounded silly as the bumps were actually throwing my steering worse at high speed... but I tried it on my second last lap and stacked it, so on the last lap I took it easier! To my credit, I never bailed on the big descent. When Steven came up to take a photo, I got cranky - he only came for pictures on the scary bits, it seems! So I was stressed and not wanting distraction.

When I finished that lap it was a bit before 1100h. I could have done an extra lap, and been back in time to go out for one more. But I really didn't think I had it in me technically, and I really didn't want to get injured. So I stopped, having done 12 laps, 120km, with 2760m of climbing. Andrew Bell, the winner (no relation), did 400km - and two trackstand competitions! (We later discovered he is a Melbourne cycle courier.)

I went up to the hotel area and took a shower. The Kooralbyn Resort is really good like this, that all competitors can take showers in the spa area. I investigated the damage and found nothing but a small bruise and scratch on my left thigh, a small scratch on my right calf, and lots of dirt. My sit bones were bruised! But I had zero chafing, which is a damn fine achievement for SportShield.

Back at the presentations, they didn't give me a shield for third because of the late entry, but I did receive one Maxxis Larsen TT tyre, which is supposed to be awesome (though I'll have to buy it a partner), a chain degreasing unit (which works well) and a track pump. So I guess I won back my entry fee! I ran into Derek, who I had met at my first ever MTB race. He commented on how far I had come since he met me, and reminded me of the very mysterious chain-ring tattoo I'd received on my forearm that race. I never could explain that one, although it must've been one hell of a gumby stack.

During the race, I ate so much food, and it was all normal solids. I ate crumpets with jam, cookies, watermelon, apples, salami and pepperoni sticks, creamed rice, baked beans, tinned spaghetti, pizza, LA Ice Cola, sports drinks and water, sandwiches, rice crackers... it was great! I guess I did really well in all aspects except the race plan. My race plan basically consisted of doing what I could and hoping my competitors got mechanicals ;)

Anyway it was a great day, and I really love those events. The Cycling News race report is here and I even got my photo in it!

The TWP website has more details on the race. The following links are to the official race photographer's site:

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The day draws near...

24 hours for the race...
24 beers in a carton...
Coincidence? Methinks not!

[Fwd: ABC - NewsMail]

I just wanted to put this on my blog, because I found it pretty
inspiring. It's taken from ABC NewsMail, 20 April 2006:

*Flying Milton breaks Australian speed record*

Champion Paralympic skier Michael Milton has rewritten the records books
once again, becoming the fastest-ever Australian speed skier.

The one-legged athlete set a speed of just over 213 kilometres per hour
in France overnight, breaking able-bodied Nick Kirshner's record of
212.26km/hr.

Milton was already the fastest man on one leg, clocking 210.4 kilometres
per hour in April last year.

Milton ended his Paralympic career with an historic 11th medal at the
Turin Games in Italy earlier this year.

The five-time Paralympian first represented Australia at age 14 after
losing his leg to cancer at the age of 9, and took gold in Albertville
in 1992, 10 years before Steven Bradbury and Alisa Camplin.

His 11 medals include six gold. He has rubbed shoulders with the world's
sporting elite, named World Athlete of the Year with a disability at the
glittering 2002 Laureus sports awards dinner in Monte Carlo.

He has also successfully climbed Mount Kilimanjaro, all 5,895 metres of
it, battling dust storms in minus 17 degrees Celsius while walking on
crutches to reach the summit.

He wound up his last Games with a silver in the downhill - his favourite
event - at Turin.

Untidy...

My ride was fun, I got a bit fired up for a while and sped off at 34km/h
with some guy on my wheel (yes that's fast for me), but then I decided I
should take it easy given the looming race.

Before I left home, I put away all the clean dishes and discovered that
some of the dishes didn't get cleaned properly, I think we will have to
give up on the idea of putting pots in the dishwasher. I got dressed in
commuter type clothes (Nike "You're the Run That I Want" fluoro yellow
race shirt, Body Torque knicks that are brand new and tiny, but comfy
enough) and packed a bag with my salad and sandwich in a plastic bag, my
wallet, phone, keys, etc.

When I got to uni, I discovered the lid was not on my salad properly and
the oil spilled throughout the plastic bag and on my sandwich, and
through the rest of my bag onto my wallet, phone, keys, etc. It seems to
have washed off okay (though I didn't wash the sandwich, I just
rewrapped that).

In good news, I got 2 cycling jerseys in the mail from ADFCA (not ADFCC
- this is the association, not the club) for the race, an XS and an S,
so I can purchase both, or send back one that doesn't fit. Andrew
express posted it to me, which was good of him, given that the race
starts on Saturday, and today is Thursday.

Freaky move...

Okay, so we moved into the new place... which has proven to take longer
than expected, particularly as we chose to do it over Easter, so that
when we discovered we needed more shelves, we couldn't buy any, etc.
That's not the freaky thing. The freaky thing is that the neighbours
have been introducing themselves. So far I have met James and Nina, I
think. Imagine that - moving into a building where the people are
friendly and introduce themselves! At Patrick Lane, I only knew Russ and
Johnno from next door, and at Sisley St I didn't know anyone in the
building except my flatmates.

So after my wonderful run on Wednesday night, which left me in an
incredibly good mood, I got up bright and early on Thursday morning to
help Michelle through her fitness test. She failed the sit ups but did
the 2.4km run in 13:13, when she has 14:18 allocated to do it. This is
an improvement of 4 seconds on the last time I paced her, but what's
really impressive is that she stopped to tie her shoelace... twice!

After that, I met up with Kurt, Jane and her friend Andrew at Gap Creek
for my first MTB adventure there. It was really dry and dusty, and my
tyres had no grip. Also, on the easy circuit that we went through, I
kept taking the wrong line - I'd come up to a rock or something we had
to drop off, and be peering over it, and just as I was about to go, I
would realise that I should have been on the right hand side, where
there was a step, rather than on the massive drop off in front of me. I
survived without stack though.

A few of the climbs got me, where I was in the wrong gear, or similar.
My front derailleur was a bit off but the good thing about MTBs is that
you can tweak from the handlebars, so you don't have to get off the bike
to adjust it. At one little log/rock obstacle, I was too scared to go
over the leadup bit, just because I didn't think my wheel would stay
straight. Yeah, I'm unco.

I thought about Paulie telling me about how there's no such thing as
traction and it's all in the mind. I threw myself into a corner with
that thought in mind, in a really good position, very confident, etc...
and slid. I managed to steer and pedal to stay upright long enough to
bail rather than stack. But this inspired me to finally get off my butt
and buy new tyres, which I did over at Peloton, where Kurt and I also
had lunch.

Sometime around then I got really demotivated about uni, and decided to
not bother with it, instead dropping Kurt off at home, and picking up
Steven to go check out the new place. I took a full car load of gear
over that night, although we slept on the floor as the bed wouldn't get
shifted until Saturday, when we hired the trailer. We had a bottle of
bubbly and then headed to Tomato Brothers for dinner, where they had
problems in the kitchen that delayed our food and therefore gave us 25%
off the bill. I really like a restaurant where they fix things before
you have to tell them it's broken!

On Friday morning we went for a long ride, which is a separate blog
entry that I'll link later. Actually, the ride took most of the day,
leaving me a bit sore for the 18km trail race at Brookfield the next
day. It has 18 hills and it took me 2:06:10 but I was pretty pleased
with that, given the hard work I'd done previously. Steven went for a
ride with some mates. His legs were fine but I think his butt was still
hurting!

After coffee at Mark's, I collected a small amount of gear from Mum's
place, and then met with Steven and Charlie to get all the furniture
from the storage centre. This took all afternoon, but Charlie enjoyed
it, which made it easier. Then it was just a matter of unpacking, and
more unpacking. And that's what I've been doing ever since! At least we
can have some home-cooked meals, and now we have a proper bed to sleep
in, and all my clothes have a place to go.

*Yawn* I'm exhausted though. Good news from work - our resource manager
has arrived, so I won't be the only poor sucker using the accounting
system. About time!

Ride report: Balmoral-Waterford-Mt Tamborine-Canungra-Balmoral

On Friday morning, Steven and I struggled to get up, but eventually we
managed. The plan was a long road ride, but by the time we reached Mt
Gravatt I felt awful, so we stopped at McDonalds where he had breakfast
and I sucked down a chocolate thickshake. I felt much better after that
and we didn't stop again until Waterford.

At Waterford I witnessed a miracle: a Prado driver indicated, changed
lanes to overtake us, and indicated to move back into the lane, leaving
plenty of room between us and the vehicle at all times. Wonders will
never cease.

The climb up Mt Tamborine wasn't even as painful as last time. I still
don't remember the actual sights on the way up - I haven't done it
enough to remember the shape of the road like I do with Mt Coot-tha -
but I stayed in bigger gears than last time and got out of the saddle
when I slowed down, so that it only took me about 32 minutes this time.

Steven had gone ahead to actually get some training in, but he dicked
around up top for so long that I was already nearly at the top by the
time he passed me on his way back down. He didn't go all the way back
down, but turned around at the next road he saw after passing me. I
bought two sports drinks from the servo and discovered the watermelon
flavour, which turns out to be really good, like the blue flavour!

We picked up a touring map from the information centre and then carried
on towards Canungra. The road has excellent views and there's even some
dirt at the moment (because of roadworks) which makes it a bit more
exciting. Somewhere half way up a small climb I stopped and made Steven
check where my bike was clicking. He reckons it's the headset but it's
not loose, it's just got grit or something in there.

Next came the descent. Steven said he would take it easy with me,
mostly because he was worried I'd end up off the road and in a ditch
somewhere. He had nothing to worry about, because I never take
unfamiliar corners fast. I figured he'd need practice before France, so
I sent him ahead.

We got stopped at the red traffic light, which is huge. I mean, I've
never seen traffic lights this big before. Maybe it's just because
they're so close. Anyway, I let a car through in front of me, but Steven
went in front, because he's fast and I'm slow. At this point, the grade
is an impressive 15%. A few easy turns later, we came to an uphill.
Damn! I had forgotten about that from our drive. But at least I know
for next time that I can fly down that first section without worrying
about trying to hit the brakes later.

Further down the hill, there are some very fun 14% and 12% sections and
then some hairpins as well. I slowed down every time my speed got over
60km/h, just because I didn't want to have to brake from 90km/h if I
struggled on a corner. I came around one hairpin and noticed the acrid
smell of burning rubber. I pulse braked and prepared to pull over and
let my brakes cool down, and then I saw Steven pulled over further
ahead, worried about my cornering ability (or lack thereof).

I told him I was fine and that I was just pulling up because I could
smell my brakes. He said that was his brakes I was smelling - he had
locked up and slid off the road, but stayed upright and not hurt
himself. The slide at over 80km/h wasn't so surprising, but the fact
that he was unhurt seemed miraculous. When he got back on, he was
clearly a bit shaken and had slowed down a lot - but he was stilly
taking those corners a lot faster than I was!

After we turn onto the Canungra road, the descent is straight and steep,
at 15% again, but this time it's great fun because there's no corners!
We stopped at the Outpost Cafe for a pie, chips and gravy, and a
mugaccino. I also had an apple, carrot and ginger juice with spirulina
to help me get home. We had done 80km - we were halfway. When the
steward came to take our plates, I made her take the last of my pie - I
wanted to eat it but knew I would bring it up if I did!

The road back to Waterford was incredibly bumpy and painful this way, so
I was happy to just sit on Steven's wheel most of the way. I go alright
on his wheel until we reach even a small rise, and then I'm lost as he
vanishes into the distance... okay that's a bit over-the-top, but he
does get away from me on the hills, even when I try really hard to keep
up.

We had another quick stop just before Waterford and then rode non-stop
back home, although Logan Rd was particularly nasty, with more red
lights than I've seen before. A voice yelled from a car full of young
fellas: "Get a car, it's faster!" I thought that was a great idea, given
that it was now very late in the afternoon. By the time we got back to
Balmoral, it was just getting dark enough for lights - well, with my
sunnies on. What a day! 160km and a bit of a sore bot-bot, but nothing
too severe, just a huge sense of achievement.

Leon Brooks recovering

This is a soon-to-be-link to the blog of a WA cyclist who was in a
severe accident and was hospitilised in a critical condition with head
injuries:

http://leonbrooks.blogspot.com/2006/04/how-to-trash-non-life.html

More blogs...

I'm famous - people are starting blogs because of me (???):

"Following in the footsetps (tyre marks?)of tam I started a blog. I
don't
promise it'll always be updated... http://mundabiddi.blogspot.com/ "

What a way to spend the afternoon...

I just came back from my long run. There's only a 50% chance I'll make
it to Glasshouse tomorrow evening, so I took my chances today. I ran
around uni, out along Hawken Drive and Swann Rd and up Bloomfield Rd
onto Waverley Rd and through some back streets. I planned on getting
onto a particular street that I knew was a back entrance to Mt Coot-tha
but I passed Greenhood St on the way there and I knew it also had an
entrance so I headed that way. It took me about 50min to get there, and
then I spent an hour exploring the trails I hadn't yet been along. I
took the road down, and came back to uni via Sylvan Rd and Sir Fred
Schonell Dr, with a stop for a blue Powerade. I only saw two people on
the trails - a sour-looking chick and a friendly guy with a dog. A great
afternoon.

Something to say...

Sooner or later, every cyclist cops the brunt of society's ignorance in
the form of the irrational "cyclists don't pay registration" argument.
(And just in case you too, reader, are ignorant, go and research where
your rego money goes before you open your mouth.)

EuanB on aus.bicycle had a sensible, guilt-trip response that I liked:
"You pay rego for the same reaons that people who own firearms have to
register their weapons: that vehicle you're operating is a lethal
weapon. The fees you pay compensate society for the death and
destruction that cars inflict on society. My vehicle is benign, that's
why I don't have to compensate society."

But even better was SteveA's spiel: "I pay registration too. On 2
vehicles, you know. And I'm not using either of them now, am I? So
I'M subsidising YOU, aren't I? You owe me money, don't you? Where's my
$10, you tight bastard?" (delivered with a smile)

Little miss grumpy...

I tried to get to bed early last night, but after putting on a load of
washing,
packing the car with stuff for uni and army and cycling, hanging up my
washing, finishing cleaning all my adventure racing gear, etc., it was
about 10pm, and I was exhausted.

I still managed to get up at 0430h this morning to go cycling with
Steven, despite the
fact that my legs and back were still sore from the weekend. I texted
him at 0330h (when I woke up for no good reason) to say that my lower
back was too sore to ride Mt Coot-tha (from pushing the mtb up hills -
see my race report), so I would just do an easier ride and if
he wanted to go ride with Steele instead, that was okay. He said he
wanted to ride with me anyway.

Later I got the shits with him after he turned up Creek Rd on the way
back from Manly. I said, "Why are you taking me back the hilly way when
you know I am struggling anyway?" And he said, "What hills?" In
hindsight, I think he forgot about the big hill, but he forgets that he
flies up hills and the rest of us struggle, and I didn't think it was
nice to make fun of me not being able to keep up, especially when I had
warned him that I was in no state for hill climbing.

So I pulled over, unclipped, and when he came over to apologise I told
him to fsck off. Then when he tried again to defend his actions I yelled
at him for making fun of me just because I was slow, and for mocking me,
and asked him why he even wanted to ride with me if he thinks I'm so
shit at it, and pointed out that I got up early
because he wanted to ride with me and he knew that I would be slow and
had no
right to make fun of me for it.

Then I sat down on the footpath and had
a bit of a cry about it, wondering why he was being so mean, and he got
a bit upset because I think it was only then that he realised he'd
really hurt my feelings. But I got
back on my bike to ride away, though I didn't know where I was going - I
figured he'd catch me in about ten seconds anyway.

He clearly felt bad, so I stopped sooking about it and accepted his
apology. I figure he was just being a boy, and therefore dumb. I mean,
not that all boys are dumb, or anything...

He rode with me to uni where I made him a coffee and he ate all my bread
and tried to explain that he thinks I'm a good cyclist, but I don't
really go in for people making up things like that about me, which just
leads to other people believing it and expecting Big Things that I can't
make happen. (Like with ultra running! Now who spread THOSE rumours,
prior to Six Foot Track?!)

He was lucky we were on the road, because if we were in the bush, where
the ground is a bit softer and the speed is a bit slower and there are
no cars, I might have shoved him off his bike. Actually, scrap that, I
was lucky. Because if offroad, I would've tried to push him off, but
I'm unco, so I would've fallen off instead ;-)

Surpassing all expectations - Race Report: ARQ #3

What a crack up. It was Kurt's and my first adventure race, with the more experienced Jane, and WE CAME LAST!!! It was the Geocentric ARQ Round 3.

We rocked up to Brookfield Showgrounds, got organised. I got to catch up with Tamsin who is a cool trail runner that I met at Glasshouse last year, and chatted to her about the ultras this year. After the kayak demonstration and a few befuzzled questions, we donned our hideous green racing shirts and started the race.

The first leg we were only allowed to take two bikes. I guess the idea was bike and tie, but with a max 100m spacing between team mates, it seemed silly to do all that changing. I ran down the hill to checkpoint (CP) 1 and then had to go past the start to get my team; unfortunately the rules were changed after the runners and half the cyclists headed off, and Kurt and Jane didn't answer my call on approach, because they were still off near the start/finish line.

I ran down Boscombe St, then back up as they weren't down there, then back down to look for them, then back up towards the start again - where the hell were they?! Then this chicky flying down the hill stacked it and landed on her face and then rolled around a bit in the middle of the
road. I don't actually know how she came off, because it was dead smooth bitumen. I'm thinking that if that's her level of cycling skill, she's probably lucky she didn't make it to the MTB section.

I had no idea where Kurt and Jane were and didn't want to veer too far from the start point lest we got disqualified, so I was happy to stay and help look for teeth. I focussed my search near the blood smears but came up with nothing. I also ran back up the hill to pass on the message, "bike stack - smashed her face up - lost teeth - conscious - sitting up by herself" because the girl who had run to get the race directors didn't think to actually pass on anything about her medical
condition.

Around that time, Kurt and Jane showed up, explaining what had happened. We headed off to the next CP, with me running, because we thought the changeovers would take too long. Then it was a bit of path-finding through a creek and off up the road where someone bum-steered us by telling us about a dead end that we should avoid - unfortunately that's where the CP was.

We kept going and evidently Jane thought I was too slow, as she insisted upon changing over and giving me a go on the bike. I wasn't warmed up yet, it was true, but actually, I was just taking it slow because I didn't want to blow up later in the day. Anyway once I was on Jane's bike I thought I was going to die, because she has the right brake lever connected to the rear brake and the left lever connected to the front brake and I was very confused. (Overseas bikes are like this.) Also, her helmet didn't fit me properly and I was worried about falling off, and when we went through a creek I was worried about dropping her bike in.

Once we reached CP4 we got to ditch those bikes as well, which I was more than happy about. Around this time, I realised we hadn't gotten CP3, but we decided to do it on the way back. We headed off through some parks which are never marked properly in street directory-type maps, but eventually made it where we had to be, which involved crossing another creek, where I actually went across a high pipe without freaking out. CP5 was under the bridge where Moggill Rd crosses Moggill Ck. We ran straight past the CP with Jane's sights set on the next CP. A few minutes later we were back at the bridge, locating the card punch, before finding our way to the CP6 along the straightest path, where there was fortunately a bridge across the creek.

We pumped up our kayaks, threw on our life jackets (all the more entertaining for me as neither of my team mates undid their zips, and nearly got stuck). I also noticed they were rated for two people, or one adult, one child, and a suitcase! Down on the ramp, I got whacked in the head by another team's paddle (they were finishing the kayak leg), and when I cried out, they looked at me like, "What's your problem?" They probably thought they'd just run their boat into us but it
should've been obvious to keep the paddles in the boat as they jumped out.

As it turned out we had been bum-steered when told to avoid having the heaviest person front or rear. With Kurt in the middle it was very hard for me to steer, and as soon as Jane got distracted she'd change rhythm up the front, and then we'd start to veer. With me in the back, we weren't rear heavy enough, and I was helpless to control it, having to do a big braking manoeuvre (or wide-paddles if I noticed the veer soon enough). After getting splashed by Jane's friends' team, I took to splashing everyone who was on their way back, which made it heaps more fun.

When we finally reached and crossed the Brisbane River, Jane grabbed the pontoon and jumped out to find CP7 before I could finish saying, "Don't jump out until Kurt and I have grabbed on," so Kurt and I were left paddling around like dickheads, unable to get to the pontoon easily with
only two of us in there, trying to hang onto the paddles and the pontoon. We only just got attached when Jane was already back and ready to go. Several (typical) important-types with boats and 4WD vehicles were pissed at us for delaying them for one minute and were determined to shove their boats in despite the likelihood of running us over. Being a cycle commuter, I really wasn't surprised by their behaviour.

With Kurt hanging onto the pontoon out the front of the boat, Jane jumped into the centre, so once we got to Moggill Ck, we spun inside the boat and kept going, with me in the front and Kurt in the rear, and found it much easier to paddle this way. I guess we were better balanced. We also tried kneeling to ease the pressure on the hip flexors, but then our feet went numb. We actually held it straight the entire time, although we couldn't find a song to sing along to. Back
out at CP8 (the same as CP6), we re-punched our card and headed back for our bikes.

Jane had it in her head that we were retracing our steps, so it wasn't until we got to CP5 that we realised we had missed CP9 and had to backtrack again over the same section that we'd backtracked when we'd first missed CP5. I was really hating that stretch of gravel and grass,
once we'd done it so many times!

Back at our bikes (CP10, a.k.a. CP4), we finally got to split up for the next leg - we were allowed to be more than 100m apart. At the start, we had decided that Jane and Kurt would ride to the checkpoints and I would just run straight back to Race HQ so I could get my MTB shoes on and
prep my bike for the last section, which was straight MTBing. It started to get more difficult when we realised that both Jane and Kurt had left their maps in their pockets while kayaking. Kurt's map had a big hole in it, but it didn't cover the bits I would run on, so I took it and gave him mine, and Jane's map was wet but still readable... mostly.

I had to find the two creek crossings that we'd been through before, but had a backup plan, of just following the road if I had to, rather than backtracking if I ran past it. As I approached the second creek, a team was in the process of crossing on the rocks. One guy was showing the others how to balance. I charged straight through the water just as he was offering to get out of the way, which was cute. I was like, "What? You're worried about wet feet?!"

As I headed up towards Race HQ, Steven drove past, having found me only by luck. We had a quick chat and, of course, Charlie told me to run faster. I guess 3.5 year olds struggle with the concept of endurance.

I had just gotten myself organised at Race HQ and started pulling out some food for everyone to eat. Jane arrived about 5 minutes later and Kurt about 2 minutes after that, so I reckon we nailed that part of the plan. By this stage I should have run about 10km, and the others about
3km, but I think you could safely add 50% for missed checkpoints and, in my case, running up and down Boscombe St like a dickhead!

We saw the first team come in - that would be Nina's team (she's someone that Jane and I knew from UQ Sport and she's a legend) - who said the ride took them about 90 minutes and had two gnarly descents, and two definite hike-a-bike hills. I guessed we would double the ride time and
was a bit concerned about how late we were heading out.

As soon as Jane hit the road, she was off. I could see she was really pushing and, though I didn't think she'd be running out of energy any time soon, and certainly not before Kurt and I did, I was a bit worried about any extra energy loss prior to the hills. Aside from that, Kurt was too stubborn to tell her to wait, so he was copping the wind as well. I hauled her up when Kurt was cramping, and I gave Kurt a salt tablet, and I said that we were being really stupid about it, given that if we were spotted more than 100m apart, we'd get disqualified.

So we made a paceline, Jane on the front because she was so fresh, me in second because I was fine with calling out when she got ahead, and Kurt in the rear, where I could keep an eye on him. Men are so stubborn! We held together until the hill, where Jane got going and kept going. I couldn't complain about this - I hate waiting for people on hills because you lose all momentum.

Unfortunately, I had to stop when I threw my chain off - thank God I hadn't gotten around to removing the spoke protector. Apparently my indexing wasn't quite right so I thought I had another cog or a few, and I didn't, so when I shifted, I threw the chain into the spokes. As soon as I stopped riding, I had some asthma coming on - not cool. I couldn't get back on right there so I walked a bit and then got back on. Kurt had cowboy legs from his cramps, but soon enough he could ride again.

We chatted to Louise at the entrance to the forest, and then headed onward. About 20m into the first hill I jumped off to hike up, because my front tyre pressure was way too high, and I was bouncing off non-existent bumps. We crested, and then there was a small descent that I happily took at around 45km/h (fast for me - I don't trust fire trails!) and then another rise... we saw an amazing vista open while we were in a saddle, looking along the powerlines. Then we had a massive descent, mostly smooth, and off we went. Jane decided to fly down ahead, but when I started to slow down, so did Kurt...

I began to slow down because I was worried about the bend I had just come to, and I kept slowing after the bend as I could see a creek below. I stopped and pulled out the map. Despite not recalling two powerline crossings, I was pretty sure we had descended too far and missed the checkpoint. Jane rode back up to start looking for CP13, which was 30m off the road, and Kurt and I rode as much as we could and then walked a bit - I was starting to wheeze again, and he was cramping. Some old guy out for a bushwalk decided to chat to us. He was nice enough, although a bit too much like the guy in Wolf Creek for my liking!

Kurt and I eventually joined Jane, where she and another team were looking for the marker. The other team were complaining that someone had taken it. Frankly, I thought that was rubbish, and I grabbed the map. The only cues were a spur and a reentrant. After a bit of discussion, Jane went back up to the lower powerline crossing to measure down 250m, and I walked up the hill a bit. I spotted a road bend that looked like the bend on the map that we should be on, so I cut track and sure enough, I hadn't moved 5m into the shrubbery when I spotted a foot track that led me another 35m to the CP. I found it at the same time the guy from the other team did, who had walked up from the other spot to find this spot.

His team was cranky because they hadn't eaten and he had led them blindly, claiming he knew where to go, when he didn't. Anyway, we punched our cards and got back on the bike, and rode a bit, and hiked a bit... Rather like at the MTB Marathon, I was led to wonder why I had brought my bike. If we had been running down that hill, we wouldn't have flown past the CP, and if we had no bikes, I probably would've been faster up the hills! (Crazy ultra runner and all that...)

Kurt was still getting cramps so I gave him another salt tablet but after that I was all out, so I told him to get some sugar in. We got excited at one point when we thought we had some single track, but it turned out to be fire trail with debris on the edges. The gnarly descents were too much for any of us, and the hill after a creek crossing was insane - we struggled to push our bikes up it. The rescue crew on horseback were there to check on us - I thought they were just
out for a ride so I asked if they wanted to come down - I didn't want our bikes to spook the horses - but then we realised they were there for us.

The MTB leg was challenging only because it was the most physically demanding part of the course and it was last. Other than that it was boring. We rode over two logs and no other obstacles - how droll! I doubt there was anything much more interesting in there, but it's certainly one of the reasons I preferred the 6hr MTB race to the MTB Marathon and Epic events.

We were relieved to get out of there - I could barely get my bike over the gate - and we stopped to have a chat to Louise, who was still waiting for us. Ando was also still waiting for us, the damn legend. He's a cool dude, and he took some photos of us and then we handed him to Louise to arrange to get the shots on the web and linked to from the Geocentric site. Then it was back down the hill, on the bitumen again.

After the first bend, we stopped to check the location of the CP we had missed. We took turns slowing down to check the power poles and eventually found the right one and punched our card. Then we headed back. Once again Jane was on fire, and we had to rein her in. We figured there was no point getting caught out more than 100m apart at this stage - we'd get disqualified, or relegated to last place! Wait... we were in last place anyway!

Ando took some paceline photos out the car window on the way back, which was a bit scary, but fun. Back at Race HQ, Steven was looking a bit annoyed at waiting so long, but he gave me a lift home anyway! I was really impressed that, despite packing most of the stuff up, Craig and Annie had saved some sausages and bread for us, and kept the finish line up for us to cross.

I guess it was a bad day at the races, because it was always only one person that wasn't feeling up to it. Never did we go through a flat patch in sync. And when we felt better we got too hasty and missed checkpoints and as a result covered way more distance than we had to. I suppose there are a lot of learning points for next time.

Was it fun? Hell, yes! And it was funny too!

Will we do it again? Hell, yes! Though I doubt Jane will want to hang around with Kurt and I next time ;-)

The evidence - Team Yee Haa in a kayak.

Here's one for later...

Free unlimited file hosting, up to 100MB per file:

http://www.content-type.com/

Koppenberg

Steven said: "This running fad seems to be catching on..."

From cyclingnews.com:

Boonen was piloted to the foot of the climb in front, and he flew up it, gapping everyone and passing the suffering Auger like he was standing still near the top. Behind, Bettini (Quick.Step), Klier (T-Mobile), Van Petegem (Davitamon), Cancellara (CSC), Hincapie (Discovery) and Petito (Tenax) chased and closed the gap, with Ballan (Lampre-Fondital), Hoste (Discovery), Kroon (CSC), Ventoso (Saunier Duval) and Juan Antonio Flecha (Rabobank) the next group to make contact. The next group all walked up: Hushovd (Credit Agricole), Zabel (Milram) and Quick.Step's Pozzato and Baguet, who were chasing at 30 seconds over the top. As feared, most of the peloton ended up running up the Koppenberg, losing crucial time.

Understanding...

I'm beginning to understand how people go totally insane and shoot all their co-workers. Some bastard has thrown out my milk. I can't even find the bottle - it must have been thrown out today, as it was still there on Friday, but it's not in either of the kitchen bins (which are pretty empty). What is going on? I mean, sure, the bottle looked out of date, but if you had opened it, you would have realised that I had just refilled an old milk bottle. I am sick of my co-workers thieving my food and milk and now throwing stuff out. I am considering spending my research funding on a lockable bar fridge instead. I estimate this will save me a few thousand dollars a year on food that goes missing.

The weekend was... different. In fact I can't even remember half of it. On Friday night I went with Steven to pick up Charlie. He then dropped me at home and put Charlie to bed and I drove over to his place for dinner of sausages, eggs and chips. Mmmm. Shame I felt so crook, though. I had already decided I would be in no shape for a Glasshouse run on Saturday morning so I slept in. Later in the day, we planned on going to Karawatha for a walk, but the gates were closed, so we went down to Mt Tamborine instead. Unfortunately, Steven had no mobile reception near Cedar Creek Falls, so we had to go up the top, as he was on call.

Charlie finally quit sulking (which really put me in a bad mood, given I was sick) and it turned out he was asleep. So we drove to Canungra and had a meal at the Outpost Cafe. We parked right out the front and took a kerbside table, and left Charlie asleep for a bit in his child seat, with the windows open on the road side of the car, and the doors open on the footpath side. We were both still a bit paranoid about it getting too hot in there or Charlie waking up and wondering where we were, so we walked over to check on him every few minutes. Eventually he came out to check out my green juice, which had Spirulina in it, though I told him it might have frogs in it.

On Sunday I got up bright and early for a MTB ride with the gang - Lotte, Paulie, Glenn, Chris and his mate Peter (I think). I felt very off-balance, which I guess is to be expected when one is sick, still half asleep at 0500h, and of course very unfamiliar with a bike that hasn't been ridden for months and months. I took it easy, and was one of the lucky ones - Glenno cracked a rib, Chris did in some of his rib cartilage, and Lotte ended up with a bung wrist and a bruised leg. At first I thought I really sucked, but actually, I handled a lot of the ride well, and didn't have any gumby stacks/hooked bars/smacked pedals etc.

I then took Steven and Charlie to breakfast at McDonalds, where I grumpily told Steven I was sick of being bossed around by a three-year old. Actually, Charlie's not bad at all when Steven's got his own space, but he's been much more difficult since Steven has been living at his brother's place. Without knowing anything about child psychology, I'd be guessing this is he has to go out all the time and if he sooks and whinges, he tends to get his own way if it's going to bother others, whereas at home he can just get ignored until he acts normal again. He sooked a bit at the shops after breakfast, wanting everything he saw and attempting to get it primarily by crying and/or screaming. "I want soccer boots..." "I want a donut..." "I want..." Fortunately Steven didn't let him get away with it, and even managed to tell him off without causing a scene! (The magic skills granted to one upon the birth of one's first child, perhaps.)

After a bit of time at home he settled down and then we took him bike riding at some parks near my place. There was some single track and some concrete and bitumen paths, and we let Charlie pick where he wanted to go. We even found a park with an awesome playground in it. Charlie is awesome on the bike, although we had to remind him a few times how to use his brakes (rather than dragging his feet along the concrete). He kept pedalling up hills and over small tree roots and so on, and even jumped over a log... although he was assisted a bit (Steven picked the bike and Charlie up). Charlie didn't get discouraged at all by falling off, and just jumps back on, which is pretty cool. And he behaved very well throughout, and after the ride, and spoke normally and didn't sulk.

I reckon that just goes to show that the test for ADHD shouldn't be whether the kids are disruptive but rather whether their behaviour improves after heading outdoors for a bit. Then 80% of "ADHD sufferers" could be treated with bicycles rather than drugs. Whatever - basically that left me in a much better mood as well. And then a banana split at Cold Rock made me even happier.

I didn't get out of bed early like I planned... I figured if I did that, I may suffer a relapse tomorrow (when I have to get up early and don't get to bed until late). I'll take it easy and maybe head up to Glasshouse on Wednesday night. I had lunch and a catchup with Shannon. I'm sleepy now and might head home early for a nap, instead of going for a run.