...currently enduring 8 different kinds of pain! All of them unwelcome but largely not unexpected. Yes boys and girls, today was the day of the great Perth City to Surf Half Marathon: 21 km (thank god I didn't get lost) and I did 'em all!!!! See here for a 'proper' (as proper as WA news reporting gets anyway) report: http://www.thewest.com.au/default.aspx?MenuID=77&ContentID=38425
Let me walk you through it km by km, on second thoughts I can't bear to do it all over again just yet but let me summarise:
6:45am and I am lined up with what turned out to be 1,000 other members of the cream of WA athletic crop (I was a tad outclassed!) on St George's Tce awaiting starters orders whilst trying to avoid the downpour (yes, I am moaning about the weather, justified in this case I like to think). And we're off, woooo! Fast forward a bit and who put that big hill in my way! See piccie - youch! *arrow denotes approximation of my position* (note early stage of race, I was soon to be found a tad closer to the back!!!) Anyways a 10k slog around Kings Park in the rain and then back onto the track to the 'Surf' (which given the galestorm winds, was definitely up) where the 14,000 odd people on the 12km race (tch, lazy) came sprinting past to join the party. I don't venture often into West Perth territory but it turns out there are a few hills there too (who knew) - nnaarrggh! Around about the 16km point it was a case of attack of the blisters. Hit the wall about 18km when my legs decided to weigh the equivalent of twelve elephants. Each. Eeuyuck. But panic ye not, I stuck my tongue out and persevered and I could have hugged the '1 km to go' sign! True work of magic on part of my iPod as 2 hrs 10 mins and 56 secs later (belieeeeeve me, every second counts in this kind of thing!) 'Eye of the Tiger' came on just in time for the death slide into City Beach for the finish!I. Am. Never. Doing. That. Again. (please somebody remind me of this when I get another one of these ideas in my head, pleeease.) But I do have a rather glamorous medallion that I might now wear every day of my life, rock on! Will try to get some pictures soon if I can...
In other news I had my last day of work on Friday (sob sob) at AED and am departing to climes of the north variety as I head up the West Coast in my beast of a car hopefully some time this week. I'm going to be a scummy traveller again, yay! It's going to be one helluva ride! And to counter my previous whinging (pom, tch) I now love the Australian Government because they gave me all my tax back (if anyone asks, I am an Australian resident...), YAY!
Right, enough of this. Chocolate time!!
