Relay 4 Life

Big weekend! Went down to Busso to spectate at the half ironman with Kim, Sas & Jo ; managed to squeeze a 10k run in (4:40pace HR 133). Wow, Busselton is flat! The only slight rises on this were going over a bridge! Beautiful conditions.

Enjoyed the day watching the competitors and was inspired to maybe giving this a go next year as a good changeup after the New York marathon in November. Watch this space...

I took some photos, mostly of the top women and Brad Hosking (who did the run in fireman's breathing apparatus ( swim and bike as normal ) as part of fundraising drive in aid of PMH,) because that's what was happening in the finish area when we got there... gallery is here.

On Sunday we went to join the Comrades runners in the Relay for Life at the WA Athletics stadium. Wonderful event being a fundraiser for the Cancer Council. I ran the first hour at the stadium as part of a team in the ‘Relay for Life’. Golden Barbie was the baton. Started out easy and slowly picked it from 4:15 k’s finishing with a few 3:40s to get 15.2k done in the hour. Then I handed to Kim, sucked down a Roctane Gu, and nipped off to do a loop in Bold Park ; took a very scenic and hilly detour off the Zamia trail to where I thought was a shortcut to the road, but, not so much, I ended up back where I started. Continued on Zamia and took the turn I knew (!) down past Camel Lakes (never seen a lake there…) and back to the stadium. Had about 30 seconds to grab a quick drink and then set off for another 12 laps (averaging 4:10 pace) 5k of loops in the relay. Had a bit of a rest then jogged a further 4 laps with kim - see photo(!), bringing my total to just over 32km.

More photos of the event here ; including some of SuperKate who did the 10pm to 4am shift, and who turns out is a fine Barbie seamstress. Most of the team are off to do Comrades, and had run 48km on Saturday morning! Nutters...

I felt a bit average for the first 10 minutes but got into a groove on the track and really started to enjoy it – the hour went very quickly. I felt good on the climbs of rebold hill too – didn’t have that feeling of all the strength in my quads wilting at the sign of a hill – which I can get when tired. A good run today but HR was high – pretty warm at the track out of the wind. I think I need to go slightly easier this week – my 7 day total including today is 124km. I must be careful not to get carried away.