Roo+Lake (+Roo!)

Sat Rest
Sun 12.23pm 16.29km Roo+Lake+Roo 65m00  3m59 K's


Felt real good to get back on my home course.  
Pleased to see about 20 Roos in the paddock next to the golf course car park. 
Lot cooler with Brisbane's max getting to 22.7 C compared to say Cairns 26.7 C or Kowanyama 30.1 C.
Having been away for just under 5 weeks I am not sure I am going to get a pass from the Mrs to race next week!
I am doing my best to facilitate things, ironing and cooking this evenings dinner (BBQ !)

Heading Home

Fri 5.04pm 9.55km Esplanade 36m57  3m52 K's


I have finally finished my stint in Far North Queensland! I'm sitting at Cairns Domestic waiting to jump on QF709 to Brisbane so killing some time writing this.
Last night heading back out onto Esplanade 9.5KM for the last time. It was the normal hectic rush hour crowd so plenty of ducking and weaving.
KM times went ;
4m20, 3m50, 3m57, 3m53, 3m52, 3m47, 3m44, 3m43, 3m45, 2m02 (3m42 pace) so that is 38m40 pace for 10KM.
5 weeks away from family, 5 weeks away from Roo+Lake (or Lake+Roo), looking forward to getting some normality back into my life.

Kowanyama Dust

Mon 6.07pm Cairns Esplanade 9.54km 37m57 3m58 K's
Tues 4.02pm KowanZumba in Kowanyama 9.82km 42m34 4m20 K's
Wed 5.20pm Kowanyama Dust  12.05km 49m27  4m06 K's
Thur  6.07pm Cairns Esplanade 9.51km 38m22  4m02 K's

So Tues I headed back over to the Western side of Cape York, 8 hours on dirt roads.
This State is absolutely huge! Got to Kowanyama and put my kit on and ran 10K back up the dirt road.
Wednesday I took a different road and ran 12K, about 5 cars went past and each one throws us a dust cloud that lasts about 30 secs.
Temperature got up to 29.4 O C (85 O F)  = not bad for mid Winters day! 
The average max daytime temperature in June in Kowanyama in 30.7 O C, can you imagine this place in Summer??

The population of the community is about 1000 people, like Pormparaaw and Yarrabah, dogs easily out number the human population.
The photo I took above is typical of a single house dog population!
It was inevitable with me visiting about 50 homes over the month I would eventually find a dog that took exception and chomped me on the calf! (see photo!)
The remarkable thing is I didn't get mauled quite a bit more. Dogs are so territorial but these dogs seemed immune to having 'white' strangers with high visibility vests and big silly hats wandering around their homes and yards. In any typical city I would have had my ar$e bitten any number of times!
Flew back to Cairns today and jogged around the normal Cairns Esplanade 6miler.

Lake Placid

Sun 12.22pm 30km Lake Placid 2h07m59  4m15 K's
Sat 4.23pm 9.51km Esplanade  35m37  3m44 K's


I don't often run long distance and this afternoons expedition to Lake Placid in Baron Gorge National Park reminded why! Felt very flaccid when I got back and feel that it must have affected my thinking as I went to watch chick flick Bridesmaids ! What was I thinking?

Running with Crocs!

Stumpy

Thurs 6.24am  13.5KM Along the Beach 66m11   4m54K's
Fri 6.42am  10.05KM Beach Road 46m38  4m38 K's


Pormpuraaw was really cold (10 to 15 O C) in the mornings but really hot in the day (26 to 28 O C).
My morning runs along the beach were extremely slow possibly because it was so cold but also due to stiffness, sandy beach, wind and keeping an eye out for these monsters!
The photos I took yesterday are of a captive Croc living in a Crocodile Farm.
It is missing a front right foot so I called it Stumpy. 
I finished up work early on Fri and had enough time to head down to the Chapman River mouth which empties onto the Gulf of Carpentaria . Here I saw two Crocs catching the sun on the either side of the river.Which was just far enough away!
An awesome sight! 
Flew back to Cairns Fri arvo and am going to be heading back out to the Western Cape on Tuesday for a few days. This time, driving ! Kowanyama 
My prep for Gold Coast 10K has been rubbish (training and diet) but then I always intended to have a few months 'easy' before the build up to turning 50 in Sept!

Challenge Cairns Ironman Triathlon 2011

Snakes no Crocs!

Wed 6.34am 17.63km  85m12   4m49 K's

I waited till daylight 6.30am!! and ran down along the beach soft sand in places and wind on the turnaround. Really cold weather about 10 O C !! but it does warm up to around 27 O C.
No Crocs on view (too cold) but did see a snake on the beach.
Can anyone identify?

Out and Back in Pormpuraaw

Tues 5.32pm 11.28km Out & Back in Pormpuraaw 47m28  4m12 K's


I think I'm the very first person to run with a Garmin in Pormpuraaw! 
Went out and back = out of town as Police had warned they get about 20 dog bites here every month and there are an awful lot of dogs around town and the population here is only 600!
Thought I would brave a run through town in the morning to get to the beach, will take camera in the expectation I shall see some crocs!! 
Take a look at the map in Garmin and zoom out to see just how isolated this community is.
Today's run was out with a  tailwind and back into a raging head wind straight off the Gulf!
It didn't start to  get dark till 6.20pm here  compared to Brissey where it starts to get dark at 5.40pm

The Queens Birthday

Mon 1.27pm 9.5KM Esplanade  37m46  3m58 K's

Cooktown

Sun 12.15pm 22KM Freshwater Railway Station   91m07  4m08 K's


On 12th June 1770 Captain Cook's Endeavour got grounded on a reef just outside of what  became Cooktown .
The Town celebrates a reenactment of Cook's landing each Queen's Birthday long weekend. I made the journey up to Cooktown from Cairns 350km (700km return) yesterday and took the day as a recovery.
Today ran long and easy. Remarked at my first turnaround when I saw I'd run 3m58 real easy for the KM, then turned into a head wind and realised why I'd been running so easy.
26.5 O C in Cooktown yesterday but Cairns only got to 23.5 O C, still that was better than Brissey which suffered ones of those rare really cool days with a top of just 15 O C ! Temps are back up into mid 20's in Cairns today. Head off to Pormperaaw on Tuesday for a week , training should be interesting!!

These photos were taken yesterday on the journey North on the Lakeland Development Road.
The photos should be stitched together for the panorama , spectacular piece of real estate huh?

Hot One

Thur 5.19pm   Esplanade 9.59KM     34m38    3m36K's

1 00:04:01 1.00 04:01
2 00:03:36 1.00 03:36
3 00:03:36 1.00 03:36
4 00:03:37 1.00 03:37
5 00:03:38 1.00 03:38
6 00:03:36 1.00 03:36
7 00:03:33 1.00 03:33
8 00:03:30 1.00 03:30
9 00:03:24 1.00 03:24
10 00:02:01 0.59 03:26

It  was another hot one in tropical Far North Queensland (28 O C /82.4 O F), decided to brave rush our traffic along the Esplanade this evening, dodging hundreds of walkers and joggers going in all directions across the breadth of the Esplanade. It does mean some ducking and diving and weaving and anticipating pedestrian jaywalking with some near misses averted by fractions. I get a little miffed and as a result I speed up.
36min03 10K pace.

Stay on these roads

Wed 5.30am 9.55km Esplanade 37m16


4m23, 3m58, 4m01, 4m00, 3m53, 3m41, 3m49, 3m46, 3m40, 2m02 (3m42 pace)

Yuksek - On a Train

Mon 5.30am  9.44km Esplanade  42m19  4m29 K's
Tues 5.25am 9.55km Esplanade 39m07  4m06 K's

Cairns Challenge Ironman Triathlon

Sat 2.20pm Botanical Meander 8.9km 39m07   4m23
Sun 4.00pm 8 X 3min with 1min20 200m jog recovery


#1    2m58      0.95KM      3m08 K pace, 
#2    2m51      0.87KM      3m18 K pace
#3    2m55      0.85KM      3m20 K pace
#4    2m56      0.88KM      3m20 K pace
#5    2m51      0.87KM      3m16 K pace
#6    2m50      0.87KM      3m16 K pace
#7    2m50      0.87KM      3m16 K pace
#8    2m50      0.87KM      3m14 K pace


I spent most of the day watching the Cairns Challenge Ironman Triathlon and Half Ironman Triathlon. 
My upmost respect to all those who competed today in what looked like incredibly tough conditions. It got to 27 O C today and I noted even Macka Chris McCormack stopping off at the drinks stations in order to property take on board sufficient hydration, mind you he had time to spare as he was about 10mins in front of second place. He looked like an awesome machine. He must have swam 3.8km, cycled 180km and ran 42km in just over 8 hours in those conditions starting at 7.00am and finishing just after 3.00pm.
Consider those guys still out there now as I right this having slogged it out for 13hours so far! What must that do to your body? It made my intervals seem rather inadequate.
I took lots of photos but at the moment I cant download to this netbook.
In the Half Ironman you HuRTS lads will be pleased that Fast Charlie looked like he might get 3rd or 4th. 
I decided to run some intervals around a rough and rutted sports ground up at the North end on the Esplanade where the Ironmen were doing the U turn for the 3 or 4 laps of the Esplanade they were doing.


Results and link to full results here;

Elite Male

Name	State/Country	Finish	Swim	Cycle	Run
1. Chris McCormack	NSW, Australia	08:15:56	00:47:26	04:34:56	02:51:00
2.Matty White	SA, Australia	08:28:36	00:49:30	04:38:24	02:57:55
3.Tim Berkel	NSW, Australia	08:29:20	00:49:28	04:39:08	02:57:44
4.Jamie Whyte	Auckland, NZ	08:35:07	00:49:28	04:38:21	03:04:23
5.Clayton Fettell	NSW, Australia	08:36:14	00:43:48	04:38:15	03:10:59

Elite Female

Name	State/Country	Finish	Swim	Cycle	Run
1.Rebekah Keat	QLD, Australia	09:26:31	00:52:57	05:16:34	03:14:04
2.Michelle Mitchell	NT, Australia	09:30:41	00:53:00	05:17:21	03:16:10
3.Carrie Lester	QLD, Australia	09:34:56	00:55:20	05:11:48	03:24:50
4.Candice Hammond	Cambridge, NZ	09:43:03	00:57:26	05:11:26	03:29:54
5.Belinda Granger	QLD, Australia	09:44:41	00:52:56	05:13:32	03:34:34

Full results available at online.

Report here

Cairns Post 5KM Run for Cairns

Fri 7.30am 5.25km Cairns Post - Run  For Cairns  1st Open 17m03
Thur 5.24am 9.48km Esplanade 41m05 - 4m20 K's
Wed 5.13pm 9.56km Esplanade 34m37 - 3m37 K's


A result! happening to be working in Cairns and they hold a fun run as part of the Cairns Ironman Triathlon weekend. 
Unusual to have a race before work but 7.30am start meant it was not going to impact on my working day.
5km jog warm up, cloudless blue sky, slight chill in the air but perfect for running. A few hundred locals maybe a few out of towner's. As normal I started fast, only one start of race 'wanna be seen' Dick to overtake and then follow the lead out bike. Felt good for first 2K's, Garmin said 3m05 + 3m15, settled into it by third KM 3m16,
was able to see I had a clear lead at the turnaround. Cruised home 3m17 for 4th KM, 3m18 for 5th KM and 50 secs for an extra 250m (slow!), breasted the tape like a triathlete and gave interviews to press and TV (true!) - might be able to upload my 5 seconds of Cairns fame.
USM report here 
http://www.usmevents.com.au/Triathlon___Multi_Sport/Challenge_Cairns/Media___Gallery/Running_to_make_a_Difference.htm


Not sure how my ran Noosa comment got converted to completed the Noosa Tri !