Thank You

I'm just back from my Chrissie holidays in Brisbane. I had a beaut week in my home town, doing all the usual holidays things, catching up with loved ones, getting a little time at the beach, some swimming, shopping, reading etc. I also ate too much - thanks Mum! - and am paying the price. I'm hoping some adjusted New Year's resolutions will sort out that little(?) problem - see below.

I also did some running and caught up with some great Cool Runners who I have got to know over the years. I saw Eddie, Tesso and Shane at the Brisbane Road Runners 10k on Christmas Eve (actually at 6 am on the Sunday). My early indulgence with Christmas Cheer resulted in a sluggish 43.50 effort for me but it was good to be out running just the same after my drive up with the family from Canberra (as an aside, thank God for portable DVD players. I only counted one "Are we there yet?" for the whole trip, there and back).

Regarding the Christmas Eve run, I also have a secret confession to admit which Tesso and Eddie would not be aware of. I woke up on the Sunday morning and was shocked to see the time was 5.40am and I would be really pushing to make the start of the run at six. I dressed, gobbled down some fluid, and drove into the city at warp speed, only realising when I had got to the West End start and couldn't see anyone that...um...I had failed to reset my Ironman Triathlon Timex (which I use as an alarm clock too) when I crossed the border the day before. Instead of rising at 5.40 I had actually risen at 4.40 am and arrived for the start just after five - an hour before the run was to begin! The Chardonnay or four the night before - thanks Dad! - also didn't help matters.

Being a Queenslander, for years I have had to cop all those awful southern jokes about visitors needing to wind back their clocks 100 years when crossing the border into Queensland. In my case, it would have helped if I could have actually remembered to wind back the clock to begin with! Twit-a-saurus in extremis!

In addition to problems with clocks, I also had difficulties with the weather in Brissie. Being from Brisbane of course I know that the place is hot and humid, beautiful one day, perfect the next, and so on. And being the ever prepared Tuggeranong Don, of course I travelled to Queensland without any cold weather clothes at all. So what happens? I find that it is one of the mildest summers I have encountered in the capital. Come Boxing Day, with its miserable cloudy, drizzly stuff, I am finding it cold and wishing I had brought a jacket with me from Canberra - of all places. What gives!!

Anyway, the atmospheric conditions and time might have been inverted and twisted respectively, but I did find the natives very friendly. I did a really nice 13k with Eddie one morning, which I followed up by a speed work session at Pat Carroll's group where I caught up with Tesso again and also met Clairie. I saw both of them again during my final run in Brisbane, an 18k group effort from South Bank to St Lucia over the new bridge to Dutton Park, through Highgate Hill, West End and then back to South Bank. I was relieved to find I was hot and sweaty after this run, the way I should feel after a run in Brisbane!

My sincere thanks to Tesso, Eddie and Clairie for making me feel welcome in Brisbane. It was also great to meet finally Cirque and to have a cuppa with her. It is always a special treat to run with and meet like-minded running souls.

As for those new year's running resolutions: (1) lose weight - thanks Mum, again! (2) do a sub 3.14 PB at the Canberra Marathon, (3) forget I am turning 46 this year, and (4) gain a better sense of time!

I also want to pay homage to the Year 2006. It had its challenges on the personal front, but it was one of the happiest and most satisfying years I have experienced. I met some incredibly fantastic new friends, all through running and blogging about running. All in their own way have brought tonnes of insight, inspiration and fellowship to me. They are very special friends. The next two words are plain and common but are gems nonetheless: Thank You.