and stopped running and sought remedies. I made a couple of premature attempts to restart running but it was not until July 2013 that I was able to start running again properly.
18 months in which cycling kept me sane though flying over the bonnet of a ute on 29th June 2012 could have left me in a different place. As it was a year on from my accident and I was riding like a cyclist rather than a runner. I cycled 26 times and rode 1200km in June 2013. So when I was able to restart running in July 2013 I had a solid background of fitness but it wasn't running fitness. To run train for 6 weeks and return to racing on 10/8/2013 at North Lakes parkrun and run 16;12 had me disbelieving the result in a pleasant way. I was gobsmacked and put it down to all those K's on the bike keeping me in shape. All those freezing cold mornings where I'd wear two pairs of gloves and even ended up wearing little cycle shoe booties to keep my oh so freezing cold feet from suffering frostbite paid off !
That parkrun performance gave me the confidence to deal with the horrendous torture of travelling to Gladstone and taking home $1000 for my troubles for the third time ;-)
Back to parkrun and this time a go at Sandgate in the hope that the flat out and back course would give me a faster time than at North Lakes. Have to admit I was disappointed with another 16;12 at the time but that was just the competitive animal in me that always still wants to run faster!
Into September and the biggest race on the Brisbane calendar is Bridge to Brisbane. This year I opted to run the 5KM race rather than the larger field of the 10km because I dislike the logistics of getting to and from a point to point race and I didn't think I was ready to race a 10km at that stage. The Young Guns also tend to opt for this race so it was with some bruvado that I led out the first 1km of the race!
3;03 was simply too fast for me I think I overcooked on the hill over the inner city bypass but still managed a half decent performance for 10th place overall. Disappointed the course was short so I couldn't compare my performance with the parkruns but average 3;15K's placed it on a par.
21st September saw me back at Masters. After getting over the shock of seeing Peter Reeves I ran 3000 in 9;36.
On my 52nd birthday I ran parkrun North Lakes and ran ran 16;12 for the third time in a row - Feck Me! Still the extra number on my age brought me a better age grade performance and 92.49% was the best age grade performance that weekend in parkrun global results.
Back to the track and a 9;31 3000m in the wake of Dennis Fitzgerald was an OK improvement 3;10 K's.
Back for another shot at parkrun and promised myself that if I managed the extraordinary feet of running 4 X 16;12 I would run a lap of the lake naked!
In the end I ran a 16;09 at North Lakes for a 92.78% age grade. Finally an improvement though of course I was not happy with only 3 seconds.
Another Sandgate parkrun and the Coolnight classic saw me close out my racing for the year.
A calf strain in November saw me loose three weeks running and get back on the bike. I have been running again through December and looking forward to getting back to racing.
2013
Cycled 5,866.12km 28.6km/h 125bpm
Ran 1829.06km 14.3km/h 143bpm
2012
Cycled 3538.39km 25.5km/h 124bpm
Ran 1277.354km 13.7km/h 143bpm
2011
Cycled 56.5km 24.1km/h
Ran 3297km 14.5km/h 145bpm
2010 Sept27 to Dec31
Ran 966km 14.6km/h 145bpm
