Training Log Archive: jennycas

Across to Fannie Bay then south along Mindil beach, followed by some accidental detours through Larrakeyah; found my way around Doctors Gully after a couple of tries, then along the CBD clifftops and back through Stuart Park. Managed better than expected but also took longer than expected (feeling very slow this week and have been overtaken by numerous athletic females, which is rather a blow to my ego) and by the end neuroma/knee/hamstring were all nasty. Either everyone waters their lawns first thing in the morning or it was rather humid (by my standards at least), and when I got home I was quite sweaty so jumped in S&L's pool, which was a perfect temperature for cooling off in!

C • Darwin = Humid 4

Spent the rest of our last day in Darwin
a) at Parap markets with George
b) attending a Thermomix demonstration with Susanne and some of the other TEO women - the boys threatened to confiscate our credit cards before we went! It was surprising how three hours can go so quickly when you're being shown the versatility of a $1900 food processor and sampling the delicacies which can be created therein :)
c) walking with Sus & Lachlan across to the beach and dining at the waterski club. It was a perfect sunset, a good steak x 3 (not to mention Susanne's massive burger) and we had the opportunity to critique a wedding which was going on next door. Only sour note: not the aboriginal guy who came and asked us for our leftovers, but the bloke who then came and kicked him out (I mean we could have told the aboriginal guy to go away if that's the way we had felt, but the other bloke had no right to butt in on us; it's not like he worked there or anything).

Up the steep (unrunnable) steps to the lookout above the river just in time to see the sun rise goldenly, and watch the first cruise boat of the morning pass below. Back down via the service road for the summit tanks; knees pretty stiff and decided not to do a longer run on an empty stomach. Anyway, none of the bushwalks really go anywhere near the water until they descend a side gorge at their far end.

Lunched at Adelaide River and detoured to swim in Berry Springs on the way back to Darwin. A camping holiday is the best kind :)

C • Sounds beaut 2

From the campground at Edith Falls (pretty popular and very good value at $9/person) up the escarpment and to Sweetwater Pool, beautiful in the morning light, and from which campground bushwalkers finishing the 66km Jatbula trail were emerging. Ground was pretty rough underfoot and slow going with potential for ankle-rolling, but they survived. Last night I ate about 3 times as much pasta for dinner as George did, after we did the Upper Pool loop walk just on sunset, and so I felt a bit better running today.

Lunched in Katherine, got wet in the thermal springs (which reminded me more than a little of Eli Creek on Fraser Island) just south of town, then drove out to Katherine Gorge in time to set up camp (gulp! $36 for an unpowered site!) before taking a gorge cruise which was lovely with the afternoon light reflecting off the vertical walls.

East Point & return, very slowly. Not going to measure it 'cos I may even have been running slower than I did on Sunday. Absolutely empty this morning, despite having eaten half a roast duck when we went for dinner at the pub last night with Seb, Dave, Ezy who were staying with Zoe.

Anyway, it was very scenic (should have taken my camera, but may ride out there another day) and I explored the monsoon forest, ran on the beach a bit, crossed Vestey's Lake and came home to procrastinate on packing our gear to head south for a couple of days (either Katherine Gorge or Kakadu but George & I still haven't decided...).

C • Kakadu - both good but Kath... 2

Almost the reverse of last night, but with Fern/Tyson, Jim, Susanne/Lachlan (it was a full house last night) and starting by retrieving Tyson's compass from Susi's house in Fannie Bay. Then we ran along the beach and had to rock-hop the section below the museum before coming up through the gardens. Still buggered, but I think we all were.

Down through the botanic gardens across to Mindil Beach just in time to watch the sun setting over the Arafura sea (a classic Darwin experience) then up past Vesteys Lake and back from Fannie Bay through Parap. The window between stiffness loosening up and neuroma playing up was pretty narrow and the whole run overlaid with a veneer of fatigue. But the pizza Susanne made was pretty good.

George & I walked down to the carpark, breakfast in hand, just on daylight to shepherd Brown's cows (yes,I realise that's a mixed metaphor or something) for an hour or so and I made it to the start with 6 min to spare.

Started with Anna and I got tangled up in the one patch of grass which Sus & Lachlan hadn't got around to burning, so got a bit behind her, but then she went up one hill too early (a common occurrence, and the reason why Susanne had set the excellent long first leg) and I trotted around & up the gully, only slightly surprised to see the remote start as Anna came across the hill and was out of sight before I got to the first control. Then I ran nearly all of the course by myself. Worked out very quickly that I was faster along a clear gully (and some of them were very subtle) than across the rocky knolls, and used the same approach to bearings that I did last night. Even though I didn't benefit from any other runners around me I still liked the butterfly loops and the navigation involved. Liked the long legs too. Passed Clare on the short 20-21 up north and then on the long leg back south was pleased to see both Catherine and Ezy towards the end, confirming my bearing.

A solid run, never very fast but only real time loss was where I looked up the hill and saw something orange which I took to be my control on a boulder but which turned out to be some leaves about 100m further uphill than I needed to be (oops). I guess I do run comparatively better in terrain which hasn't much stuff underfoot for me to lift my dodgy hamstring over. Pity Tas won't be like that.

So many interstaters volunteered to collect controls that Susanne & Lachlan didn't have to get any themselves. I did go with Lachlan in the ute along their (hand-crafted) track to the remote start to then walk out and collect water kegs - which were almost full; but on a hotter more humid day that could have been very different, so the water needed to be out there. We were home with the truck unpacked by 5pm and then three exhausted sweaty filthy little rascals jumped in S&L's pool.

C • Great recounts! 1