Mudgee and beyond

I was waiting for a rainy day to update my way overdue blog, but it seems the sun is winning this battle, so I am bite the bullet....

After all those weeks in the gym it was a real pleasure to run in the sun again the last couple of weeks. Finally last weekend we travelled to Mudgee (3 hours west of Sydney) for the 1/2 marathon. Only problem was the destination is famous for its wines and after two days of intensive training in wine tasting and eating too much cheese, I stood, slightly hanged over and overweight, at the starting line on Sunday morning at 6.30am in my thermal running gear.
Hey, they told me it is going to be freezing cold in the outback....I was very happy that the organiser offered these great running shirts to all participants and I found a pair of shorts in the car, because the pre-start announcement of 24 degrees and sunshine for the run made me panic and change in record time to lighter gear....wise decision After a few km running in the shade and out of Mudgee the sun starting coming over those hills and sure enough it warmed up considerably. Very happy man running along in those shorts and light shirt :-) (I heard some guys overheated badly in the Marathon running in too warm gear).
The run made his way through those beautiful vineyards and the whole scenery made the getting up so early worthwhile. I tried to keep to my running plan but soon realised that the Shiraz and Pinot Noir from last night took the better of me and made me slow down a bit....since I was in no mode to talk to other runners in my state I decided to simple keep my head down and ponder on to the finish. The last 4 km were kind of hard and my proven tactic of catching one bright t'shirt after the other ahead of me failed miserably...nevertheless I made it to the finish and when I checked the clock I realised that my time was the same as for last month race - 98min.
Even so I failed in my goal to reach 95 min I was very happy with my time and glad to catch up with wife and friends at the next winery for a glass of White :-) to celebrate.

So looks like my 95 min have to be done next month at the World Masters Game then. Looking forward to that event - expecting to meet many athletes from all over the worlds and sure making new friends.

MdS fellow Action Jackson did a great 2nd place in Mudgee (only beaten by a 18 year old) and he will be a favorite in his devision in October for sure. His 80min for the 1/2 marathon will be for ever out of my reach

The next 6 weeks will be used to somehow find ways to cut those 3 minutes off my time - 180 sec seems not much but when you have to run 10 sec faster every km for 21 km it becomes quite a project....only time will tell
Happy feet