Bush capital marathon festival

It was great to see so many happy and smiling faces today at Canberra's Bush Capital Marathon festival. I'd never run the event before and was impressed with the organisation and turn-out. The festival caters for events from the 5km to a 60km ultra, all off-road via track and trail through the Mt Ainslie and Mt Majura areas and beyond. Start and finish is at the Campbell High School next to the Australian War Memorial.

I settled for the 16k run that roughly follows a circuit around Mt Ainslie. I felt tired at the start after yesterday's 60k bike ride. So I didn't push the pace and was happy just to chat with others and admire the views. Being a great run in the bush, nature was in full force. On a beautiful sunny winter morning I enjoyed taking in the fresh air and seeing the fantastic bird life. Galahs, sulphur crested cockatoos and other pretty flapping things were in abundance. Departing off the track for a pit stop I even disturbed a herd of kangaroos that was as surprised to see me as I was to see them. I was worried about snakes but Elle (at left), one of my running buddies, promised to do a Crocodile Dundee on them, catch one, and break their backs. Thanks Elle!

The day was again a great social one and I enjoyed very much catching up with everyone. A special word of congrats to Emma (at right) who did the 25km run and looked as fresh and relaxed at the finish as she did when I ran with her in the early stages of the run. I also ran for a bit with one of my regular running buddies, Michelle, and was impressed as always with her ability to really push on the hills and at the same time respond to my inane chatter! (that's Michelle at lower left finishing hard).

There were so many of my other running pals out there today and it was wonderful to see them - and be inspired by them - including PRB (great seeing you running for a bit), Leah (your recovery from injury is an inspiration), Aki (nice to meet you again), Strewth (hope that lergy is a thing of the past), Natasha (hope that foot thingy is a thing of the past for you), Eric and Norma, Beryl, Bernie, Maria and Jim, Allrounder (a very embarrassed Tuggeranong Don was intrigued to find you were a female and not a male), Marg, Charmaine, Helen and Maria, and Jodie.

It was great to see Speedy Geoff again with some of his proteges. (That's him lower right at the finish with Helen and Maria. Holding hands...umm...nice touch Geoff!

So the morning was a delight. The only note of concern was the short, sharp pain I felt in the middle of my left foot as I tried to push the pace, not far from home. A couple of hours now after the run, the foot doesn't feel quite right. I hope it is nothing.

Mt Taylor revisited

We didn't get there last weekend due to the weather, but we did today. After yesterday's group run, some of us from the Saturday group did an early morning Sunday run to the top of Mt Taylor.

It was one of our shorter runs, about 7 or 8k. But it was an intense effort, especially over the last couple of hundred metres up the steep track to the summit.

That's us at the top, along with some of the great views to be seen - looking north (at right) through the Woden Valley towards Black Mountain and a glimpse of Lake Burley Griffin, and looking south (at left below) over the Tuggeranong Valley and Lake Tuggeranong.

As always, I really enjoyed the run with the group and especially loved, again, working hard to get to the top of Mt Taylor.

But I thought I needed a little more. With plans to move onto triathlons later in the year, after the obligatory post-run coffee I set off on a 67k bike ride through Tuggeranong and Woden. The trip took several hours and included a stop at the Tuggeranong pool for a swim session and a stop for a high reps class at the Southern Cross Club.

I finally got home in the dark feeling very happy for myself. After yesterday's beaut group run, it was a great day to top off a fabulous weekend covering just a few of the ways of keeping fit and loving life in the national capital.

Group dynamics

I had called them "pikelets" for opting out of last week’s run in poor conditions. Today, they showed why my Saturday running group is so special to me.

Firstly, some details on this morning’s run. It was mostly over old ground. Starting at Mawson it takes in nature reserves at Farrer Ridge, the Wanniassa Hills, before a jaunt through the Long Gully Pine Plantation, then a return to the start at Mawson and our coffee. It was about a 17km effort. As we like it, it was hilly And mostly over track and trail with mega kangaroos and a rising morning sun (above) for additional company.

Last week’s non-run probably contributed to a great turn out today and it was fantastic to see everyone. It was made more special for me as there was a nice little surprise waiting for yours truly during the coffee. The group wished me happy birthday. Very nice….and very intriguing – my birthday was actually back in May! But a confidant had leaked (so typical of Canberra!) this bit of sensitive information to our convenor, Maria. Maria then went and organised accordingly. (That’s me above right with my candle.) I shan’t reveal the confidant’s name (but Bedknobs and Broomsticks, and a Mad Hatters Tea party =?).

I was very touched by this morning and the surprise says so much about the group. A year ago I didn’t know one person among them. But yet they are now among my closest friends and I feel like I have known them forever.

They are wonderful people who, as I have said before, celebrate a common passion in our sport.Birthdays are recognised, triumphs celebrated, and disappointments lamented.

"Just do it", says Nike, as if it's a dream, an aspiration and something which should get around to doing.

"Just does it", is my group's approach...to running, walking. To life.

That's (in descending order) Michelle, Natasha, Marg, Elle and Linda from the group.

Mt Taylor - solo

I set out this morning in the rain to run Mt Taylor with my Saturday running group, only to find the group had found the morning too cold and wet and, like little pikelets, had given it a miss.

So it was left to me to do battle - alone - with the elements, to run hither and tither through slosh and sleet, across brooke and dale to the lofty heights of this mighty summit overlooking Canberra's southern suburbs. It was enough to make one sing.....(and I can just hear Julie Andrews now...."Climb every mountain....").

Actually it turned out to be quite a good run. The conditions were certainly crappy. Lots of low cloud, fog, cold rain, and the temperature hovering around eight. But I soon got warm working my way up the trail to the top of Mt Taylor. And it was a sloshly trail too...I was was going up one way, and gravity was doing its trick with little rivers of water going down the other. Unlike the last time I did this trip, there was not a soul to be seen. That added another dimension to the run; a little eerie though with heavy fog covering the top.

It's a reasonably steep run to the summit but worth the effort. It was magic up there. The rain was more like sleet and stung my face. There was a strong breeze up there too, bringing with it more of that low fog and cloud swirling through Woden Valley. I felt like I was on top of the world watching Lady Nature mix her basic elements. Euphoria kicked in after that struggle to get to the top and I stood there admiring the view. God it felt great to be alive.

I didn't stay too long. My waterproof New Balance running jacket proved to be not so waterproof and I was soaked to the bone and cold. By the time I got back to where I had parked my car I looked like something the cat had dragged in. If it wasn't for those nice Brooks Adrenaline running shoes I was wearing, I probably would have been mistaken for an amoeba washed up from a prehistoric swamp. Perhaps Fred and Wilma may have found me of some use (see my post on them of 4 June).

I really missed my running friends too. They're more wiser than me. The conditions and common sense suggested I probably should have given this run a miss, and that was certainly what I was telling myself before I started the run sitting in my nice warm car.

Yet to make it to the top of Mt Taylor in those conditions was something special, a little tonic for the spirit. And I couldn't afford to miss a run with the City to Surf only a few weeks away. I felt I just had to do the run.

"The Rocks"

A few of us from my Saturday running group set off this morning to tackle Cooleman Ridge, on Canberra's south western outskirts (see Google Earth image at left below). It's a nice run along tracks and trails. It's not especially hilly but does have scenic views across the Murrumbidgee corridor to the Brindabellas to the west or, looking east, to the Woden Valley seen here covered in fog this morning at right.

That's us at the start (L-R), Ben, Kevin, Maria, Bernie, Michelle, Natasha and Leah. It was a fairly typical Canberra morning for this time of year, foggy, frosty, and cold. Temperature minus 2.

Like all of our group outings, it was a very pleasant run with ample opportunity to chat and take in the scenery. The only moment of controversy came when the group split. Michelle and I, the hill hounds, took a slightly different and hillier diversion at one point. The others chose to take a more direct and lower path.

We believed we had taken the authentic route; the others begged to differ.

The key sticking point had been the location of some “rocks”. Just turn right at “the rocks”, we had been told. Michelle and I thought we had found the correct rocks and turned right accordingly, believing the rest of the group to be not far behind. But we were shocked to soon see our other friends low and to the right ahead of us. They had found “their” own different rocks and taken the shorter and easier route.

There’s a word to describe what some might say our friends had done – it has two syllables with the first syllable sounding like meat and the second sounding like ring. If you can work out what that word is you can get an idea of what they had achieved (Of course, I would never use such a word myself!). Anyway, adjudication at the post-run coffee sorted differences of interpretation when it came to the signage for this run. Personally, I would have liked a little more clarity at just which rocks the turn should have been made. Either that or we undertake geology lessons before the next run here. That's Maria our dear leader at left. Is she pretending to be an out-of-season Easter Bunny....or a kangaroo? Maria, please explain!

Father's pride!

Fathers' can be foregiven for showing off their pride and joy in their children every now and again. I'm always sensitive to their privacy and I don't talk about them too much. But I do have to say something today.

One other member of the family is showing an aptitude and interest in running and that is my daugther, Alana. She's not necessarily the quickest runner in her group, nor the one with the greatest endurance. She is, however, improving all the time and is developing a beautiful, coordinated running style. She looks the real thing, even if the results might not show it - yet.

She won the mini-jog section of the ACT Cross Country Club's monthly Women's and Girls' Jogalong today for the little ones over 1.5 km. This may not be the Olympics or the national titles, or even state or school titles.

But in her own way, it was her own little triumph.

The joy on her face today was matched only by the joy I have seen on her face when she is out there every Saturday with her Little Athletics club, when she gets beaten by others but smiles anyway, because - well - that Alana's nature and she loves being with her friends.

Well done my little darling, well done.

'Tour de Mountain'

I've mentioned my Saturday running group many times and there they are (I took two shots from different directions to try and get everyone in). They're not phantoms they really do exist.

Friendships exist for many reasons but the friendships that take shape out of a common passion or cause I think are something particularly special. While the rest of the world is asleep there is my group up and adam on a Saturday morning in the cold and dark doing battle with the elements. It's maybe a little hard to begin with but then there are wonderful views to be had from those hills around Canberra, the carpets of mist lying dormant across the lower ground, the sun rising over it all and then us, out of breath, panting hard to get to the top of the peak. I wouldn't miss it for the world.

I am not critical of the media focus on elite sport. They have to talk about something. But beyond the headlines there are ordinary people like those in my Saturday group who perhaps won't make the headlines and don't want to. Yet when it comes to their approach to running and fitness many of them have their own stories to tell; stories of overcoming adversity and difficulty; stories of personal triumph and victory. Why doesn't the world hear these stories? They are my heroes.

When I took these photos we had just finished an especially challenging course called 'Tour de Mountain'. The run starts at Canberra's Southlands shopping centre, takes in the peaks of Isaacs ridge, followed by the Wanniassa hills then, just when our glutes, quads (just ask Natasha's!) and brains are crying murder, we finish off with the grand finale of up and over Mt Taylor before arriving back at the shops. It's about a 19k, two hour effort in all and its tough not matter what the calibre of the runner. It's also great fun and I enjoyed it enormously.

Climb every mountain, search high and low
Follow every by way, every path you know
Climb every mountain, ford every stream
Follow every rainbow, till you find your dream

(Lyrics from the song, Climb every Mountain, "The Sound of Music")