Some roads don’t lead to Mecca

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I had a chance encounter with a former colleague. It turns out we work in the same building on different floors. It was quite a surprise, even more so that I remembered her name!

We were briefly sharing our work history since we worked together and she mentioned after our org she went to Mecca. I acknowledged with a knowing head nod, and mentioned that’s great. But it came as a bit of a shock, as I had no inkling she was Muslim. I thought her beliefs were quite the opposite, in some respects.

Back in my office I looked up her professional profile on LinkedIn. After we worked together she joined a company called MECCA Brands, that sells cosmetics and associated products.

Bellarine Sunset Run – 10 Feb 2024

Reading Time: 3 minutes

On the weekend I ran the half marathon at the Flying Brick (Cider) Bellarine Sunset Run. It was my 21st half marathon.

I think there were almost 900 people at this event in all. 369 runners and walkers for the half alone.

I spotted Australian cycling royalty Cadel Evans collecting his runner’s bib which got a lot of interest from our group. Cadel was looking very fit, altho a shadow of his Tour de France champion physique. Definitely still athletic, he went on to finish in 6th position for the half marathon, in a respectable 1hr 30.

It was a warm day, at least 26 degrees which led to lots of people struggling through the afternoon. But the support of the crowd and caravan park party people didn’t subside. A few along the course sprayed us with their garden hoses, which everyone appreciated. When I checked facetiously if it was in fact water, there were a variety of funny answers.

My own running pace was very controlled for the first 10kms, and I was pleased with my training to be on track somewhere under 1:50 pace, but the heat was definitely becoming a factor.

While I was running, I saw my mate Gary, my coaching counterpart for the Under 12s rugby team last year. Gary surprised me by giving me a high-five as he ran by from the other way. He’s new to running long races and had started in the group which began 20 minutes earlier.

Just before this chance encounter, doubts were entering my head whether I could continue at this pace or if my body would reluctantly slow down. I continued on, even speeding up a little as I was distracted with a mini goal to catch up to my mate. It didn’t take long to reach him, and the poor guy was definitely struggling. I thought it’d be a lot more rewarding to help him pull through his ‘hurt locker’, and also catch up with him for the first time since our kids rugby season concluded last year.

He tried unsuccessfully for me to return to my race alone instead of joining him. I wondered, did I really choose to slow down and help him with some company through the race, or did I just choose the easy option and opt out on the hard work to run faster?

It didn’t matter in the end. It was enjoyable to take it easy and ignore my finishing time and spend the time more socially. He lives on the Bellarine, not far from the half marathon route and knew the course quite well. He even ran the whole thing a few days earlier – probably contributing to the massive muscle cramps he suffered in his quads. So he knew the landmark tree to spot which signalled the final two kilometres. We finished up our last resting walk before raising the pace, and even adding a sprint down the hill and around the corner to the finish.

It felt so rewarding to cross the finish line to the cheers of the remaining crowd. Maybe a sign of our mutual struggle, we didn’t give high fives at the end, we had a hearty hug.

After getting our medals I found a grassy spot for my mate to crash and relax his painful legs, while I got us two Apple Ciders (including quite an unusual line called a Splicer). Unfortunately my phone had unlocked at some point inside my hydration vest and had pressed wrong passcodes. It resulted in the phone locking me out for 10 minutes, which blocked me from making mobile payments. So my friend had to regrettably stand up again on his painful legs and pay for the drinks I was supposedly buying us.

I ended up having more with some of our Surf Coast Trail Runners who had returned from their volunteering duties at the event. Given the afternoon’s heat they were impressed with everyone’s effort, and more than a little pleased with their decision to volley instead of run. We stayed on at the finish line cheering the finishers until the final participant crossed, closely followed by more of our SCTR friends who were the volunteer tail walkers.

The night ended with us making the last order of Bahn Bao Buns from the final food truck yet to pack up. Then we found the local pizza place still open at 9pm, which provided a great (only?) dinner option, before I made the 50 minute drive home.

Starting a half marathon at 5:20pm doesn’t feel natural to me. It’s near impossible to spend an entire day around my kids without them consuming most of my energy. Perhaps that helped with the decision to take this race comfortably in the end, which made for a wonderful running experience. Think I’ll add this event to my annual running schedule.

The Achilles Heel of growing old

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At my social old guys basketball game this evening, unfortunately a guy looks to have torn his Achilles Heel. Thinking about the unnatural contour of the tendon I saw up close still makes me a little squeamish.

It was particularly disappointing as the guy joined tonight for the first time. He had hesitated to join, due to worries about potentially repeating a prior injury to his ACL tendon. It was a sorry scene, in shiny brand new shoes he put on for the first time this evening. And quite shockingly, the incident occurred in the first minute on our team’s first attacking play.

At the end of the night, it was a big topic of conversation. One guy on my team felt guilty as it was his pass that was slightly behind the poor guy who had to slow and turn to get it – potentially causing the ominous misstep. I chimed in, it could have also been my fault actually. Me and the injured guy were last to the court and discussed who should go on first, and I encouraged him on.

I joked with one of our organisers, given it’s such a small unofficial association, what’s our public liability cover like – to pay any litigation claims from people injured. He said he didn’t know, then with slight tongue in cheek added, “there’s probably a few guys ahead of him”.

Hope the injury won’t be too serious and he makes a full and speedy recovery.

An update: Scan at hospital confirmed, he’s ruptured his Achilles. Dr Google suggests 6-9 months of recovery. Sad emoji.

Condoning the Gaps

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Today Australia’s Productivity Commission released their scathing annual report on the lack of progress and multiple failings in Closing the Gap in inequality experienced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Guardian Australia (2024), Closing the Gap will fail without ‘fundamental change’, scathing report finds).

This is the anti-Voice landscape we now live in.

Indigenous disadvantage, conditions and health outcomes not improving. Governments criticised for not listening or incorporating knowledgeable Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in the process.

It’s disappointing to see the ongoing failure in this report. What’s more disappointing is an identified strategy in the Indigenous Voice to Parliament took aim at resolving some of these issues, but not given a chance.

For those who said A Voice would achieve nothing, well, doing nothing new has achieved nothing also.

Review: Gotta Get Theroux This

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Gotta Get Theroux This
Gotta Get Theroux This: My Life and Strange Times in Television written by Louis Theroux
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

A fascinating backstory, and journal of process and progression from someone I think I always admired. Louis’s humble and raw account of his major accomplishments encouraged me to watch and rewatch several of the documentaries he recounts in entertaining and educational detail. I don’t often finish a book of this length, let alone within a month!

View all my GoodReads reviews

Smells like pre-teen spirit

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I saw that my local council added what looks like a painted edge over the encroaching grass that has begun growing onto the loose gravel footpaths. I presume they had used this to poison the grass into complying with their urban landscaping aesthetics and order.

It’s uncanny and a little unnerving how identical the poison’s aroma was with the smell of permanent marker pen that my primary school classmates and I used to sneakily love to sniff when the teacher wasn’t watching.

“.. That’s not going to fly”

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I was following some quite extraordinary news of a ship bound for Jordan, which was carrying 15,000 livestock, remaining stranded off the Western Australian coast. The ship apparently sought to abort their voyage, on account of the increasing security risks posed to merchant ships travelling into the Middle East. This resulted in a sorry state of limbo for 15 days as groups debated on the appropriate action for the animals. Today’s update is the ship has now berthed at Fremantle Port to offload the animals.

When I first heard of the story, I assumed I knew who was behind the disruption to the live export ship’s journey:

Parkrun fun

Reading Time: 2 minutes

I ran another Parkrun this morning, my 40th. It’s not quite a notifiable milestone, but finally getting close.

Being part of the local Parkrun community has been more fun than I imagined. I’ve quite enjoyed seeing the same faces, and experiencing the camaraderie and often some banter.

There are always a couple of funny moments. Today it was as I dropped off my car keys at the table before the run, and one of the regular volunteers joked if I was there to see the course map (that I may have actually run 100 times or more). I said I was fine, I’ll just follow someone today – instead of leading for a change. Not!

On the course there was a guy just in front of us not dodging the overhanging branches of trees. It was something to behold, and something to avoid as the branches flung back. He had what looked like a hydration vest. I joked that it wasn’t for hydration, it contained a machete he’d start using as he goes more bush.

Then as I finished and was handed my place token, the volunteer mentioned he saved Number 0001 for me (to record me as the winner, instead of 31st out of 353). Ha!

It kind of reminded of the time I was volunteering as a barcode scanner and the guy who did finish first forgot his own barcode to record his result. I helpfully told him I have my own barcode he could use. The guy was a visitor to our Parkrun and didn’t initially know it was just a joke.

When the kids’ sporting seasons commence, Saturday games kick in and I often can’t make it to Parkrun. I will whenever I can though, as I know there will always be some fun moments. Maybe ones I’d like to record here and read again one day.

Bike Safety

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I’ve been sitting in a local car park, which is opposite the police station. 95% of the kids riding bikes are not wearing helmets.

Kind of interesting to be watching this, and then see a memory pop up from social media today on a similar theme, from COVID hangover times – 16 January 2022.

I checked out the original post again, cause I thought it stirred up quite a few feelings among my Facebook friends at the time. LOL, yep (on top of the 22 reactions):