Training Log Archive: blairtrewinIn the 1 days ending Sep 12, 2007:
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Wednesday Sep 12, 2007 #
Run 1:02:00 [3] 13.0 km (4:46 / km)
A run which will be remembered mainly for turning a corner around halfway and stepping into a scene straight out of a TAC commercial - suburban back street, police and ambulance with flashing lights, and motionless body mostly under blanket on the ground. Fairly obviously a pedestrian who had come off second-best from an altercation with a car. I didn't look too closely at the centre of the action, but there was a bag off to the side which suggested its owner was probably of late primary-school age. Didn't look good, although there's nothing on the news (yet) so I'm assuming they survived (for now at least).
As a result of this my mind was everywhere except running for the second half, after a reasonably mundane first half (very sluggish in the first 5 minutes but settled after that). The biggest challenge early on was sidestepping the obstacles supplied by the City of Boorondara's hard rubbish collection day. I'm not sure whether this happens in other cities (it certainly doesn't in Canberra) but it's something of a Melbourne institution. Sometimes it can be somewhat unfortunately times, as happened during the Commonwealth Games when the Shire of Yarra Ranges scheduled their collection day for the same day as the shooting at Lilydale. Perhaps the Sierra Leone team could have used the discarded couches and electrical goods lining the road to the event to furnish their post-defection premises.
I'm street-Oing in Hawthorn tonight, so started near Scotch and headed south, taking in such sights as Melbourne's oldest known political graffiti, now almost invisible (it's on the Glenferrie Road railway bridge at Malvern and says 'MENZIES OUT' and 'VOTE NO', dating from the 1952 referendum to ban the Communist Party), and the wonderfully-named Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Pool.
(For the benefit of non-Australian readers, and possibly younger Australian ones, Harold Holt was a Prime Minister who disappeared without trace, presumed drowned - although there were some more colourful theories involving Chinese submarines - off a Victorian beach in 1967).
As a result of this my mind was everywhere except running for the second half, after a reasonably mundane first half (very sluggish in the first 5 minutes but settled after that). The biggest challenge early on was sidestepping the obstacles supplied by the City of Boorondara's hard rubbish collection day. I'm not sure whether this happens in other cities (it certainly doesn't in Canberra) but it's something of a Melbourne institution. Sometimes it can be somewhat unfortunately times, as happened during the Commonwealth Games when the Shire of Yarra Ranges scheduled their collection day for the same day as the shooting at Lilydale. Perhaps the Sierra Leone team could have used the discarded couches and electrical goods lining the road to the event to furnish their post-defection premises.
I'm street-Oing in Hawthorn tonight, so started near Scotch and headed south, taking in such sights as Melbourne's oldest known political graffiti, now almost invisible (it's on the Glenferrie Road railway bridge at Malvern and says 'MENZIES OUT' and 'VOTE NO', dating from the 1952 referendum to ban the Communist Party), and the wonderfully-named Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Pool.
(For the benefit of non-Australian readers, and possibly younger Australian ones, Harold Holt was a Prime Minister who disappeared without trace, presumed drowned - although there were some more colourful theories involving Chinese submarines - off a Victorian beach in 1967).
Run race ((street-O)) 42:00 [4] * 10.3 km (4:05 / km)
spiked:19/20c
Street-O at Smiths Dell. A nice area, although a pretty mundane course with only a couple of significant route choice decisions. Terrific spot for the start/finish, in a park on a hill with a great view to the Melbourne central city skyline. An added element was supplied by the Holden airship, which from certain angles looked remarkably like a flying saucer as it hovered in the dusk over the inner suburbs. Expect a lot of UFO reports tomorrow.
I forgot to turn my torch on until we got the 'go' signal so wasted a bit of time doing that and was 100 metres off the back by the time I started thinking. Settled well and was running strongly by about the third leg, from which point it was a nice run. Felt like I was going a bit faster than I actually was, and didn't get close to Adam. Had a good scrap with Bruce Paterson for a couple of legs - he's very fast downhill, but not so elsewhere.
No horizontal pedestrians this time.
I forgot to turn my torch on until we got the 'go' signal so wasted a bit of time doing that and was 100 metres off the back by the time I started thinking. Settled well and was running strongly by about the third leg, from which point it was a nice run. Felt like I was going a bit faster than I actually was, and didn't get close to Adam. Had a good scrap with Bruce Paterson for a couple of legs - he's very fast downhill, but not so elsewhere.
No horizontal pedestrians this time.