Bucket list event for every runner, 500km relay, run West of Brissey in the hot undulating Lockyer Valley. Started Friday at 4.30am {so I was up at 2.00am to get to the start} met up with 6foot legend and team captain Donney Wallace and picked up the rest of the North side runners and met up at Griffiths Uni Nathan campus for Criterion that kicks things off.
I went in Crit Two, 7.00km over three laps with one long hill and one short decent. How do you 'race' 7km when you've got to back up 5 times over the next 2 days?
Tried to take it easy 'letting' teammate Dennis Fitzgerald disappear on the decent on lap 1, caught him going up the long hill second time but carried a group with me including our young Kieran Staunch who is an absolute superstar of the future {but more likely going to be a triathlete}, he had take part in the first crit finishing 2nd to our James Webster [who is another young running machine with such talent and prospects]. Kieran was too strong for me and glided away on the final ascent to win from me in 2nd {3;20's I think).
We then head West to start the relay proper and I'm not back on till late afternoon.
All I remember was how hot it was getting how hard the hills were becoming and little did I know!
Here is my 2nd leg of the day 5.5km in 3;26's - undulating with a killer 21kmph headwind all the way and 32 O C !!
So Friday night the team stays overnight in a school dorm somewhere, 19 runners 1 volunteer driver Russel and 1 supporter (Ellen). Chicken and salad rolls and a couple of beers for sleeping purposes.
The kids in the team keep us awake from 9 till 9;30pm playing table tennis but we eventually fall asleep in the uncomfortably warm conditions.
Other teams staying at the same place decide they need to get up at 3.00am for the 4.30 start = not what we had in mind with our clocks set at 4.00am we were rudely awakened!
I felt OK but had some issues with my hammy which I massaged for the rest of the trip.
My first leg of the day is about 6.00am a 3km criterion/race style leg with two other members of our team starting together with all the other teams for a near straight down the road 6.3km. Clay Dawson was up for 'In Training'.
At the start I took the lead , running steady but still 3m15km first km. Myself and team mate Chris Waters had gapped Clay (still coming back to form following the 3 marathons in a month slaughter his body went through). Chris and I took it turns to lead, but I could hear Chris labouring a little in the breathing and looking down the road saw a bloody great hill we'd be climbing and determined I could ease away from here there which I did for the win in 21;28 at 3;25 KMs
It proved my credentials in a team of selected runners I was mostly meeting for the first time.
I dont remember that much about my run Saturday afternoon but there were something I do remember. It was getting bloody hot, Garmin records the run as 42 O C which is like 110 O F for you Americans!
It was so important to have our team water van ply us with drinks.Garmin stats say the run was 5.24km at 17;32 or 3;21 K's. Note my heart rate appears to max out 210bpm when I normally can only achieve 180bpm Max so not sure if there was a glitch because it dropped down to a silly level like 140'ish or if 'the incident' had an affect?
What 'incident'?
Out on the lonely road feeling nothing but the devastating effects of running in the heat and I'm coming up to overtake one of the other teams, a mixed team of triathletes. So I'm about to pass the women running in one of those run skirts and she lifts it up exposing her arse to me! Takes my mind away from the pain for a few seconds, I make some crude, grabbing like gesture for the benefit of my follow team in the car behind (as well as myself!) and sail on past without saying 'thanks!' or 'do you mind!'
Never happened to me before!
Saturday nights accommodation a cabin at a caravan park in Toowoomba normally pretty cold (its up in the ranges) but not that night and no air con!
So Sunday dawned and temperature were forecast in the mid 40's!
I borrowed Brian McMannus's hand held roller for the hammy that seemed to work wonders in getting it right.
Before my first stage Denis Fitzgerald had the pleasure of the run down the Toowoomba range where he recorded a 5km section on his Garmin at 14;10!!
(4km downhill)
My first leg was a pretty flat, just one dip and rise as the road crossed a creek (river), the sun felt like it was angled straight at me as I slow cooked straight down the road.
I spooked a herd of cows that were hemmed into a narrow roadside enclosure between the road and a ploughed field. As I ran along I spooked more and more and as the stampede gathered momentum picking up more and more in number I tried running over the other side of the road to calm them down and no harm was done.
4.76km in 15m20 @ 3m13 Km's
So my last leg would be in the middle of the afternoon, it was stinking hot there was a blast furnace wind frying us out there supporting the others along the way.
You really didn't want to leave the air con of the bus for the seconds it took to cheer your teammate as they pass by, cooking on the street.
The roads were melting quite literally.
The final stage was a criterium (race) stage with 6 of our best runners starting (Denis had slaughtered himself on the downhill morning stage!). The route followed a former rail corridor from Lowood to Fernvale.
At this stage I could barely stand being outside, I took a very short jog down the trail to answer the call of nature in some trackside bush (previously having shat that day by a telegraph pole and a storm culvert under a road!). The talk on the bus was how hot does it have to get to call this off?
Earlier in the day's morning criterion the boys had run as a team and I was keen to get our guns to do likewise but the guys told me our teams star runner James Webster would never countenance anything but an all out, full on , effort regardless of conditions.
So off we go, Team Nike Victory go straight into top 6 positions and cruise through 1km in 3;15 ! The surface is a loose cinder pathway reflecting the heat straight back onto us. Jame's leads the way I'm second, we get to 2km in another 3;20 and I'm feeling it, I drop back into 5th position hoping I'm not going to be our last scorer. Then I see Jarryd Grantham and Lachlan Pascoe coming back to me.
I say to myself I'm going to have these kids.
Jarryd waves me through with about 1500m to go so I'm 3rd scorer on the road (trail) and would be pretty happy with that (delirium had set in with the heat!).
However, good on him, Jarryd who is a 1500m gun was never going to let a grey haired wrinkled scrawny git like me beat him without a fight and gunned it with 500m to go and pulls out 5 seconds on me! (At least I beat Lachlan and Chris).
James Webster and Matt Carlsson had pulled out 40 or 50 seconds on me up front.
4.27km 14;14 or 3;20 Kms (of Purgatory).
What a weekend!
I took Monday and Tuesday off to let my body recover which it did!
Reports of my early demise are somewhat exaggerated!
Nike Team Victory = the best bunch of guys (and Kylie) you'd want to be spend 3 days just all round great guys who love running like me.
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