running long (temporary orphan's run) 3:46:08 [3] 37.8 km (5:59 / km) +670m 5:30 / km
shoes: Asics Gel 2140
With parents in Darwin and George hopefully nearly to Sydney (poor bugger drove all of yesterday), I was answerable only to the dog this morning, who I cruelly abandoned in order to go for a run. The fanatics half had been on the cards but once Tyson piked and John/Simon were talking about pacing Lauren for a sub-90 time, I couldn't see the point in running 21km on bitumen by myself.
So I did something much nicer, and it was probably the run I've enjoyed most all year. (I am strange; not only do I like long runs but I like running by myself.)From home, across through Mitcham, Waite and Glen Osmond to Waterfall Gully Rd, along it to the waterfall which is still flowing beautifully (15km, 86min - I really wasn't hurrying) up to Mt Lofty summit (4km, 38min, 460m climb) where I ate a nutrigrain bar and watched the blue wrens flitting around, and a few walkers huffing and puffing to the top. My back was annoying me on the last steep climb but I guess I shouldn't have been trying to shift a queen-size bed by myself in the spare room at midnight!
Ratio of female to male runners I saw today was 6:2, and most of the walkers were female. All the cyclists were male though, including John Such to whom I said hello at the Waterfall Gully kiosk.
There were a couple of Indian tourists taking photos of each other at the top, which reminded me of the Christmas morning in Katoomba where there was so much fog that you couldn't see the Three Sisters from Echo Point, and yet there was a busload of Japanese all lining up and posing together in front of the whiteout!
Anyway, then I had to run back down, but that was the easy bit. Summit Rd through Crafers, then down Sheoak, Pony Ridge switchbacks (3hrs to the bottom) and Brownhill Creek. So nice with the butterflies flitting along the singletrack and the yellow-tailed blacks in the trees. I don't run very fast but I sure got faster at texting while running, by the end of the morning. Very proud of Lauren's 88 for the half; she's come a long way this year - 21km of it this morning :)
Now I have to find something to wear for lunch with grandparents where it won't be too obvious that I am wearing skins underneath...