Sunday 20th May 2012 Great Ocean Road Half marathon (and a bit)

Cathy has been training fairly consistently over the past 3 months for this event and it was a great excuse to get down to Apollo Bay for a weekend too. The weather was perfect for running - cool but sunny without too much wind. On Saturday we watched the shorter events and were surprised at how fast Steve Monaghetti(ex Australian marathon champion) stormed home in second place in the 6km run. He also did the 14km run then completed the half marathon ahead of Cathy on Sunday!

Cathy was up early to eat a slice of toast before cacthing the bus to the start line at 6am. Over 2000 runners watched the sun rise as they queued for the toilets! The race began at 8am. The first 12-13 kms had a few hills to run up and down but the rest was flat. Scenery was great and my new photochromatic sunglasses adjusted as the sun rose higher.

The organisers weren't satisfied with just a half marathon - they added a couple of extra kms to make it 23kms! They gave us a time at the half marathon distance though and I was delighted to see the online time was better than the last half marathon I did in 2008. Officially I ran 1:52:18 - 16th in my category and better than I expected. Perhaps I haven't slowed down as much as I thought. David has video evidence that I still looked fresh as a daisy at the end.

Next event "Run Melbourne" 10km run for fun and fundraising for Monash Children's on July 15th.

Back to Binna Burra

Many years ago, we enjoyed a holiday at Binna Burra Lodge in the Gold Coast hinterland. So we were very excited to hear that the APS meeting would be here.

We arrived in the dark, but woke to a sunny morning and headed out on a guided walk with the group. Despite the damp rainforest, only one person donated blood to a leech.

The view from the lookout extended out to the Gold Coast. The rainforest was amazing. The sessions have been very interesting with great speakers but it was good to get outdoors again this afternoon for a walk around the Caves Circuit.