Tag: marathon

Surf Coast Trail Marathon 2022

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In terms of number of marathons I’ve run, this was to be my “Unlucky for some” race. So I left nothing to chance. I completed a pretty diligent 16 weeks of training, running 705.4kms in total.

An added bonus was most of my training was on the Surf Coast Trail Marathon course, known as the “Surf Coast Walk”. The SCTM sets off from Salty Dog Café (Bella and my local beach walk turnaround point), and finishes at the Fairhaven Surf Life Saving Club. And it’s a simple route, as the Race Director announced. If you’re up to your waist in water you’ve gone too far left. If you’ve crossed Great Ocean Road, you’ve gone too far right.

Most of my final packing and prep has become quite standard over the years, and went to plan, except .. The night before, I wisely left out the Vaseline to apply in the morning to prevent any chafing during the race. Except, it was NOT Vaseline I was applying. Quite the opposite. I could tell from the strong Eucalyptus aroma I was mistakenly giving my tender areas a generous Vix Vaporub! Instead of the cool relief of a moisturising balm, I felt the warm inner glow of a sexually-transmitted disease. It washed off OK. Good thing our Deep Heat isn’t in a similar shaped tub.

Rather than walk the 2kms from home to the start, and organise a ride back from the finish 42.2kms West, I decided to leave my car at the finish & use their shuttle bus back to the race start. It seemed logical, but certainly felt odd to drive the entire distance of a race before shuttle bussing all the way back, only to then run the full distance under my own steam.

At the start line, there were maybe just 200 runners, which was nice and intimate. There seemed to be no sudden influx of runners despite US politician, John Kennedy’s suggestion that gas prices are currently so high that people would find it cheaper to “buy cocaine and just run everywhere.”

The temperature at the start time of 8:30am was much warmer than my training runs which were usually an hour or two earlier in the day. As we set off, I was shocked to see the group in front of me were all vaping. Were they all sharing the same e-cigarette, or did they each have their own cause it looked like they were puffing in unison? As I got closer I realised it was just the steam from their breath. So maybe it was colder than I realised.

I felt reasonably OK throughout most of the distance. There are always moments though when you need to find something to encourage you to keep up the pace, or just keep going. At one of these points I found some extra motivation, hearing quite close behind me a guy coughing and spluttering. I had no choice but to pick up the pace and outrun any potential COVID germs.

At the 39km mark I saw a runner crouching down next to a marshal at the Airey’s lighthouse. He was clearly struggling and looked unable to continue. As I was about to pass him he joked “I’ll give you $50 if you give me a piggyback.” I laughed and apologised, “Not today” (which sounded a bit more suggestive than I hoped). As I painfully shuffled by him, I realised I’d knock him back even if he was offering $50,000.

It was no surprise, the final four kilometres were the toughest. I’ve learned from trail runners it’s fine to walk up hills, guilt free. When my legs were starting to run out of juice, everything started to look hill-like. I tried keeping a little bit of movement ready for the infamous finish line which is halfway up the surf club stairs from the beach. But it proved unnecessary. The high tide had washed away the sand and left the bottom step dangling infeasibly a metre or so above the shoreline. Coming up the alternative final climb of the subway suited me fine. I crossed the line with much relief at 4hr 25mins. This was five minutes under my target time; and 15 seconds per km quicker than my Surf Coast Century relay leg late last year. The SCC Leg 3 was a beast with the same elevation, but SCTM is over twice the distance. So today felt like a good result.

I made use of the surf club’s gloriously warm showers, then after a beer enjoyed cheering on the others still finishing.

All I then had to do was make the journey between Fairhaven and Torquay a fourth and final time. Which at least had an enjoyable pit stop at event sponsor Aireys Pub with some of the Surf Coast Trail Runners. I enjoyed a rewarding free beer (the tastiest of all beers).

Following is the Relive video of my Strava journey on the day, with some photos along the way.

My Melbourne Marathon, 2019

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Repatriating to Australia at the end of 2018, and into a new state for us in Victoria, it opened up a wonderful opportunity to run new marathons. I set my sights first on my capital city’s major road race, the Nike Melbourne Marathon. (For anyone counting, this would be number 11)

This race had been on my mind many years earlier. Even since I completed the Gold Coast City marathon probably. For fellow Queenslanders, the decision of which marathon outside of Queensland to run usually comes down to their preference to finish at The Sydney Opera House or finish on the hallowed turf of the MCG. I love my sport which, combined with my illogical opposition to all things from NSW, meant Melbourne was always going to be the clear winner.

Once I had finished running it, (in a slightly off target 4hr 03 minutes) I wanted to capture some of the amazing moments from the event, and I thought a Tweetstorm was the simplest (and therefore best) format for that. Now I have found that WordPress has an Unroll feature for Twitter embeds. So here following, are the 12 tweets from my 2019 Melbourne Marathon experience.

Sunday’s #MelbMara was amazing. A thread might be simpler than a blog to capture a few fun tidbits. (1/12)

Before the race I walked more than I wanted looking for the marathon bag drop. My Apple Watch informed me I’d completed my exercise goal before reaching the start line. ?

Loved an early spectator sign in the first few kms saying “You’re nearly there … (just kidding)” ?

Saw a spectator with a “Go Random Stranger” sign popping up all over the course. Runners beside me yelled “Thank you random cheerleader”. ? Later I noticed the sign flipped to show “Go Dan” on the other side when needed.

Another spectator sign I enjoyed, “It’s an awful lot of effort for a free banana.” ? (I might be mistaken, but I recollect there being only half bananas after the finish. Yet on the course they were whole. The opposite would have been better?)

.@EliudKipchoge running the first sub 2 hr marathon the day before was quite a talking point.

At one point on the course our group hit a complete standstill, where I said we’d now not break the world record. My neighbour concurred, since we had no laser guidance from a pace car (we were on 4:30 pace). ?

I saw more spectators around the course randomly handing out lollies than I have at any marathon. I asked one runner if his Mum knows he’s taking candy from strangers. After a pause, he said “At least he was wearing a glove.” ?

Around 30km mark I stopped noticing funny things, as my focus shifted to the pain of running 42.2kms.

I had anticipated a jubilant lap of the MCG before the finish line, maybe even getting out my phone to film the milestone moment. Wrong on two fronts.

1. My legs were excruciating and I could think of nothing beyond moving forward; and
2. My phone had been unlocking and entering wrong passwords in my flip belt. So it was disabled for a further hour. (At least on the drive home my marathon pace sped up quite a bit!?)

The end. For now.

I just remembered on the course I saw an Avenger running , but couldn’t keep up with him.

“Which one was it?”
“That’s not important.”
“It was Hulk wasn’t it.”
“But I did beat Spider-Man!”

Originally tweeted by Ryan B (@rbrink77) on 14 October, 2019.

Far more than running 10 marathons

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I’ve always run.  When I was young, my Mum and I used to do laps of the local rugby league field – dropping pebbles to count our laps.

Through high school and university I ran a few times each week to keep fit.

I continued even in the workforce. And this is when my running got more serious.

A colleague had his first kid around the same time as I did.  We already had a lot in common, and going through the same life changes, seemed to form a stronger connection.  Sadly he was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and  passed away two years later in November 2006.

Within a few weeks of his passing, I felt an urge to not take my good health for granted. So I decided to run a full marathon.
My logic was, since people less fortunate than me are unable to do this, it’s a waste if I do not.

I decided to prepare for Australia’s premier event, the 2007 Gold Coast Marathon (#1).  And at the tender age of 30, I went on to complete the marathon in 3:38:28.

As I painfully crossed the finish line, the feeling was glorious.
My finish time was closer to my “B” goal time. So on top of the feeling of achievement, there was already a sick desire to run this distance again.

My next marathon – as a result of expatriating with more travel options, was (#2) Berlin Marathon in 2009 – one of the famed “Big 5”.
I finished that one in 3:57:00.

Again, my finish time didn’t feel like a true reflection of what I was capable of.  So I felt the need to run again.

Next was the 2011 Dubai Marathon (#3). With some speed training, I set my personal best time of 3:23:32.

My (#4) Dubai Marathon 2012, 3:47:00 didn’t seem particularly special, until I did a presentation at work about running marathons and got a standing ovation.

I happened to be home in Brisbane on holidays in July, which coincided for (#5) Brisbane Marathon 2013, there I ran 4:15:00.

Occasionally life events got in the way of me running every year.  But I always seem to return to 42.2kms.  And I feel great for it.

Another Dubai Marathon 2015 (#6), 4:18:02 – very unprepared, and faced the consequences.

Yet another Dubai Marathon 2016 (#7), 3:45:23 – after getting back in shape to smash the former year’s performance.

Then I was on holidays COINCIDENTALLY back at Australia’s Gold Coast during the marathon weekend.  So I really had no choice but to run the (#8) Gold Coast Marathon 2016, 4:36:11

Then at the start of this year, I ran the hot (#9) Dubai Marathon 2017, 3:49:56

And then the “milestone” of running a 10th was on the horizon.  It lined up nicely with being the 10th year since my first.  And more emotionally, it coincided with me having just turned 40 years old.  This is the same age that my friend was, when he passed away 10 years earlier. It made me think even more how lucky I am.
This became no ordinary marathon to run.

The plan was to combine a family holiday in Jordan with the Amman marathon.  However, after returning from holidays home, the timing didn’t work.  So it made more sense to do the Beirut Marathon.  It has its own TED Talk by inspirational founder, May El-Khalil, which you must see.  The Australian Government’s travel warning to Lebanon is to reconsider your need to go. It made us feel more comfortable for my family to stay in Dubai.

On the flight I checked my iPad if I had any movies.  I wasn’t hopeful, as I usually free up space after watching anything.  However, there was still one movie there, the inspiring documentary I’ve watched many times, Spirit of the Marathon.  Quite a motivating and reflecting thing to watch, as I was landing in the Lebanese Republic.

My hotel room was placed perfectly between the start and finish lines.  A short walk before the race, a not-so-long shuffle on the way home. (The hotel made me feel at home with RAK coffee cups.)

I picked up my race pack on Friday when I arrived, part of a 12km walk to explore the city of Beirut.

Lebanon’s capital, Beirut, is renowned in the region for its glamour – once known as the Paris of the Middle East. Even at the Marathon Village this was pretty obvious with a Nail Couture and polish stand,

I vowed to walk far less on the day before the race. It was kind of a success, I only covered 10kms sight-seeing.

The long violent story of Beirut is one marathon effort to read.  The country was torn apart through civil wars.  The Holiday Inn Hotel is still on display after visibly fierce attacks between factions. I wondered if it was from 2005, when Prime Minister Rafic Hariri was assassinated near that location. Nope, the hotel has been standing like that since 1975.

The flight path into Lebanon itself shows the predicament the country has. With hotspots in Syria to the East, and Palestine and Israel to the South, we flew far from a direct route from Dubai.
Some uncertainty returned to Lebanon while I was there, with the shock resignation of current Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri (the son of Rafic).
To all Lebanese I know, Saad is an inspiration – even a regular runner of the marathon. That weekend the city began erecting signs seeking his return, from sudden exile in Saudi Arabia. The newspaper headlines were concerning.  The huge number of heavily armed police officers and army personnel, were reassuring.

Sunday was race day, for the many different events.  They even hosted a 1 kilometer run which went brilliantly from the marathon start line to the marathon’s finish, IN A STRAIGHT LINE – cutting out the superfluous 41.1 kms.

I mentioned in an earlier marathon blog that I find it pretty emotional at the starting line, among all these amazing people ready to push their body to the absolute limit. There in Beirut, away from my family, participating in my 10th, with all these lovely Lebanese people (incl. May El-Khalil) cheering me on, I was a blubbering mess for almost the first 3kms.

I settled into a rhythm, and spotted a lady running in an Australia singlet.  Morag and I then covered a few kilometers together, while chatting away like Aussie neighbours. Then I bid her farewell, to speed up a little (and hope I wouldn’t regret this pace and see that Australia singlet pass me later on).

The support across the course was fantastic. It’s usually slightly demoralising to go out, and come back to the same start line. The Beirut race day though was arranged so as we returned from the first section, the half marathoners had just started.  It was a spectacular sight to see a seemingly endless sea of runners freshly embarking on their own race. There were high fives, and lots of cheering between the full and half crowds.

All along the course, there were clusters of supportive people cheering for everyone to succeed. There were school groups, tiny white-haired ladies in their nighties hanging out of apartments yelling out “Yalla”, and every 100 metres someone from the Red Crescent.

I thoroughly enjoyed the city, and being part of the event.

I did a more complete running autopsy, on the runplan blog, for anyone that’s interested (http://blog.runplan.training/2017/11/17/still-learning-10-marathons-in-10-years/).

For the purposes of this post, it’s enough to say the run was tough-going. The hills took their toll, and perhaps in the lovely cool breezy weather I should have run slower than my body thought was fine.  The final 5 kms were brutal.  Even the sign saying 800 metres remaining was little relief to my cramping legs.  I just kept moving forward, as I have each time.

Crossing the line was an unfathomable relief.  Volunteers gave out aluminium sheets for people to keep warm, which wasn’t my problem.  However, I’ve never dressed as a baked potato like the New York Marathon finishers, so I wore it proudly.

I finished my (#10) Beirut Marathon 2017, 4:09:14.

I limped to the stadium seating and cheered on the other runners finishing.  I didn’t need to know them. I just knew something of what they had been through.  And I appreciate them.

The next day I wore my medal for all to see (#MedalMonday). Driving into the airport the taxi passed a checkpoint with big army guys carrying big guns. One of the officers looked into the backseat and stared in at me.  I immediately froze, worrying if I needed to show my passport or flight details, then he just pointed at my medal and gave me a hearty thumbs up. 🙂

I’ve been on such a journey since running that first marathon in 2007.

10 years on, it’s every bit as special.

And it’s nice to appreciate what has got me here.

2017 Dubai Marathon

Reading Time: 4 minutesYesterday morning I lined up to participate (not compete) in yet another Dubai Marathon ..

This year’s event had extra interest with a confident Kenenisa Bekele declaring he was going to break the world record.  On top of the glory of owning the world record, there was a nice $250,000 reward on offer for bettering the mark of 2:02.57 ..

Bekele’s campaign had the strong support of Nike and the Sub 2hr project sport scientists.  Unfortunately it didn’t help, as he sadly tripped at the start line.  It made the near impossible task, simply impossible.

Before my start, after the obligatory toilet stop and obligatory follow-up toilet stop, I made the long distance back towards the start. There I passed a massive queue of people. I thought to myself it’s a relief to have gone to the other toilet block, as there was no waiting. I soon learned this throng of people wasn’t for the toilets. It was the queue for the bag drop, which I needed. It’s the first time I’ve seen such a massive delay to literally “drop” something.

What terrible organisation to put the bag drop so close to the start/finish area and have it single-file the whole way.

It wasn’t until after the race when I went through the recovery area, picking up drinks and a banana, that I noticed how convenient it was to have the bag collection right there as we exited. What wonderful organisation.

This was to be my ninth full 42.195km marathon event. Experience adds some comfort to know that you can complete it.  On the other hand it provides no comfort from the pain.

This year I had no real goal time.  Beating last year’s time would be nice, returning to near 3:30 form would be superb. Realistically I just wanted to finish in relatively good shape, and avoid grinding to a halt.

Along the way, I was entertained as always.

In the first 10 kilometres I saw a guy running in a Spartans shirt. He was relaxed and running quite conservatively. I imagined he was saving his energy to slay a few dozen Persian warriors at the finish line.

Another shirt that grabbed my attention was “fast food” brand McDonalds. I felt it pretty important to pass that one.

It was then quite a milestone to run past Superman at the 16km mark. He was a big hit with the many kids cheering along the side of the course.

To gain my own super advantage I resisted the urge to try some of the Sub 2 hour juice,

Instead I took some gu gels for energy. The gu were in each of my shorts pockets, and when I tried to get one out another dropped onto the ground. Bugger. Do I stop to pick it up, or forget about it? As I looked down, the packet magically slid along the road back in front of me. A runner behind me had kindly, and quite skillfully, kicked it back to me while in mid stride. Despite his efforts, I decided the energy to slow and pick it up would outweigh the benefits the gu would give.  So I just kept on running.

The weather was quite warm – the hottest Dubai Marathon yet according to some runners. I clearly remember feeling thirsty throughout the run. I drank from every water spot, multiple drinks at some. I even started availing the unofficial stations, like those of the Dubai Creek Striders, the Desert Road Runners, and Abras squads; as well as a random congregation of Chinese people – though I avoided their interesting offering for marathon runners, salty potato crisps.

Despite drinking as much water as I could, and using it to keep my body cool, I did struggle in the last stages. My pace dropped, thankfully it was a much later inevitability than last year.

I’d like to say my smile got bigger with each kilometre marker. Perhaps my grimace got no worse.

At 40kms, a helpful Arab encouraged me by telling me there were two kms to go.  “Hurry up and in three minutes you’ll be finished – yalla!”

The finish line, like all finish lines, was a blessing.  I didn’t track the run very accurately on my apple watch with some mistaken pauses. So I really had little clue about what time I’d see as I approached the line.  It was 3:51, which was a 3:49.58 net finish. Five minutes slower than last year which I can live with – and still thankfully under the four hour mark.

After I collected my stuff, I enjoyed the adidas rest area.  Some other runners enjoyed it a whole lot more.  A couple of ladies, looking fresh as daisies after their marathons, easily spent 30 minutes getting hilariously flamboyant photos next to the merchandise and posters. Then they’d get them taken again, from more and more angles.

I found watching it almost as tiring as running the final 5kms.

Before the race I took two Ibuprofen to help avoid some ongoing niggles in my hip & knee. I like to think of it as a proactive measure. Nope. Seeing other marathoners limping so painfully, the Ibuprofen was clearly cheating.  Cheating which I will do again.

All the marathon podium places went to Ethiopians:

It’s always a highlight to see how well the Ethiopians perform, and to see the passion of their supporters in the crowd.  They all look so beautifully happy, wearing their distinctive colours, singing for their champions.

This completed my ninth marathon in 10 years.  It would be quite neat to complete another one this year ..

First I must let my new shoes get broken in a little more, and let my blistered feet heal:

2016 goals smashed – just. Kind of.

Reading Time: 4 minutesIn 2016 I again tried to make continual progress over 12 months in a couple of personal areas I find important:

  • Running 1200kms, and
  • Reading 12 books.

Both of these numbers neatly ensure each and every month I keep running and reading. Or, so I hoped.

In reality, it’s never that simple for me.

My 2015 goals became a real challenge when the priority shifted from running to looking for new job opportunities.
And this past year, after beginning a new role opening an ambitious new attraction I struggled to find the time & head-space to read for pleasure.

Unable to find time is such a cop out. The obvious truth is, if you find something important enough, you make time. But we’ll get to that shortly ..

 

Run 1200 kilometres in a calendar year (supposedly 100km per month)

As it turned out, my running goal was quite straight-forward to complete this year.

In fact, I ran 1374km in all (exceeding even the cliched 110% effort).  This was mostly on account of running a second marathon in the year during my Australian holiday. It really wasn’t planned like this.
My parents coincidentally booked my boys and I into a wonderful resort on the Gold Coast on the same weekend in July as Australia’s premier road race, the Gold Coast Marathon. The marathon course passed two streets away from where we were staying on Surfer’s Paradise. And it happened to be where I ran my first marathon back in 2007. So I saw no alternative but crank up the training in the month before we left Dubai, and run the popular event.

It really boosted my kilometres. Usually my running tally flattens right out in July during Dubai’s summer.

 

Read 12 books in a calendar year (supposedly 1 book per month)

My reading goal on the other hand, it really came down to the wire.

I made almost no progress in the first half of the year. A couple of times I wasn’t sure I’d make it. November became such a stressful ascent, and December’s four books seemed almost insurmountable.

But I kept reading when I could, especially on my commute to and from work.

Right until the final afternoon of 31st of December, I was literally reading while running .. well, listening to an audio book on my final long runs.

Then after my exhausted return from 32.5kms I had to finish reading a final 40-50 pages.   But I managed.  I completed the final 12th book and my reading challenge.

S-U-C-C-E-S-S

It’s a good feeling to again complete these two resolutions, particularly after it seemed that one goal became near impossible.

Maybe it’s a strength to adapt to life and fit in such a variety of things, not focusing on a singular goal.

Perhaps my subconscious enjoys the drama of bringing things back from the seemingly impossible.

If so, perhaps I’d like to retire this part of my subconscious in 2017.

Making some regular progress each and every week would be wonderful to avoid getting into stressful situations with little time remaining.

Let’s see what 2017 brings.

But there was actually something I didn’t complete this year as planned ..

 

Publish 12 blogs in a calendar year (supposedly 1 blog per month)

When I renewed my 1200kms and 12 books challenges, I also thought to myself that I’d like to blog 12 times.  Again, at the start of the year this is a number which seems so easy.

In January an obvious blog for me is to write about the Dubai Marathon that I tend to run. And it seemed like a particularly good story this year as I had trained hard, and even employed a new training regime with an expert online coach. What an uplifting blog to write, in my 9th year of running to return to my best form. Though for a couple of reasons, I didn’t finish close to my goal time and I felt quite disappointed for many weeks.

I thought I’d get over it, and still share my thoughts from the day.  But this disappointing blot kept me from writing for a month. And it kept me from writing in the month after that when we had a nice trip to Ras Al Khaimer, a repeat of the trip we take each year – which I wrote about in 2015 (“Another RAK half weekend – 13-14 February 2015”).

Even in July when I holidayed in Australia I didn’t document my usual notes from our adventures. The fact that I had a resolution to write 12, demotivated me to recover the blog situation. I wasn’t getting back onto the horse.

Finally in December, I enjoyed the Striders half marathon too much and had to pen a few notes from the event, (“Yet another Striders half – 09 Dec 2016”).  And perhaps it was decidedly restarting the practice for the fresh running season and the coming year.

So the final score card has just one blog out of 12, for the 12 months.

Interestingly, when I was reflecting on my 2016 goals and I remembered the blog idea, it almost didn’t seem like a resolution. I gave up on it so early and so easily, I suppose wasn’t really serious about this one this past year.

2017?

I’ll take off the pressure for 2017, and blog as much as I feel – with no reference to any arbitrary numbers.

But I’ll definitely read 12 books & run 1200kms.
I’ve got two years experience that no matter how challenging it seems they are to achieve, I always have them COMPLETELY under control.

*Sigh*


2016 Australian Holidays – from the archives

Reading Time: 8 minutesQuite a surprise to find I had blogged while on holidays back in 2016, but hadn’t published at the time. Actually uploaded two years later on 24/08/2018. Better late than never.

30/06/2016 – Let the holiday begin

This was the day we were to fly to Brisbane to begin our “Summer Holiday” in Australia’s Winter. But first I had to go into work.

Work was ridiculously busy.  It started joyfully enough, knowing I was almost on my way. Though more and more approvals kept me stuck at my desk.

The boys were amazingly good at the airport and on the plane.  Owen thankfully wore himself out at the boarding gate while we were waiting. He was doing a lot of running, along with a fair share of pole dancing.  Within an hour and half he was fast asleep and looking very comfortable.

I found myself quite tired too.  Though when I just began to nod off, a cabin crew would wake me for a drink or dinner.

As I checked out the travel map for our flight, It wasn’t a good sign that my first thought was ‘Is that all!?”

The Singapore Airlines cabin crew were all very friendly. The ladies’ uniform looks almost uncomfortably flattering. Their tiny feminine body seemed to be mostly hips.

Myles was trying to nod off.  And Lewis definitely should have. He spilled orange juice, and dropped a huge pile of skittles all over the floor; and he keeps talking at full volume as if he’s outside the plane sitting on the wing trying to be heard.

Today was my brother’s birthday.  In what has become an annual tradition the boys and I left an Arabic rendition of “Happy Birthday to you” on his voice mail.

One surprising thing, I had to return my duty-free alcohol I bought. It seems only from Terminal 3 there is an arrangement to box the alcohol – needed to enter in Australia. The cashier didn’t know, it was only when he consulted his supervisor that he learned.

 

03/07/2016 – Gold Coast Marathon Day!

I managed a decent amount of sleep on account of Owen needing me to snuggle him in bed.  I still woke up plenty of times.  Once or twice after worrying dreams of missing the event as usual.

The tram to the start line was too packed. Instead I went back to the front of my hotel where charter buses were picking up runners. Lesson-learned.  Don’t pass up a perfectly good transport to try for something more convenient.  On the bus I noticed everyone except a couple of runners had Asics brand running shoes. The more I looked around the more obvious it was. Clearly Dubai has very different market to Australia. I seemed a complete foreigner, perhaps I could have been wearing a grass skirt.

We got to the start line shortly before 6am. Lots of half-marathoners had to rush.

It was quite freezing.  A hot coffee was necessary, and tasted amazing.

My pre-race toilet prep worked a treat.  I felt great from the start. Conditions were absolutely perfect. Crisp to begin, and not getting above warm. I had huge appreciation for all the volunteers and thanked them when I could.  And the spectators were brilliant.  Miyuki from Dubai was running with me, and was hugely popular with the hordes of passionate Japanese passionate Japanese cheers squads.  The Australians had a bit more trouble pronouncing her name from reading it on her bib. I didn’t add a nickname to my bib when registering. I figured it would show my first name instead. Nope, it showed nothing.  So imagine my surprise when a total stranger yelled out “Go Rhino!” It turned out the guy next to me was nicknamed Rhino also. Though people didn’t need to your names for encouragement.

Lots of signs said things like “Go complete stranger” or “I’m so proud of you, perfect stranger”.  There were so many good ones.  I liked the thought behind the image of the Mushroom from Super Mario games, with “Tap here for free power up”. I used as many of those as I could. “Unless you have puked, fainted, or died, keep going!”

One family had the song “We are the champions” playing loudly.  Though instead of those words, they sang “YOU are the champions ..”  The interesting thing with an out and back marathon course is that 20-30 minutes later when we ran back past the same spot they were singing the exact same song. That’s dedication.

I also loved other music along the way, which showcased a variety of bands.  There were two drummers going like crazy. To keep it up seemed to need as much stamina as running 42kms.

My favourite sign of all was in the first kilometre as we ran over the bridge for the first time.  A lady standing there was proudly waving a “You’re nearly there” poster.  As we did pass 1km I did the math and shared we have only 41.2km to go. I’m not sure how well that was appreciated by the runners around me.

In the final stages the going got tough, but I had no worries of finishing.  I just wanted to see the finish line – really wanted to see that line.  (Perhaps the feeling related to my former Gold Coast marathon where I had terrible cramps in the final 200 metres.)

The support heading to the finish was amazing. I particularly like seeing the Indigenous Marathon Foundation (IMF) mob – under the inspirational Rob De Castella.  Under their tent, they all gave such a hearty cheers.  I proudly gave high 5s all round. Even at the finish a lady with a camera obviously from IMF seeing me wearing an IMF shirt decided instead of taking my picture to give me high 5s.

 

04/07/2016 – Dreamworld

We all enjoyed seeing Australia’s premier theme park.  The entry was part of a deal with our accommodation, Paradise Resort. In hindsight, it would have been nice to have invested further and avoided the queues.  We waited 1 hour before doing the Thunder River Rapids ride (tragically, 2 months later that ride would be shut down forever).

We had to wait another hour for the boys who wanted to do Mick Doohan’s Motocross ride.

The Tower Of Terror seemed to have almost a 1 hour wait also, which Lewis and Corey persevered with – which seemed worth it.

05/07/2016 – The rain’s set in

We woke slightly before our breakfast meeting time to learn of a bad weather forecast. It was likely to rain all day so we agreed to drop our plan to visit Movie World. Instead, we decided to go ice skating in the resort we were staying.

All boys had a go. Owen picked it up extremely quickly. Bracken enjoyed it quite nervously – hanging on to the side walls rather than using the penguin-shaped guides. Corey joined us a little later to help Bracken, and he immediately enjoyed it more.

Lewis really put in a lot of effort. And Myles as expected was quite fine.

For lunch we went out for first & chips at the popular Pete’s Fish & Chips near Sea World.

From there we decided to not call it a day and take the Aqua Duck submersible vehicle. It was cool! The car had no suspension, so quite bouncy on the road. But it was amazing to drive into the water. All boys got to drive the boat out at sea which was fun.

For dinner Mum bought stuff to make hot dogs which went down a treat. Lewis may have had 5 or 6. The little boys and the older boys were very tired so we cut short our game of Sequence.

 

06/07/2018 – Helicopter ride and 2nd Dreamworld visit

The helicopter ride from Sea World was busier than I expected. We happened to see Tom Keneally also waiting.

The helicopter journey was more bumpy than I anticipated. The landing was the opposite and very smooth and straight-forward.

From there we went straight to Dreamworld for the rest of the day, where the boys enjoyed new rides and we all checked out the Peter Brock exhibit.

08/07/2016 – Farewell Paradise Resort, and final Dreamworld visit

We had our final morning at the hotel before visiting Dreamworld one last night.

Myles did the Tower Of Terror ride almost reluctantly. He wanted to do it, and not have Lewis just talking about it constantly. Right at the end before we got on, Myles was getting upset and said he didn’t want to do it. The attendants were very helpful and had obviously gone through the routine many times. They assured him after getting his name. Then when that didn’t work the lady said she would slow down the ride for Myles. Myles felt bad having it slowed down for everyone. He didn’t notice the wink she gave me. The story definitely helped. Although Myles looked really freaked out on the ride. Regardless, he enjoyed it. And not wanting to do it again.

Before that we took the train ride to the Corroboree section and saw the native animals. They were awesome, especially the koala which we got to pat,a 4 year old called “Cinnamon”.

The kangaroos weren’t too fussed about us. Boys enjoyed the indigenous exhibit, particularly The Mimis animated story.

We didn’t do many other rides.  The boys preferred to have fun in the Madagascar balls game. Our sons also had fun driving the Model T Fords, like their parents did at probably around the same age.

The Dreamworld Pass was definitely worth it. With three days we got to do a huge amount of the stuff we wanted, and see most of the attractions.

09/07/2016 – Caloundra fishing

Everyone slept like logs after the full week of theme parks and staying at the kids resort.

We had breakfast at mcDonalds as per Myles’s request. It was lovely to have an authentic bacon muffin. After breakfast the boys played in the playground. Well they did, until Myles noticed someone had urinated on the slide.

In the afternoon we went fishing with my brother in the Maroochy River. It took a short while to land our first fish. Naturally Myles caught it. He went on to catch 9 fish altogether. They were mostly bream, only a few legal size.

The stand-out for me was Owen. He was a complete natural. No one had to show him a thing. He just knew how to hold the rod, and wind in the line. And it didn’t take long before he was also trying to cast out the line himself.  It was well-deserved when he caught his first fish!

All in all it was a great day, and night. It’s lovely that we didn’t need to spend a lot of money on theme parks parks and hotel resorts. We can have fun doing such simple activities. I didn’t even need to fish. I enjoyed just watching the others.

13/07/2016 – Extremely white Tassie

We woke around 8am to an unfortunate day of weather, so we cancelled any plans to climb a mountain. Instead we had a great day playing in the snow.

 

16/07/2016 – Flying home to Dubai

Even without looking after three boys, it’s a very long flight from Australia.  Not as long as the couple next to me on the flight, they were coming from New Zealand.  And travelling onto London.  Altogether they’d be sitting on a plane for 36 hours.

We all boarded late due to the plane arriving after schedule.  Then it took maybe more than 30 minutes for the engineers to repair some casing under the wing! At first they couldn’t open it.  Then it took some time.  Then they needed to complete the necessary paperwork.  The captain was nice enough to update us every 10 minutes sharing a lot of details – I’m not sure if we needed all the details.

Our planned flight was to depart at 2210 hours.  Before we boarded they revised the time to 2250.  With the refueling and engineering problems once we were aboard meant we didn’t leave til after midnight!

Despite this, due to good weather conditions we were still scheduled to arrive on-time!  That’s catching up two hours.  You can become curious, Why can’t they travel at that pace all the time.

This was my first QANTAS long haul between Australia and Dubai.  Not bad, though a little pokier in Economy.

The in-flight entertainment was unsurprisingly not up to the mark of Emirates.  With Emirates you get more choices than you need.  QANTAS, for me, have the choices you don’t necessarily want. Obviously the choices weren’t too bad, they lady across the aisle was often laughing out loud in hysterics.

The food was OK. I even enjoyed having a famous Bundaberg ginger beer.

Dubai Marathon 2015 – Ouch

Reading Time: 4 minutesMy new employer is big into health & wellness. I was caught up in the emotion and nominated with the team to run the full marathon, my third Dubai marathon in four years.

This is a blog about a marathon I ran. So I should start with all the excuses from the outset.

  • I hadn’t planned or trained for this marathon
  • The temperature was warmer than most of my runs
  • At the buffet on the evening before the race, the queue at the pasta (carbs) station was too long
  • I wasn’t born and bred in Kenya, nor trained with their highland tribes
  • I’m not Ethiopian. (2015 marathon male results).

    • With that out of the way, I can share that this was an amazing, painful, gritty, enjoyable run.

    I joined forces with a 4 hour bus which formed from the Striders running group. Four hours was always going to be a stretch goal for me this year. But i figured their pacing would assist to tame the cheetah in me that usually goes out too hard.

    Perhaps typical to Dubai, it was a dodgy bus. It disintegrated practically before it began, with all members having different plans how to reach their goal. After the usual pre-run rituals, I positioned myself with those whose strategy was to go slowest.

    For something different I had planned to listen to Rock My Run. It plays pumping music and adjusts the beat to your preferred pace, or heart rate.
    It only worked until I opened my running tracker. Oops. Then I switched back and it only worked until my phone went onto standby. So I gave up on that just as we were about to start. The crowd of runners at the start began to move forward and I needed a plan B, so I just put the music on my iPhone onto shuffle.

    It was a fitting song for that moment, Sam & Dave’s “Hold On, I’m Coming”.

    The song soon after was Adele – Chasing Pavements. If I had planned ahead I wouldn’t have included that in the playlist. What depressing lyrics for a marathon:

    “Should I give up?
    Or should I just keep chasin’ pavements
    Even if it leads nowhere..”

    The pace was much slower than what I’m used to. It gave me the opportunity to watch more of the other runners, and enjoy being part of such a special event. I’m always in awe how there are so many different people running the same course. There are the professionals and the rest of us. Then there are all the different ages and body types. And some have every piece of gadgetry and all the expensive running brand apparel, yet they get overtaken comfortably by a guy with a pony tail wearing what looks like his pyjamas, although I suspect he may have even come directly from a Shisha cafe.

    Another guy was singing out loud and waving his hands around with great enthusiasm which was fun for everyone around. The lady beside me suggested he wasn’t even listening to anything, the headphones were just for show. Ha!

    Perhaps the most inspiring thing I saw on the day was the blind marathon runner. He and his companion had already turned around several kilometres ahead of me. I struggle to walk 10 paces with my eyes closed without being overwhelmed. It’s impossible to fathom, running at full pace with just a string tethered to someone whom you trust to be your eyes. He received the loudest cheer from me and my fellow runners.

    I felt strong and I could keep up this pace for the whole race. I thought. Around 28kms I began to hurt, and my counterpart in the bus was slowing too. I realised at this point it would only get a whole lot worse from there.

    And each kilometre did get worse.

    I thought I had just hit the wall early. Nope, those were just contractions. At 37kms I could physically not move forward. I stopped and let the various points of agony take over my legs. I stretched. Well, I tried. Then after a lot of grimacing, I started to shuffle forward again. I appreciated the encouragement from a fellow runners. Everyone was hurting, everyone wants each other to succeed.

    As I continued I had to increasingly adjust my running style to avoid the cramps in my legs.

    It got to the point near a water stop I recall I was approaching a bottle top on the road yet I couldn’t lift my foot high enough to clear it.

    If I stopped it would take longer. So with determination I just continued with whatever tiny amount of movement I could manage, and kept moving forward. Then it was just a count down. 5kms to go. 4, 3, 2, are we there yet? 1km then I turned right onto Umm Suqeim road and the finish line came into view. It still looked so far away.. Though nothing could stop me now.

    I crossed the finish line. All I could do was stand frozen and enjoy the relief from no longer having to move my cramping legs. It could have been a minute or five, tho I suspect it was somewhere in between.

    I stopped tracking my running activity on my phone. My phone’s battery was down to 7%. My own battery might have been lower.

    Before we both switched off I called my wife to tell her which tree I’d be passed out under.
    Despite the hardship, perhaps because of it, I thoroughly enjoyed getting through my sixth full marathon in eight years.
    It hurt, but not as much as the regret of not doing it while I can.

    Runner knits his way into record book

    Reading Time: 2 minutesvia Runner in KC Marathon knits his way into record book – KansasCity.com.

    I heard about this strange but true story on the morning radio. A guy has run a complete 42.2km marathon, while knitting a 12 foot scarf. When I came home I just had to see if there was an accompanying photo that showed whether the guy looks completely crazy or not.
    I gotta say, he appears quite normal.

    What possesses someone to add such complexity to an already grueling event?

    Did he do it in the hope that at a dinner party he can painfully trump any other running story? Others may be proud to report they’ve completed a half marathon, at which point this fella would jump in that he ran a full marathon while, all the way, knitting a world record scarf!

    Perhaps I’m a little bitter about these novelty runners. I remember in 2007 in my first half marathon feeling quite demoralised as I couldn’t keep up with the guy in a clown wig, and ballerina tutu skirt.

    It made me now wonder what other crazy marathon records are out there.
    A couple of years ago at the Dubai marathon, we got talking to a guy juggling a football the entire 10km event. It was an awkward conversation, cause I didn’t want to be responsible for putting him off. He allegedly had world records for football juggling.

    That now seems less impressive, compared to the world record for the Fastest Backwards Juggling Marathon I just spotted:

     

    The knitter and the backwards juggler’s marathon times are just over the 5 hour mark, which isn’t terribly quick. Other novelty records though are embarrassingly fast.

    I’ve compiled a list of my favourites, and included my own personal best marathon time – free from any intended novelty.

    • David Stone, 2:42.15, dressed as Pirate Captain Jack Sparrow
    • Ian Sharman, 2:42.52, dressed as Elvis
    • Camille Herron, 2:48.51, dressed as a superhero (Spiderwoman)
    • Paul Simons, 2:55.50, dressed as Santa Claus
    • Joe Elliot, 2:58.03, dressed in full business suit
    • Ryan Brinkworth, 3:22.23, normal as I can be
    • David Ross, 3:25, dressed in a wet suit
    • Mike Ellicock, 3:25.21, carrying a 40lb (18kg) pack
    • Bruce Moore, 3:31, dressed in full gorilla suit
    • Xu Zhenjun, 3:43.39, running backwards
    • Dale Lyons, 3:47, carrying an egg on a spoon
    • Paul Simons, 3:49.21, dressed in full military uniform
    • Chris Baron, 4:28.48, while skipping
    • Darren Weissman, 4:39.12, dribbling two basketballs

    Sourced, http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/, 24 October 2013.

    Marathon PB at Dubai Marathon, 27 January 2012

    Reading Time: 4 minutesYesterday at the Standard Chartered Dubai Marathon I crushed my running goal of 3:30. I crossed the line in a net result of 3:23.32 – which I’m very happy with. The time’s 15 minutes faster than my former best, in 2007; and 35 mins better than my last marathon just over 2 years ago.

    I’m not sure why more people don’t run marathons. In the morning for breakfast I ate a whole family block of chocolate, guilt-free. I can justify eating almost anything providing it has high carbs. I guess as my running will now reduce, that diet will be a luxury of the past.

    I’ve now run three marathons in three countries. And I’ll deny it if you ever bring it up, but at the starting line of each I’ve shed a tear or two thinking how fortunate I am to be in a position to do this.

    My music collection didn’t really help me in such an emotional moment, hearing John Butler singing about having to believe. That was resolved with the next track “Don’t worry be happy” by Bobby McFerrin.

    Sadly my iPhone lost its GPS signal for a moment, so my GPS girlfriend was overwhelmingly pleased thinking I was on world record pace. Once the distance is miscalculated there’s no recovery, she’ll tell wrong information every kilometer. This was a bit of a pain, as my phone had become my training partner for the past three months. It was now just a very distracting iPod. The music was at least helpful. Gloria Gaynor singing “I will survive” was timely and encouraging.

    On the timing part, I did have the backup of my stop watch, so I could keep an eye on the times of my kilometer splits.

    Marathoners generally have an A and B goal, so if things don’t go to plan, there’s still something to aim for. This year a guy ran wearing a 10kg rhinoceros suit to raise awareness for Save The Rhino. So most people also had a C goal in this run to not be beaten by a rhino. I saw him getting assembled at the start line, then thankfully not again for the rest of the day.

    The run was fantastic. I ran the majority of training runs required in the three months before the race, so all the hard work was done. In the race I could just relax and enjoy – which I did. Although there weren’t large crowds of spectators throughout, there were still enough people screaming encouragement. Including my family who had come out bearing animal masks, vuvuzellas, and a “Go Daddy Go” sign. Being a Dubai Creek Strider also helped immensely, as wearing the team “vest” got plenty of vocal support from the extended Striders community.

    The night before I asked my two sons if they could write some encouragement on my arms, which I could look down and see if I got tired. Myles wrote “Go Ryan” with a smiley, Lewis scribbled all over the other arm, which allegedly said “Go Ryan” also.

    It was probably not the most well-executed plan. When I woke up race day at 4am stumbling into the bathroom I laughed out loud when my eyes focused. My face had in permanent pen a mirror image of Go Ryan, where my face must have rested on my arm.
    It did come off.

    It was tough to stick with the plan of breaking marathon into three parts, running slow, not so slow, then fast. The first 7kms was relatively slow, but then I’d say the rest was a fast medium pace, until the last 4kms when I had to fight to not be too slow. The training prepared me well, but there’s no getting around the fact that 42.2kms is a freaking long way to make the body run. The crowd were cheering the loudest towards the end, which was appreciated. With 3kms to go I caught up with a guy from the club who was struggling more than me. He came back with a bit of a sprint which helped me find an auto drive setting, which pushed me to the finish. On the line I couldn’t help but just stand in a triumphant, relieved, fatigued, blissful, agony. (I hardly even heard my club mate call me a bastard)

    My family joined me. Then I hobbled to the Dubai Mall carpark. It seemed like a second marathon – along the way giving an understanding nod to other runners hobbling also.

    My mind was a bit of a blur also. As I was walking, I heard a voice behind me say Ryan a few times. All I could register though was, I know that name. It was a colleague who ran the marathon also. I cursed the fact he was walking so comfortably, perhaps the benefits of more experience – this was his fifth marathon in recent years.

    Once home I cracked open a beer, had a lovely hot shower to wash off the litre of dried sweat, then had a very relaxing bath. My bath may have been 15 minutes, or 5 hours – I have no idea.

    That night we had a bunch of friends over for a belated Aussie Day BBQ. I proudly wore my finisher’s medal, which got some mocking. The kids though were very impressed. They spotted on the medal the number 2 of the year, 2012 and assumed I finished in second place. I went with it. So Ayele Abshero Biza won the marathon in a course record of 2:04.23, then I came in next, 80 minutes later. 🙂

    One of the 10 year old girls put it nicely, and said it looked like I just got out of bed. Quite different to all the women who just told me I looked like [expletive].

    Realistically, I have no future running goals at this stage. I guess somewhere there is a desire to run the next marathon, and I wonder if I can achieve the next PB, sub 3:20. Pain in my legs and one foot is doing a fine job to mask such desires for the moment.

    Thanks everyone for the encouragement and well wishes. To state something beyond obvious, I couldn’t have run the marathon without the support of many people.

    These shoes are made for running

    Reading Time: 3 minutesIn my 33 years on this planet I’ve run two marathons. My first was at Gold Coast in 2007, my second was in Berlin, Germany last year. This has led some of my colleagues to be misinformed into thinking I’m a marathon-er.

    A marathon-er runs constantly through the year, running marathons whenever it takes their fancy. They are always in marathon shape, and at any time can prove they can run 42.2km.  This person is not me. I have not run seriously for nearly a year. I have had episodes on the treadmill where I run til I’m bored, and I always walk away thinking I could go a lot further if I wanted. Truth be told, I have huge lapses in my running where my fitness is shot.  I found this morning that I’m really not that fit, or that good a runner, I think my ability to continue to run distances is just on account of being stubborn.

    I could probably count on one hand the number of outdoor runs I’ve had in the last year.  The most recent was while on holidays in Tasmania I managed a pleasant 10 kilometre run along their newly created walking path.  Today I managed another with the Dubai Creek Striders, but it was a definite struggle.  It was the same distance as my Tassie run a few weeks ago, however even with three drink stops the temperature and humidity made if feel honestly like twice the distance.  NB: although it’s currently Ramadan, we do have drink along the way, we just make sure we’re discrete.

    When you’re out of shape and running there are voices in your head doubting your ability, telling you to quit. They’re difficult to ignore, but perhaps you should not. It is these same voices that can lead you to even better results when you’re on top of your game.  Telling you to stop and that you’re no good can be fantastic motivators.

    For today’s run I arrived at the meeting point earlier than normal, and there were already a dozen or so cars there but no runners. This is a tell-tale sign that a large part of the squad are putting in some big kilometres preparing for a marathon. I was in a little bit of a panic when I saw this. I wondered to myself were all these people already doing the more than 20km training runs in preparation for Dubai marathon in January – the same Dubai marathon in January I’ve come out of storage to complete? Oh, bugger, my first thoughts were I must be way behind on my training – I assumed four months (if I start today and stick to it) would be adequate.

    Later I learned off someone that a large number of the group are training for the Athens marathon which is in October, which was a big relief. The Athens marathon has a lot of interest this year, as it’s the 2,500th anniversary of the original 42km run which all of us nutters now replicate to challenge ourselves in the alleged name of fun and fitness. For those who don’t know the story, a messenger called Pheidippides was sent from a battlefield in Marathon to send word back to Athens that the Greek army had an unlikely victory over the Persians. He made the 26 mile journey to deliver the message with one word Niki! (victory) before dying.  A lot of runners have some romanticism about the concept, and even that original course he followed. Maybe one day we’ll find on snopes.com it was just an email hoax we lapped up. Having said that it is a run I’d like to do it one day.

    In a word, the run today was tough. We had one hard stretch where we had to run toward Dubai’s extremely large flag pole, which was a little offputting to think we weren’t getting any closer as its height was not changing – but again it was just my mind playing tricks on me.  The pole and flag were once the tallest/largest in the world – but each new request for a taller flag pole makes this a fast-changing record.

    I drove home after the running feeling a little dehydrafted. If only there was  a way to process the weight of sweat I was carrying in my clothes. I didn’t risk taking a drink.  On the drive back along Sheikh Zayed Road, only southbound traffic (my direction) was moving. I saw the cause for the delays, the entire six lanes were blocked by Police, and out in front there was a movie or a commercial being filmed. Seemed like maybe a car chase video, as there were big boom cameras fitted on top of a Range Rover following maybe a sports car.  The traffic was banked up at least 3-4 kilometres. Although after coming from my harrowing run, maybe my perspective was skewed – it could have been 200-300metres. There’s never much sympathy for other people being stuck in traffic, it’s just so great that it’s not yourself.

    Soon after I got back home I soothed my muscles with a nice relaxing swim. So I only have a bicycle leg to finish to complete a triathlon today. But instead I have decided to lie on the couch and read.