I am a big fan of this product and have reached out to the distributor and got a 20% discount code until the end of the year. If you go to the Australian website (below) you can get 20% off the spray and recovery bandages, use the code runbkrun21
If you need more detailed information go to the main website https://humantecar.com/en/ which goes into more detail but it has some pretty powerful advocates as mentioned above.
I have used the spray and the bandages on many occasions and genuinely felt better for it. The first time I tried the bandages was after I ran for 47 hours at Birdy’s Frontyard Ultra. As you can imagine I was a tad sore the next day so a perfect chance to try the bandages and they didn’t disappoint. No 1 Wife wasn’t that excited about the smell but I reckon it was sweet, hey come on these things were invented in Italy, if I can smell like an Italian Stallion that’s cool with me.
All joking aside these products do exactly what they say they do and that’s help runners keep running so in my book its money well spent. Please note I have received nothing for this promotion bar the good feeling of knowing I may have helped a few more runners take advantage of these great products, and save a few dollars as well.
From the Australian Website:-
The human story behind Human Tecar® in Australia
02 March 2020
A lot of people ask about the story behind Human Tecar’s arrival in Australia.
Well, this is our story…
It was mid-2018 and we were off to see my wife’s family in Italy. As with any family trip, there was a lot to plan. For us, there was also a lot to consider.
You see, my wife sees a physio once (sometimes twice) a week to keep things in check—manual therapies, dry needling, pilates. Unfortunately, it’s been this way for most of her adult life. Her body is a volatile combo of fibromyalgia, chronic neck/back issues, migraines, and auto-immune disease.
So as part of our planning, I had my wife’s physio notes translated into Italian before we left (just in case).
When the holiday became reality, it had its usual challenges: long flights, delayed flights, uncomfortable hotel beds, and loads of luggage.
After about twelve days, it all caught up with my wife. She was now confined to our hotel room—curtains closed to keep out the light; her back and neck seized; and migraines taking hold.
The hotel gave us the address for a local physio. The clinic was about twenty minutes drive away and if my wife’s situation wasn’t bad enough, me driving in Italy was only making things worse.
When we arrived, we shared our pre-prepared physio notes. And thanks to Google Translate, we were able to engage in some basic two-way conversation.
The physio kept referring to ‘Human Tecar’. We’d never heard of it. But by this time—and in this situation—we didn’t have much choice.
I left my wife to finish the treatment and I waited in reception with our son. When my wife walked out, she had tears in her eyes.
My first thought: the treatment hadn’t worked.
My second thought: what do we do now with two weeks left in Italy?
Fortunately, those overwhelming emotions were good ones. The tears dried and I could see the life back in her eyes.
My wife hugged the physio goodbye. I souvenired a business card from the front desk. And we went back to being tourists again.
The treatment remained stable. We finished the next two weeks of our family trip and arrived back in Australia keen to pursue this ‘new’ technology.
Upon returning home to Perth, we enthusiastically shared the experience with my wife’s physio. He’d never heard of it.
I reverted (as you do) to Google. The search results suggested Australia had ever heard of it either.
Still intrigued, I contacted my wife’s cousin back in Rome who (coincidentally) coaches track and field. He answered my query with the kind of tone that suggests I really didn’t do enough research…
“John, everyone knows Human Tecar.”
Well, as we now know, not everyone does.
So I went straight to the source: reaching out to Human Tecar’s head office in Italy. I started the conversation around Human Tecar’s presence (or current absence) in the Australian market.
“Why are we yet to see Human Tecar in Australia?”
In a nutshell, compared to big global medtech companies, you could say Human Tecar is a ‘boutique’ company. After 25 years, it is still run by its passionate founder, Mario Scerri. Mr Scerri and his team of specialists maintain a very personal relationship with the athletes and medical professionals they work with—and they take the same approach with their distributors.
Historically, much of their focus has been direct with elite sporting organisations and athletes—Ferrari Racing, Atletico Madrid, Nike, Adidas, INSEP, etc, etc. The frontline of professional sport has always been the ultimate proving ground for Human Tecar; fine-tuned environments where recovery and (p)rehab can make or break careers.
And back to my point about Australia…
Well honestly, we were simply a country that hadn’t yet been considered. Compared to the USA, China and the rest of western Europe, our market is relatively small. To complicate things, our regulatory body is one of the strictest in the world.
Despite its market challenges, the team at Italy’s head office spoke highly about the Australian physio industry. And the prospect of actually seeing Human Tecar Down Under was something that Mario Scerri himself was quite excited about.
So what began as a conversation around Human Tecar for my wife, soon became a conversation around Human Tecar for Australia.
As the company shared more behind-the-scenes information, we began to learn more and more about Human Tecar’s case studies with athletes.
And when they talk about athletes, it’s not about sponsorships or ambassador roles. It’s about some of the most remarkable success stories in modern sport, including Usain Bolt’s career-defining hamstring injury (and recovery) in the lead up to Rio.
So what began as a random holiday experience in a small Italian village quickly developed into a greater appreciation for Human Tecar and its capabilities in physiotherapy, rehabilitation, S&C and high performance.
Getting a greater understanding of the ‘bigger picture’ led to the launch of our company, Athleticus.
By early 2019, our budding Australian company would go on to establish the first partnership with Human Tecar in the Southern Hemisphere.
In April 2019, we launched Human Tecar in Australia, with Human Tecar’s Sports & Strength Recovery Specialist, Cristian Martinelli, flying in from Italy.
Representing Athleticus at the launch was our lead physio and trainer, Mattia Fredella (ex-CONI in Rome and trained by Human Tecar’s academy in Italy).
Joining our team in Brisbane were Nathan Carloss (Integrated Physio Centre) and Thomas Harvey (Recovery Science) – both of whom were trained on Human Tecar’s suite of technology by Mr. Martinelli.
Speaking that evening was our guest, Nigel Smith from Brisbane Sports & Spinal Physiotherapy. Nigel presented an insight into his recent PhD thesis that researched the prevalence of hamstring injuries in elite football players.
Socceroo, Brett Holman, also took the mic to share his own personal story overcoming injuries in elite sport. His time playing in Holland exposed him to Human Tecar where the technology was an integral part of the club’s rehab, recovery, and strength & conditioning programmes.
Although it is still very early days for us here in Australia, our team has already followed in the footsteps of Human Tecar on the world stage, proving the effectiveness of the technology with some of Australia’s most respected athletes. There have also been recent opportunities where the Athleticus team has worked alongside visiting physio and medical teams from the world’s best international athletes.
And now, with each new day, the story goes on…
If you want to find out more about the Human Tecar story in Australia, shoot me an email via petkovic@athleticus.com.au or feel free to give me a call on 0418 742 551.
Last weekend I raced my first ‘last man (woman) standing event‘, a USWA event, dubbed Birdy’s Backyard. ( https://ultraserieswa.com.au/ ) The concept comes from the Big Dog Backyard Ultra described below by the Guardian. Our version is called Birdy’s Backyard named as the owner of the land on which Shaun staged the first event in 2019, the name will of course stick. It is the same distance as it’s big brother in the states thereby allowing for the possibility of a qualifying event for the Big Dog in the future ? As described below the concept is simple, you have an hour to run a 6.7k loop (4.16667 miles) on the hour , every hour, meaning the field all start together , on the hour, until there is only one person left, he , or she, is the winner while the rest of the field are all DNF’d (Did Not Finish)
A loop eternal: welcome to the Big Dog Backyard Ultra
It’s a simple conceit – a slightly more than four-mile loop that you run once an hour until all your competitors have dropped out. All very straightforward, until you hear how far the winner ran ….
Run a single loop measuring 4.16667 miles within a single hour. Now do it again. And again. Now keep doing it – starting a new loop on the hour, regardless of how fast you finish the previous one – until there’s only one runner willing or capable of doing so. Welcome to the simple – some might say sadistic – concept of the Big Dog Backyard Ultra in Bedford County, Tennessee.
“The apparently weird loop-distance has in fact been carefully chosen so each 24 hours equals running a perfect 100 miles,” says Guillaume Calmettes, the Frenchman who is the current Big Dog Backyard Ultra champion. “Another twist is that every 12 hours you change between a daytime trail loop to a night-time road loop, and because the road loop has less elevation gain – and is of course less technical – than the trail loop, then reaching the road loops gives you the opportunity to get a bit more rest time in between loops, and more time to take care of yourself before starting the next one.”
Calmettes winning distance was an incredible 246 miles. That’s 59 loops over 59 consecutive hours.
Obviously the Bad Dog Backyard Ultra isn’t for everyone. It’s leftfield events like this and the infamous Barkley Marathons – both devised by the savant of suffering, Lazarus Lake – that attract a certain breed of ultra runner. The 2017 edition had one of the deepest fields to date, or as Calmettes puts it, “everything you want for good entertainment: Barkley finisher; 24hr world championship medalist; Badwater champion; Vol-State 500k champion; six-day running specialists; 100-mile winners, and so on. It was pretty humbling being surrounded by greatness everywhere,” he says.
So how to approach a race with no discernible end – a race where your competitors dwindle as the physiological and psychological torment picks off victim after victim? Quite easily, it seems, if you’re Calmettes. “Because there is no predefined finish, you cannot think in terms of ‘how many miles do I have left before this thing is all over’, so in fact, I found it very easy mentally. I just had to think about the next loop. The next loop, always the next loop, it’s very easy thinking,” he says. “You’re never overwhelmed by what you have left to run, because you simply don’t know what you have left to run.” In this case ignorance is, without doubt, bliss.
Another unique aspect of the Big Dog that turns the traditional race experience on it’s head is position. It doesn’t matter if you finish a loop quickest or slowest. Once you finish it within the given hour, every runner begins the new loop tied for first place. In fact, it almost sounds easy. Until it sinks in once again that Calmettes ran for almost two and a half days straight – through storms and rain – to take the prize. It’s a measure of his character that the race’s highpoint for him wasn’t, in fact, winning but a moment when his last surviving rival, Harvey Lewis, finished loop number 56 with only two seconds to spare. The two took off into the next loop like a couple of sugared up school kids – ticking it off in just 41 minutes. “Pushing on a muddy and slippery trail loop with a friend after 57 hours is something special and pretty fun,” he says.
The end came soon after, Lewis quietly dropping out during the 59th loop – leaving Calmettes to unknowingly complete what was to be his final, winning lap.
“The problem when you win Big Dog Backyard Ultra is that it means that you did not really reach your limits; your race stopped because all the others runners called it quits, not because you decided that it was enough,” he says. “Now that I know that I can cover at least 246 miles and stay awake for 59 hours straight, I am even more curious of what I can really do. So yes, I am definitely coming back, and hopefully we’ll hit a third night next year.”
As a final, devious twist, the prize for winning is a starting place at the Barkley Marathons. Will Calmettes take up the offer? “Of course! You cannot say no to a Barkley entry,” he says.
Right, off we go. The race was due to start on Friday at 10am and being a 3-4 hour drive (from Perth) (depending if you let Amy navigate !) most runners left Perth Thursday and slept the night at the race location. This wasn’t a hardship for a number of reasons. One, I traveled with Adam who has a caravan so we cocooned ourselves in van luxury for the evening and the race, and two the race itself is around a beautiful lake which was resplendent for the whole event, albeit a tad on the cool side for my liking especially in the evening.
After an nervous evening meeting all the other runners and mentally preparing ourselves for the adventure ahead we all settled down for the last good nights sleep for at least a few days. In the morning we awoke to the lake in its full glory, a magnificent view presented itself to us and we knew we would run in perfect conditions. How does Shaun Kaesler do it? In my view a small price to pay for a soul Shaun and thanks buddy.
The Lake the morning of the race…stunning !
A few of the usual suspect had made the journey down with me, namely Adam, Rob, Rhys, Neil, Justin, Amy, Rob, Jon to name but a few. We all got ourselves ready and ambled up to the start with the rest of the 120 or so starters. The lap itself was pretty cool, luckily because we were about to do quite a few laps on it. The first kilometre was good running before you ran through what looked like a graveyard of old caravans. There must have been well over a hundred. Speaking to the owners of the caravan park it seems the water skiers tow their boat to the lake but leave the caravan and just ask the owners to tow them to their site when they turn up for their annual holiday. After the caravan graveyard there’s another kilometre or so of track before you run on the side of the lake, cross a small bridge and then a few kilometres of meadow running before finishing running though a , dry, swamp area. Throw in a couple of small water jumps and some challenging terrain under foot and you have the making of a great loop.
Images of the course. (which don’t do it justice !)
So what was everybodies goal ? We all had differing expectations. Jon wanted to win it, Adam wanted to get to use his head torch for at least one lap, (he was carrying a knee and back inury!) Rob was targeting an Ultra PB, beating his current 51k record, while Amy and I were looking at 24 laps and our first 100 miler distance. None of us knew what to expect of course never having ran a race where you are continually stopping and starting so we made sure we all packed our massage guns (you do have a massage gun right?) and these were to prove invaluable as the race progressed, as the image below shows..
Guns out for the ladies? Adam, Rob and I. (Chairs supplied by Adam , and they were awesome..)
In the image below you have a few shots of our camp setup. Myself and Adam were in the business class section in his caravan, while the rest of the crew suffered outside in the freezing conditions or scuttled off into their tents. Trust me that caravan was worth it’s weight in gold later in the evening when the temperatures plummeted. While I was embracing the vans heater the guys outside where cocooned outside wrapped in sleeping bags and thermal jackets but still freezing. It can be a cruel world running ultras but I feel they learnt a valuable lesson and one they will take with them next year, I’m expecting to see a lot more caravans and Winnebago’s next year. Jon , as always, was very well prepared but I feel this time he may have outdone himself. I reckon he had more food on his aid station that the event’s version and I’m sure a few runners found themselves at Jon’s table assuming it was the event one , only to be sent packing by Jon ! Truth be told he didn’t really make a dent in his tukka as he was also visiting the events aid station for fear he would run out. ! Bottom right of the image below you can see the coffee van which also did some really nice toasted sandwiches. I had one before the event but none on the day as I never got it together to either queue or ask someone to arrange a coffee for my return. No worries, next year I’ll get some support. (Jeff did promise to come along this year but he saw the temperatures predicted for the event and thought better of it ! Can’t blame him really, 30- 40 hours of watching runners run round and round in circles, in freezing conditions, is not that enticing funnily enough?)
A few shots of the camp and Jon’s provisions (and Jon sleeping !) and the view from my bed in the caravan.
Below, starting from top left, you have me and Rob enjoying the daylight on the first day. Then Adam and Rob relaxing after setting new PB’s and now keeping warm and encouraging us runners who were left, before scuttling off to bed. The rest of the shots are of the local crew at various times during Friday morning and afternoon and the bottom middle shot is the last 13 runners about to set off on lap 24, 100 miles.
Right back to the race. What’s it like running a ‘Last man standing event‘ that will probably last longer than you’ve ever run before with numerous stops before starting again on the hour, every hour ? It is ace. That about sums it up, it really is the best fun you will ever have in a running event. but there is a caveat of course. If you decide to see how far you really can push yourself than fun soon disappears and you enter the dark world of the ultra runner, pushing themselves to depths of despair that any normal person cannot imagine and, in this case , you do in on the hour, every hour. Yep, this event can become an evil mistress and the rewards are great but the price you need to pay will be a big one. This is the real point of the event, it allows each runner to go to places they will have never been before and may never go again, in the relative safety of only ever being a few kilometres from safety. No running alone , kilometres from help and facing many more kilometres to even get to an aid station to DNF. In a looped event you have the relative security and comfort of being a maximum of roughly 3km, in any direction, from the start or finish. There is also the added benefit of support every 40-50 minutes and a rest before starting again, this is what allows the runner to go further than a normal event. Did I put myself in that dark place only an ultra runners knows ? Unfortunately not , ok, there were a few Goggin’s moments between midnight and the sunrise but once the sun was up the last few hours were probably the easiest as I could smell the finish. Would that have been different if I had decided to run until I dropped ? Definitely, but this target was 24 hours of running and entry to the elusive 100 miler club and also a big tick of kudos before I faced the Delirious West again in February. ( http://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ ) Finishing strong after 24 hours was more important than pushing myself to exhaustion, this year anyway, next year it will be a different story.
Other positives was the camaraderie of the event. The start and finish area would be a hive of activity for 20 or so minutes when all the runners stumble in, refuel, re-hydrate , change their clothes etc (the list is endless) and then at a minute past the hour it’s back to being a very big campsite with the support crew left to their own devices and the coffee van, probably? In that hub of activity everybody is on a runners high because they have finished another loop, another mini event really. How good is this race ? Rather than one runners high, which is the norm, this event you get one every hour for as long as you can keep on going. Birdy’s really is the event that just keeps on giving, hourly. It is also great to see your fellow runners on the hour , every hour and , in my case, tell the same sheep jokes at the same location to the same runners, hourly. I’m not sure if Rhys and Neil dropped out through fatigue or they just couldn’t stand my jokes again? Probably a bit of both.
As I mentioned earlier all the crew performed outstandingly and all achieved their personal goals. The image below shows me and Justin entering the 100 miler club (give or take a few hundred metres apparently?) and we both decided this was enough for 2020. Personally I felt great and could have gone on but maybe that feeling was linked to my finish target, the mind allowing my body 24 laps before turning to his good friend fatigue if I decided to sneak in a few more laps. I’m hoping I haven’t sacrificed the opportunity to go further and break through the 200km distance but if I can continue training the way I am I’m confident I’ll be better prepared next year and I’m sure I’ll have some company with the current crop of finishers, all set to return in 2021.
Unfortunately during the race I did manage to probably pull my Achilles tendon , and maybe tear it ?, and my ongoing fractured big toe played up at various times. Voltaren and Rock Tape got me through the event but I’m paying the price now. No running for a week and a few rides on the Bionic Runner, stand up bike, is all I have to show since Birdy’s. It’s a price I’m willing to take but I have another one of Shaun’s events coming up mid September that I need to be ready for. ( http://lighthorseultra.com.au/ ) The Light Horse ultra is another looped course but this time dictated by time. I’m going for the 12 hour event which last year kicked my backside and handed me my first ever DNF. Determined to give it a good tilt this year and I’m helped by the starting time moving to 6am , so most of the race (if not all?) will be in daylight. Supper excited about this one but my good friend Voltaren will need to pull his finger out to get me to the start line.
Mission accomplished. 24 laps done and dusted. Synchronised watch pressing. !
Michael Hooker won the event finishing 40 laps and doing it with ease, truth be told. Phil Gore was magnificent in second place staggering to the finish of lap 39 before collapsing over the start line, leaving Michael to his own devices. Jon ran a perfect race for third spot, his walking, sprinting, snoozing, eating tactics obviously worked. For the ladies the deadly duo of Margie and Jen yet again were far too strong for the women field and 99% of the men’s field. They both ran to exhaustion and proved they are a real threat when Delirious comes along again in February.
Last weekend we all go together and drove to sunny Mandurah for a boys running weekend, the inaugural one funnily enough. Bart’s parents have a beautiful holiday home on the beach in Mandurah and it has become available for the family (and close running friends) recently. This opportunity was too good to miss and on Friday afternoon the seven of us traveled down from Perth to start the shenanigans. The plan was to run a night run on Friday , two runs Saturday and a single run Sunday morning (depending on the alcohol intake Saturday evening of course?) before returning to the ‘bosoms of our loved ones‘ Sunday afternoon.
The view from the holiday home.
The highlight of the Friday evening run was running through what looked like a tip in the middle of the trail. It seems the Mandurah locals like to get some fresh air and nice scenery while they illegal dump all their rubbish, bless ’em. We made Bart’s promise to take us through this again the next day for evidence, which you’ll see later in the post, inspiring stuff.
Saturday morning we were up early, though not as early as some of my running colleagues would have liked. They seem to have no concept of not being rushed to get in a morning run and insisting on starting in the dark, even though we had the whole weekend ahead of us. I soon put an end to this predawn start talk and I managed to hold them back until just after 7am, which was difficult. My kids are a bit older now and I seem to have more time to run, albeit I am running less being a tad older, it’s a catch-22 situation I suppose. Anyhow one of the benefits of age is older kids and the knock on effect of not being so time constrained, this equates to later start time for morning runs (virtually afternoon runs sometimes) and also more late afternoon , early evening runs. Of course this is season dependent as in Summer 4am is the best time of the day, before the sun turns up the dial to ‘microwave‘! Anyhow managed 19k Saturday morning, after a double day Friday and another run planned in the afternoon, was never interested in hitting 20k. (sorry Strava, I am better than that !)
Saturday morning on the beach, Bart’s , myself, Rob, Jon, Jeff and Mike.
As I mentioned before a trip to Mandurah is not complete without the ‘run through the tip trail‘ with the added bonus of used needles to make posing for photos a life or death situation. You’ll notice for this photo I was the photographer , not the subject, a lot safer in my opinion. The look on Bart’s face sums up this one, priceless.
Mandurah trails at their best, just watch out for needles?
Saturday afternoon was a pre-sport watching 10k for some scenery rather than distance or pace. We managed to cross a bridge and Jon was let loose to chase a few segments. I suppose the whole weekend was more about running with good friends rather than a ‘training camp’ as such, I mean there was no talk of intervals, thresholds, VO2Max etc. We were chasing different metrics involving laughter, tall stories and making memories, we succeeded in all three categories.
That was the point of the weekend, just getting away with good friends, doing what we all love to do without life’s timetable , albeit only for a weekend. It was the inaugural running trip, but I’m hoping the first of many because it was just good old fashioned boy’s being boy’s, with a lot of running thrown in for good measure.
Saturday afternoon was a relaxed 11k and we ran over a bridge, about sums it up really.
Sundays run was a 10-12k amble through Dawesville and after the previous two days , and Saturday night’s entertainment, it was always going to be steady, at best ! We did manage to find a basketball hoop and try to teach Jon about ‘NBA dunking’ but I feel his career in professional basketball is probably a non-starter?
Sunday’s highlight was teaching Jon how to dunk, NBA style. He ain’t no Michael Jordan.
Another highlight was meeting a local runner, Jim from Singapore, at the turn around point and his insistence on joining us. It turns out he had just started his run and was looking for company. We’re a inclusive lot and he was welcomed aboard although the jogging pants are an acquired taste, he hung on for the last 4-5 kilometres before he was cut loose as we turned for home.
The boys and Jim. A local runner , from Singapore, who insisted on joining us.
Finally a photo of the inlet on Sunday morning, as always my photography does not do it justice, stunning views. Not a breath of wind and perfect temperatures to end the weekend before we all packed up and returned to life as we know it. As I said earlier the training weekend will be remembered for many years and there will be much laughter and back slapping as we recount stories which will probably last a lifetime, and that’s the real point of the weekend isn’t it? For instance after knowing Jeff for nearly 20 years we found out his Chinese name , we also found out Jon’s BMW has an oil leak after it deposited a large amount of oil on the driveway, after we spent hours cleaning the house. Jon loves playing Texas Poker , and we didn’t or don’t, Mike K. cannot play Poker after announcing to the table he had four of a kind and was that a good hand (needless to say we all folded instantly!) and on a Friday night watching the TV , after a meal at the local pub, there was more massage guns out than you’ll find at most physiotherapy practices.
Sunday’s scenery was epic, the running not so much.
A few weeks ago I decided to send my running shoes to Kenya so they could hopefully inspire the next generation of runners, as long as they have size 10UK feet of course. I know the image below will probably make some people question my sanity but each shoe to me is like an old friend and I can, if questioned, relate back the history of each of them. So off with the Landson Foundation Shoe Donation , under the guidance of Alfred Sergent, to Africa they go, in May apparently, I hope it’s a large container.
The first few rows in the image, nearest me, were my Asics Kayano phase, 2008 -2012. These were my Comrade years where I believed you changed your shoes every 400k come what may !! I was a resellers dream ! ( Comrades is the largest ultra marathon in the world and should be on the bucket list of all runners. http://www.comrades.com . It will be the 100th anniversary of the first race in May 2021. This will be an epic adventure with entries capped at 34,000 to correspond to the 34 original runners.) In 2008 I was training for my first Comrades and these were the days before online purchasing really. We , as a running group, would keep an eye on our local running store and as soon as they had a deal on Kayano’s we would raid the place, usually coming out with 3-4 pairs ! Then Wiggle came online in the UK and they delivered Asics to Australia and that was the end of buying running shoes in your bricks and mortar store. These days I do try and support our local retailer as it’s an unfair playing field, truth be told, with the online warehouses buying in bulk and saving on staff and business rates/costs, support your local running store people !
Initially I was a big Asics fan, I mean this was a company that specialised in running shoes and had the history and knowledge to produce the best product. The only down side was cost and weight. The Kayano is a great shoe but was at the upper end of the price bracket and when I started to up my mileage the cost of replacing shoes became more and more difficult to hide from no1 Wife !! Thus I moved to the ‘best shoe on sale’ approach on UK Wiggle ( http://www.wiggle.co.uk ) . Luckily I found my feet would just about fit any shoe so brand loyalty was gone and as long as the reviews were convincing I moved between brands based on lowest price. (Note Wiggle UK stop selling Asics and Adidas at the request of local resellers as it was cheaper to buy the shoes and get them delivered than go to the local shop)
Too many shoes, or not enough ?
So what have been the stand out shoes of the last 12 years ? I’d say the original Nike Lunaraceris right up there. This was a game hanger, a lightweight shoe with a bit of bounce, the Vaporfly of its time. I have attached images of the mk1 and mk3 , great shoes. These really did change the landscape for marathon shoes. Before these bad boys we’d run the marathon is as light a show as possible. All about saving weight which, with hindsight, was probably a flawed logic as you’d put on 3-4kilo’s due to carbo-loading!!! I’ve ran marathons in racing flats to save a few grams but risking all types of injury when your legs are tired and your form has been destroyed by fatigue. How the landscape has changed these days with marathon shoes weighing less than racing flats but given your more support than a 70’s Rock Star in high heels ! (That’s a reference to the latest Nike Alpha’s in case you missed it.)
The original Nike Lunaracer. A thing of beauty but not for the wide foot runners amongst us. The fit was always a tad ‘snug’.
nike lunaracer mk3. A better design, slightly heavier but more forgiving, fit wise. You almost had the chance to survive the marathon with the odd toenail, almost?
Honourable mentions go to the Adidas Adios/Adizero Series and the Takumi sen 3. These are great shoes and the latest versions are still available. Very light but with a great Continental tread these were the shoes of choice pre-Vaporflys.
Weapons of mass destruction.
Adidas Adizero Haile .
Another great brand and a great shoe is the Saucony Kinvara. This was very similar to the Nike Lunaracer but more usable as an everyday training shoe , as well as a racing shoe. It gave you a good combination of lightness and some rebound with is cushioning sole. The image below is the mark 2 , which is my personal favourite but they are all great shoes and we’re up to mark 11 now I think. I’d certainly still use these and if they are ever on sale will try and pick up a few pairs.
For your normal training shoe, combining weight, cushioning and rebound my shoe of choice would be the Nike Pegasus or Adidas Boston . These shoes both have some longevity making them cost efficient as well. (and thats important right?)
Best shoe of the last 12 years, there can be only one ! The original Nike Vaporfly 4%, harder to get than Rocking Horse sh*t when they first came out and $100 more expensive than any competitor but a game changer in racing shoes. I even paid nearly 50% more for a pair on ebay at one point , crack cocaine to a marathon runner ! The second generation Flyknit was lighter but , for me, too narrow a fit and felt very unstable. They redeemed themselves with the Next% and I am wetting myself with excitement waiting for the AlphaFlys. If this was the Oscars the Flys would win best movie, actor and actress, they are that good ! Only downside is there is little support for the foot and I have heard of people complaining about injuries but if you use them to only race in you’ll be fine. (at their retail price you’d need to be a rock star to use them as your daily shoe!)
Worth a kidney, probably? The original Nike Vaporfly 4%.
This is the sort of post that I could just keep on typing , there are so many stories linked to each pair of shoes but ultimately you need to let go and, if they can be of use to someone else and spark the love of running , then it is a sacrifice I’m willing to make, giving up my collection. Although I feel like Golem in Lord of the Rings, giving up his precious, I know it was the right thing to do and I recommend anyone else out there sitting on a collection of memories does the same. Find a charity that can reuse your old shoes and make that call, you won’t regret it. Also it does allow you to start another collection of course but we’ll keep that between ourselves right…….
In less than two weeks I take on the 6 inch trail ultra marathon ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/ ) for the 11th time and will aim to try and improve my number of sub4 finishes from 8 to 9. Please note on both occasions I failed to go ‘sub 4’ I got lost but with any trail ultra that is a risk you take, although I seem to suffer more than most?
The last couple of months I have been building to this event and have been gradually increasing the time on legs but neglecting speed work and this has come back to bite me in both my last 10k races. Early November I ran a 37:36 at the John Gilmour track 10k and last Sunday I went slower at the Fremantle 10k, 37:56. The first time , on the track , was excusable as it was the last race I needed to win the WAMC age group 55-55 category but the time did sting. I was determined to go better and the Fremantle 10k gave me that opportunity. As with the previous 10k I started well enough but was unable to hold the pace and had to work very hard to keep sub 38 minutes , saved by a last minute sprint. A 15 second plus difference from kilometre 1 to kilometre’s 7-9 is not ideal pacing, you should be looking to hold the same pace throughout with maybe a faster last kilometre to account for the ‘kick’ finish. In my defence I was going slow enough that a ‘kick’ finish was achieved , albeit a very small ‘baby kick’?
Every race teaches you something and the last two have taught me I need to add pace to at least two of my weekly runs. I’m planning a Mona Fartlek at least once a week and then maybe a 10k tempo/threshold to try and bring my 10k time back under 36 minutes (as a minimum) next year. Of course this will have to wait as I have the trail ultra in a few weeks and then the Australia Day Ultra in January ( http://australiadayultra.com/ ) before the Delirious ( http://deliriouswest200miler.com.au/ ) in February, all ultra’s. !
Not a pretty sight?
I’ve written a few posts over the years on the 6 inch..probably worth a recap…
There’s more, just type in ‘6 inch’ in the search bar and you’ll find many, many amusing posts on this race and that’s the point of the 6 inch. It comes at the end of year, a few days before Christmas , where the finishing time is not important (as long as it’s under 4 hours). It’s more about the boys having a night away from our families and just being boys again, albeit for one night only. The experience of driving down Saturday , staying over Saturday night and watching ‘Run Fat Boy Run’ (an absolute classic film which all runners need to watch!) , running with some great friends on the Sunday morning and then a final get together to recount stories from the day, great times. It really is a special event and one all trail runners need to run sometime in their career.
A running classic?
So have I done enough over the last few months to guarantee a sub 4 finish ? I’d say at the moment I’m 50-50, conditions will dictate the final finish time I feel. Perfect conditions I got a chance, too hot and it’ll be a closer run thing. Either way I have a date with an esky at the finish so if I finish ahead of you I’d be careful where you choose your post race drink. It’s another great 6 inch tradition apparently. I’m excited about my 11th time taking on the 6 inch and hope to continue the tradition for many years to come, finishing sub 4 may not be on the cards for many more years but either way I know my old mate Mr.Esky will always be there to greet me at the end and that’s enough to keep me coming back for more. (and watching Run Fat Boy Run with the boys, again you all need to watch that film!)
Is it a case of too little too late?
Gotta love the heat…love my esky time at the end of the 6 inch !!
I cheated this post by using a link to Irwin Swinny’s podcast on a conversation we had a few weeks ago. (below) What’s better than reading about my ramblings, well listening to them of course. Let me know your feedback in the comments section of this post.
As I was taken down with the dreaded man-flu a week out from the Australia Day Ultra I will leave the race report to my usual partner in crime, Jon ‘swipe right’ Pendse. Jon is a marathon and ultra marathon running machine and it has been a honour to run with him over the last 10 years or so, after meeting in out office changing rooms.
In the early days Jon was a lot quicker than me and I regularly ran with him for the first 10-20k of a marathon before dropping off the pace. It wasn’t until the City to Surf Marathon of 2011 when I was able to pip him to the finish line by a few seconds after we both discussed finishing together. Sorry Jon but white line fever got the better of me !! Since then we have ran most events together and a large proportion of my training runs.
Anyhow I digress, Jon has written a great race report on the Australia Day Ultra which is certainly worth a read and it’s fitting he should be the first ‘guest writer’ for the blog as he has been involved with most of my posts in some manner and had to put up with man hours of BK putting the world to rights, which, truth be told has normally been a two way process… Enjoy.
Coming in to this year’s 100km ultra (http://australiadayultra.com/) I felt I had done my apprenticeship having completed the previous 3 years of ADU (having ran 8.53, 8.56, and 8.06), and this year was to be my first year ‘racing’ over 100km. This is a ‘race’, not a long training run right?
Although I had a breakthrough result in 2018, I didn’t really feel I was ‘racing‘ the distance at that time. Off the back of a consistent year with plenty of k’s in the legs (around 6,300 clocked up over the year), 2018 completing 7 marathons, 3 ultras, 5 half marathons, I felt I was ready to push for a sub8 hour 100km, given 2018 I only really aimed for sub 8.30 and managed 8.06!
Going in this year I set the following Goals; A sub 8 hours, B sub 8hrs-30, and C sub 9hours. Hmm an hour difference between an A goal and C goal, only races over 100km could you get away with such a large variance!
So here are my race splits;
Lap splits (12.5k) of 55, 57, 60, 67, 80, 80, 72, 64
25k splits of 112, 127, 160 (ouch), 136
Spoiler (it’s a very long race report!): I finished in 8:58:53
What I didn’t really consider was ‘racing’ in humid warm conditions, ok, even if its 18-20 degrees, the sun isn’t out so surely it’s not that bad? After all I’ve ran the previous years before in similar conditions (although I guess I treated those as long training runs), whereas this year I was going out at race pace, basically 10-15 minutes slower than a 50k race time.
To make things harder, my wingman & ultra-extraordinaire BK (www.runbkrun.com) narrowly avoided pneumonia only 2 nights before race night and gallantly chose to DNS rather than risk a death sentence.
So, this race was set to be a solo time trial. This is not a Sunday stroll! 😊
Unfortunately, I came undone in the 4th lap where I knew I was working way to hard and dropping too much time. 8 laps and sub 8 hour target even my 8-year-old can work out the pacing strategy… 1-hour laps or less and repeat x 8, easy?
Well the first lap was quick, but I felt good (probably due to the taper) and more importantly I felt in control. Second lap slightly slower but 57 was about spot on to where i needed to be (57-58), knowing I would need close to 10 minutes banked by 50k for the customary slow down on the second 50k. The plan was to hit 50k in 3.48-3.55 (which is 12-20 minutes slower than 50k race pace).
The 4th lap blowout meant I hit 50k just on 4hrs, at this point i knew sub8 was off the cards.
Suddenly I hit the dreaded marathon wall around 53k and was soon reduced to a walk/jog strategy… problem being hitting the wall in a marathon and you might have 10-15k left to go (I’ve hit the wall many times in marathons) … but this time around I still have 47k to go! I remember thinking how the f**k am i going to run the remaining 47k (which is the 6-inch trail marathon distance minus the hills). I was walking and could barely run. This km split was around 10minutes! Doing maths at this pace I’d be lucky to finish before noon! I should have been finishing around 8-8.30am.
This was never part of the plan, what the f**k can I do… (Please note Runbkrun does not condone this language but in the context of this post it is allowable!)
I did have a few positives going for me though… 1. Yes, I’ve hit the wall but it’s very early and only around 4.30am, the sun hasn’t even come up yet. 2. the chase pack (Margie and Chris) will very shortly be approaching 3. I wasn’t cramping or injured, so it was ‘possible’ I could regroup and rebuild.
So once Margie and Chris joined me, I soon found out they were in quite a similar state having hit a similar wall not that much earlier…
All 3 of us ran several km’s together, running low 6-minute k’s.
At this point I was happy just moving along and ticking of a few more km’s.
Margie told me she’d been running through a couple of niggles/injuries and was now seriously considering stopping. It was here I also agreed and said I’m seriously thinking of making it to 75k and calling it a day. Only in Ron’s race can you stop at any shorter distance and still claim a finishers medal albeit a shorter distance. (There was that famous DNF from Rhys a few years earlier when he stopped at 25k thus winning the race 3-4 hours before it had even started!) Besides 75km is still an ‘Ultra’ marathon and you get a finish time. That’s still a good day out in my books, and an experience to learn from for next time.
So, at my slower pace laps 5 & 6 I managed 80 minutes each, but usually in a marathon you get slower not quicker, and so after some more maths i was staring at 90 minutes for lap 7 and +90 minutes for the last lap… that would put me around a marginal sub10 hours.
This was all in the back of my mind, I’d now been dropped by Margie and Chris, and was heading back to complete my 5th lap.
It was here I saw Mick Francis on the middle aid station (must have been about 59km), and I quickly stopped for a brief chat, I heard he had to withdraw earlier with injury! But was still out supporting those remaining in the race, what a champ! [Mick’s our local legend and ultra-marathon god (he’s run more than 100 marathons and if that wasn’t enough has also ran more than 100 ultra-marathons), I’ve known mick for many years now, good mate and many races completed together], perfect place now for me to pick Mick’s running brain;
I told Mick I’d hit the wall at 50k and i could probably just make it to 75k and what’s the ultra-etiquette for pulling the pin…? Surely no point me running the extra 25km just to finish, that could be an extra 3hours in the sun walking and jogging! Besides I’ve run the 100km three times previous so have nothing to prove, surely he would agree and say yes stop at 75k call it a day recover and look for the next race, or try again next year.
Mick said it so simply… Jon are you injured? No. Then get back out and do the job. You’ll get respect and will teach you something you can’t read about. (Wise words from the man known as ‘Yoda‘ in the WA running community. A real , true blue Aussi’ Icon; Mick not Yoda.. please note I am assuming Yoda is not from the WA?)
Well the way he said it I was like why did I even ask, ha-ha. I knew the answer already, but I was also seeking acceptance that it would have been ok for me to stop. (Obviously I still could have stopped, but ultras aren’t for the faint hearted, those out there have something regular runners don’t have and many will never experience – no offence, but wait until you’ve done 100km, it will teach you many many lessons – I’m still learning).
This gave me a bit of a mental boost, and I continued my marathon shuffle at 6min k’s.
Margie was still a good 6 or 7 minutes ahead, I was stoked to see she went back out for the 6th lap which meant she’d make at least 75km, and likewise I went back out to start my 6th lap.
Meanwhile T-Train express had been setting a blistering pace in the 50km, well in front of his counterparts… he went on to win and smash out a PB and run 3hrs-27, wow!
But when T-Train was coming back on his final lap I yelled out to him phone BK at the finish line tell him Jon’s f’d, reckons he won’t break 10hours, can he do a quick poll in the BK Run Group and get the opinion on stopping at 75km?
I needed at least one person to say stop if anyone would the BK Group would… surely better to claim a 75km finishers medal than the +10hour potential finishing time (please).. Besides 75km is the point of no return, once you run past 75km there are no more finishers medals left other than the next barrier at 100km.
So, if you’re going to pull the pin, stop at 75km!
So now on this 6th lap I was still struggling and still shuffling.
I saw Margie again on the turnaround and she was going back out again for her 7th lap, wow what a champ especially with injuries and hitting the wall. Well that was it, if Margie is going to see it through, so am I (not that Mick hadn’t already told me earlier). And just before i went back out again for my 7th lap, T-Train looking fresh as ever… goes “spoke with BK he says it’s a 100km race not a 75km race.” (He lied, Tone never called me , though I would have said that !)
Alright decision made well and truly.
So, going back out now on my 7th lap things are warming up, but I’ve had almost 25k of shuffling along, and I’m starting to feel a slight second wind.
I started running a few sub 6-minute k’s, and soon enough was running around 5.30’s… so a lot more running and a lot less walking! Albeit tough and still a challenge ahead but at least I only have less than 2 laps to go! Things are starting to look up.
The whole race I’d been consistent with nutrition/hydration, had my strategy and didn’t really deviate. Setup my own esky at mid aid station, have a gel every 10k, and grab 2x250ml water bottles every time i passed that aid station. Although I’d been drinking around 600ml-700ml per hour (the other 300ml-400ml) I’d tip on my head to try and cool the core body temp) I still felt dehydrated and physically couldn’t take on any more fluids. It had been a long warm night that was for sure.
So with my new determination, I had the remaining 25k to go. Between 75k-82k I averaged around 6:30s, however I was definitely starting to feel some running legs returning, a lot less walking! The tide had turned. At the out turn-around I had a quick toilet stop, and then I was good to go. It was from here I was able to hold 5:15s, more importantly I was feeling great again, and could almost feel the finish line in sight although I did still have the final lap to run. Ron had chocolate medals this year right…! We often joke ultra-running is not actually about the running, it’s all about the food and my impartial attraction to the distance.
On completion of the 7th lap I clocked in at 7:54:05, which was a 1:12:45 lap time. Maths time again… I was feeling great, could it be possible I could break 9 hours? Sub 1:06 final lap?? Hmm. Challenge accepted. After all, given how I was feeling and could taste the finishers 100k medal, may as well go for it I had nothing to lose. Sub9 hours would be a fantastic result given where I was at 53km. Still managing to hold 5:15s, felt great at this speed again… I couldn’t work out what pace the sub 1:06 equated to, however if I could hold the 5:15s and get to the final turn-around in 33 minutes, then I would be in the ball park. And that’s exactly what happened, held the pace and got to the turnaround just under 33 minutes, a look at my watch slightly under 8hrs27. About bang on if I wanted to go under 9 hours. Still feeling great at this stage, no sign of cramping, and this was it, the final home stretch. Only 6.25km remaining and the last time I’ll see this end of the course for 12 months. It’s game on. I didn’t really have to do anything special, I didn’t need to speed up, just hold the pace and see it through to the finish. As I left the mid aid station, I yelled out to Mick I’ve got a sniff of a sub9 hour so bring it on. The final 3k was magical, this is how I had hoped I would run the final lap or at least this feeling, something you can’t replicate. I’d smashed my mental barriers and now I could enjoy the achievement of finishing my fourth 100km. I soaked up the atmosphere and ran beaming with smiles. Ok, not a sub8 and not a sub8:30, but who cares. I was so close to calling it a day, getting to this point everything was forgotten. The endorphin runners high here was more than worth hitting the wall at 53km.
This was a personal journey and my story of the day. Never give up. Respect. Pride. Proud. Redemption. And just plain mental! We are runners. And we are warriors.
I’ll be back next year to join the 500 Club -ADU Hall of Fame! Hopefully BK will have recovered by then and raring to go, I still have a sub8 hour in me?? (have I learnt anything, hmm)
Anyone interested here is my Australian 100 marathon club profile page as I endeavour to run 100 marathons (currently at 56 and 13 ultras).
This Sunday is the 14th running of the 6 inch trail ultra ( http://www.6inchtrailmarathon.com/ ) , probably my favourite race of the year as its not about the finishing time , the 6 inch really is all about the journey.
I’ve written various posts on this race over the course of this blog and they’re probably worth a revisit for some back ground before I wax lyrical about the main event…
Due to getting lost twice in the last three years (and three times in the last nine years!) I even went down to Dwellingup with the lads for a couple of recon runs this year. So am confident this year there will be no navigation errors. Saying that in previous years I’ve worn two Garmins and still managed to get myself lost, it’s a curse ! Funny thing is the 6 Inch is probably one of the easiest trail events around, on a proper trail race you might as well send out the search party now, I’m not coming home without help.
6 inch recon with the posse. 27k of fun on the trails…
This year we are expecting good conditions with a low of 14 and a high of 25, which for December in Perth is probably about as good as you are going to get. For example today was 38 ! Last year was unseasonably wet and driving to the start line Brett’s wipers could hardly keep up with the deluge. Once we got off the scarp things calmed down and we had a great mornings trail running.
The lads and I all stay at the Heritage Centre in Dwellingup the night before the race as it’s a 4:30am kick off and if you factor in a couple of hours driving from Perth and getting ready at the start it makes for a very early wake up call on Sunday morning. This way we get to lay-in until 3am!
The couple of recon runs this year has really wetted my appetite for the trial running and combined with the Choo-Choo run earlier in the year I feel I’m turning into a trail runner as I mature. The Choo-Choo is another trail run where this time we race a train, hence the name… worth a read..I digress…
So what to expect over the weekend. It’s a boy weekend away truth be told and a time to relax , albeit after racing 47k, and finish the year running with good friends on amazing trails looking forward to a few days break and Christmas with the family. The 6 Inch has found a place in mine and the boys hearts and if you are ever in Perth for the last Sunday before Christmas you really need to come and join us.. ho ho ho !
Footnote: I never published this post in time pre-race and now it’s Monday and the race has been and gone. I’ll post a full race report this week and it’s worth reading, it was a beauty !!
Gotta love the heat…love my esky time at the end of the 6 inch.
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Tomorrow I’m having Extracorporeal Shockwave Therapy (ESWT) in my last attempt to finally get rid of this Plantar Fasciitis that has been hanging around since the Australian Masters Games in April this year. I know what most of you are thinking, ESWT sounds like something from ‘One flew over the cuckoo’s nest‘, (For all the younger readers of this blog that film is an absolute classic starring a young Jack Nicholson; he was a famous actor once !..worth watching, that and ‘The Shining’…I digress…)
Who here has got Plantar Fasciitis? Jack Nicholson at his very best, with Danny DeVito.
So what is ESWT ? Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy (ESWT) involves the conversion of a sound wave into a shock wave that is applied repeatedly to a specific area of the body. The technique is similar to lithotripsy, which is used to treat kidney stones. In recent years the technique has become popular in the treatment of a number of recalcitrant musculoskeletal conditions including tennis elbow, achilles tendinopathy, plantar fasciitis, and tendinitis of the shoulder.
There are several theories about how this treatment works but the most accepted theory is that the micro-trauma caused by the repeated shock waves increases the blood flow to the area and this promotes healing. The treatment is simple, quick and non-invasive.
I have heard good things from a number of my running friends who have had miraculous recoveries using ESWT so I figure I have nothing to lose and everything to gain. Currently there is very little chance of me completing my 10th Perth City to Surf Marathon (in a row) on August 26th and also continuing my sub3 streak. Of the two the sub3 streak is the most important so if I feel there is a DNF or a 3 hour plus finishing time I’m not risking racing. Reading the information on ESWT it seems three visits , spaced a week apart, is the minimum for a total cure; or at least get me to a point I can run unimpaired. This coincides with how long I have left before the marathon, just less than 3 weeks, what could possibly go wrong ?
Of course this is not a 100% guaranteed cure but the odds seem pretty good and they must be better than my current rehab programme which seems to have me going backwards rather than forward. Either way I’ll have something new to write about over the next few weeks and I’m sure a lot or runners reading this post have had, or are going to have, plantar fasciitis.
My most cherished possession…my sub 3 streak! Only a runner knows the feeling….
I’ve written posts lately about missing the lads as I spend hours running around in Kings Park, alone, hiding from the asphalt protecting my PF in my foot. If ESWT works I’ll be able to join this motley crew in a few weeks for another 42.2km of fun, fun , fun. Last year it was a duel between Jon, on the Keto diet, and Mark (and Matt Fitzgerald) going all in on the good old fashioned carbohydrates. ( https://www.runbkrun.com/2017/08/28/matt-fitzgerald-wins-by-a-muffin/ ) Unfortunately this year Mark has succumbed to a foot injury that has seen him sidelined since Boston but Jon is going from strength to strength and won the last marathon he entered. This was his fourth of the year and he is in the form of his life, maybe all that bacon and eggs really do work ? Worth investigating as , let’s face it people, bacon and eggs taste good, real good….
The last three months have been a dark time in my running career as I was struck down by first a blood disorder , mainly due to my “no lunch” diet (what was I thinking?) and lately a bad case of Plantar Fasciitis. The worst part of not running is not the not running part but missing time with my mates.
Over the years my non-running friends have fallen by the wayside as I became more and more focused on running and less and less focused on sociable activities, much to my Wife’s disgust. My Wife has often remarked how she’d like me to put on weight and drink more ! Not the normal grumblings of a partner of course, it’s usually the opposite. Anyhow when you’re injured there is no one to share your grief with. (because it is grief! ) Funnily enough I have written a post on grief , in relation to running… https://www.runbkrun.com/2017/04/17/injury-what-injury-the-five-stages-of-grief/
What run do I miss the most ? Need you ask, my Thursday morning 14k progressive, starting at 5:30am and finishing at the best café in Perth to take onboard the best muffin and coffee in the Southern Hemisphere. If you are lucky enough to live in Perth, or even Australia, you need to go to Yelo at Trigg and indulge with one of their banana and dark chocolate or even berry and chocolate muffins, warmed up of course. They really are so good, there is a caveat of course. Once you taste a Yelo muffin you will never be able to eat a muffin from another source, they really are that good. The coffee is also very good or that may be just because your taste buds are enjoying them muffin so much anything tastes good !
As this is a running blog and not a culinary one I need to justify that last paragraph. To earn the muffin and coffee combination we would have run a 14k progressive run which is one tough affair, with the obligatory sprint for the last 4-5k as each runner pushes themselves, and each other towards the Yelo café. To make this run special you need friends to initially talk to for the first 7k and then, finally, to run against for the final 7k. Runners pride will always make you put in that extra bit of effort when chasing (or being chased) by running mates.
Then there is the long runs on Sunday. These , for me, are mainly for the food and conversation after the run, to tell you truth I prefer to run twice a day compared to one long run , all bar the Sunday run. This is do able because of the company, by myself a long run is torture. We’ve had some great experiences over the years running long on Sundays , as most runners will attest to. As a group we tend to run at a reasonable pace on the outward journey but pick up the pace as we turn and head back towards the coffee and pancakes, I’m sure all running groups are the same. The photo below is from a 30k Yaberoo trail run a few months ago in the heat of the Perth summer. The T-train has organized a water drop but it was too little , too late for the journey home. As the group splintered it was every man for himself in the race back to the car and air conditioned safety.
Return journey, a few less smiles , more grimacing. ?
As well as the Sunday long runs there are the “special’ runs. These are organized, normally annually, and nearly always ‘up the ante’ with either more mileage or elevation. In the photo below its racing against a train which makes the ‘choo-choo’ run so special. Again I have written a couple of posts on this run which are worth a read and a chuckle… 2016 : https://www.runbkrun.com/2016/11/15/the-choo-choo-run-an-exercise-in-living-on-the-edge/ and last year https://www.runbkrun.com/2017/09/15/choo-choo-run-2017-man-against-train/ (Still not sure how Mike made it last year ? I suspect Uber?) For those living in Perth this run is scheduled for two weeks after the Perth City to Surf marathon, so probably early September. There is a facebook page somewhere ? Just heard from Simon Coates, the Choo-Choo this year is on September 23rd, the long weekend in WA. If you get lost at least you got a few days to get home…
Choc milk time at the Deli, job done.
Then there is the work lunch run. Working on St. Georges Terrace, Perth, we had some great running tops made up thanks to Rhys and Mel. This photo was taken at the height of the St Georges Terrace Running Club glory days when we always had a good contingent that would meet every midday at the lights outside the Woodside building. Together we’d explore the various bike paths around the city and trails in Kings park and it was a welcome relief from the work related problems that would often plague you. As with all runs they would start at a leisurely pace before Jeff or Andrea got to the front and then it was on for young and old. Today the group has splintered to some extent but most of the people pictured below still make an effort and regularly get out there just not together as much, all bar Big Paul (front right) who wandered to the dark side of lycra wearing cycling due to a bad knee.
The St. Georges Terrace Running club.
Couldn’t leave without one more photo of the Yelo café with some of the usual suspects, in the photo below you have Gareth, Mike and the elusive Mark Lee, a rare sight but always good for some quality banter. Happy days and I hope to be back with the lads soon, just got to get rid of this Plantar Fasciitis but that’s a post for another day….
