Dugites, Marathons, Ferries, Two Ups and Cyclosportif

Well, it was a big weekend for this little black duck. I travelled over to Rottnest on the 3pm Ferry from Northport and, after a fairly rough trip, got there and checked out Stephen Dunn’s ‘digs’ with the WA Marathon Club. They were hosting a young Japanese girl who’d flown over just for the marathon . On Steve’s advice, I grabbed a large banana smoothie from ‘Juicenest’ ( I think that’s its name)

Steve was a bit curious that I’d done a 12km run around Deepwater Pt that morning but I did tell him I’d done it easy.

I walked all the way to Kingston Barracks but got to the room and found it was locked. I later discovered I should have picked up a key from the Visitor’s Centre in Thomson Bay so I trekked back to get the key. I was ‘rooming’ with Tom Bakowski who is gunning for a spot in Hawaii Ironman and his partner was also going to compete in the New York Marathon in a couple of weeks. He ended up winning the Rotto Marathon!

I also met up with two other guys who had both done Comrades ,86kms of running ‘hell. For what its worth, they’ve run it  ‘up’ and ‘down’. Apparently, Comrades in South Africa changes direction each year. Another guy had flown all the way from Mackay after having driven 300km to the airport. In fact, everyone I met was doing the marathon so it was a great, infectious atmosphere.

I downed a couple of big tins of spaghetti bolognaise for dinner, a couple of milo’s and lots of water. I got to sleep at around 9pm (after draping a Huntsman spider the size of my hand across my body in the gent’s showers after it had parked on my towel. Freaked me out a bit (ok, a lot))

I discovered that Tom snores and he was in the bunk underneath me. All in all though , a fairly good nights sleep. I met up with Steve at 5.30am near the start line and spent a bit of time stretching and hydrating, suncreening, dencorub, BodyGlide, etc, etc. I had decided to wear my 3 litre camelbak for the Marathon. I only saw one other person wearing one but I was happy enough with the decision.

The bagpiper started to play ‘Chariots of Fire’ and with that the marathon had started. Steve and I had counted on just sitting at 5min 30sec/kms - the focus was on Steve finishing his 100th marathon intact and that was a good enough reason for me to be running it. It’s a fairly undulating course and the first half weather conditions were pretty good with a tailwind heading out over the saltpan causeway. The third and fourth laps proved testing and we slowed down a fair bit. In the end we posted over 4hrs 40mins and Steve got the acclaim he richly deserved.

After the event, I walked back to Kingston Barracks for a shower and to pack my gear. At around 11.45am, I headed back to Thomson Bay and was just in time for the presentation ceremony. A couple of my son’s running mates, Jace Collingridge and Adam Bastick went well in the 5km fun run. In the marathon results, the guy who slept in the bunk under me, Tom Bakowski ( not sure of the spelling) finished first in around 2hr 51mins) and Mike Szalek finished 3rd overall. At age 49, that’s a great result for Mike and I think his time was around the 3hr mark (again, not sure). It was funny to hear the reaction from some of the seasoned marathoners that triathletes/ironmen had put in the best times. No surprise to me. Tom was saying to me that in the 25 to 29 age group he needs a sub 9hr IMWA time and he just seems to be in rock solid shape for it.

The Japanese girl (Kaoki) won her second marathon in a 3hr 20min time. I put two steak and onion pies into me from the bakery and just took a load off. Apart from some minor ITB soreness, I feel fine. Cycled into work today and kept a few other guys honest.

I heard from Richard that our Cyclosportif team finshed under 2hrs and around 5mins faster than our team time last year at Pickering Brook. Luke Hardy did well steering the ship and cracking the whip. Haven’t heard how the Two Up teams of Paul P and Brendan (and Rod Mejias and Guy Pritchard) went but I’m sure they did very well.

Dee went in the John Hughes 17km Big Walk with a few of her training friends. She also posted 90kms on the exercise bike which is a phenomenal effort. Our next adventure is Anaconda then, in around 5 weeks from now, Ironman WA team event.

A mate at work is trying to get me to commit to a Cape to Cape 135KM  walk in mid November. I just think my schedule has become too busy at the moment.  And its just a really hard effort. Matty has his Leavers trip to Dunsborough on 23 Nov.

As they say in the classics, its all happening. I would have loved to hang around Rotto some more and explore the Island but there’s time enough for that. I had a friend who has just bought himself a Searay 48 foot boat. Would have been nice to chill out on that after the marathon. Still it was a great event, plenty of inspiration out there. I am encouraged that I have pulled up very well but , with a 4hr 40min effort, I think I took it pretty easy on my body. It was great to share Steve’s 100th marathon and a memory that will stay with me forever. We saw Darryl Howe battling through the marathon but there were so many other gutsy efforts out there. Anyway, I’ve bought the singlet and that’s the first official marathon.

CHRISTO