Having arrived in Australia without a single run in the previous 8 weeks due to a combination of chest infections and work related travel I did what any Harrier would do – immediately start running again. So after three fairly short and less than inspiring runs in the Perth sunshine and heat of around 30 degrees I decided to get the vest out and advertise the club in the recently started Lake Joondalup Park Run sited around 25 minutes north of Perth.
The race here starts at 8am before the heat gets "too" intense which meant a fairly sobering 7.15 departure from the house. No one else took up the offer to come along and support…. Saturday was the 17th week of the event and as you’ll see in the photo I arrived and found a plethora of Santa outfits congregating around a barbeque pit at the park with people going over to show their numbers and pre-register. Thinking this was a slightly different approach I photographed them and then approached with a smile and proferred my Park Run Bar Code. “Eh no, you’ll want the athletes over there then mate”….was the answer. Having been invited not to participate in whatever their event was, I decided to ask no more....
The race is a bit like Strathclyde Park with the out and back route but without the grumpy walkers, the soggy grass and the theme park.
After 1k I was moving along fine but knew that 3-5k be tough as I was still getting back in the groove – and this seemed to be going mainly downhill. By 2k I had been passed by a rather starved looking Santa wearing the kind of tight lycra George would be proud of….this must be how Santa gets thin enough to fit down your chimney at Christmas….anyway I estimated I was in a group of three placed 10th to 12th in the field.
Having turned a loop round at 3k the route back was pleasantly surprising in that it still seemed to have downhills despite the fact I had thought downhill on the out leg. But my lungs were now absolutely on fire with the warm air. In the space of about fifteen minutes the temperature felt like it had gone through the roof so making it back to the finish was a matter of counting down the minutes and the metres in my head to keep it going. In the end I finished in 21:40 and having dropped the other two in my wee pack, ended up with 10th place.
http://www.parkrun.com.au/lakejoondalup/results/latestresults
Despite all the talk of up and downhills in the above my Garmin says the course was as flat as a pancake so who knows, I might even try it again next week!
David
4 comments:
well done David, our Parkruns were blighted by ice yesterday, a far cry from your conditions.
Great report David and a good time in those conditions (de-trained and hot!). Always inspiring to see the Calderglen vest travelling far and wide.
I see you were first of the Scottish clubs too (someone from Linlithgow AAC some minutes behind you).
That's got to be the farthest any Harrier has gone for a park run.
Whats wrong David do you prefer the sunshine to the ice we have.
I went to Victoria and it was cancelled so made a dash to Pollock, missed the start but ran anyway with the start very slippy and found out later they had used an alternate start. my official time is about 3mins out but I ran the real course.
David, I seem to remember you saying something about doing an Ironman while you were in the Land of Oz so I am taking it this was just a wee acclimatisation run prior to the main event !! Enjoy the sunshine it is better than the ice. Billy B
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