Marathon trip

This is essentially recording some stuff around our trip to Melbourne which had the purpose of me running the marathon. The sub-text of that is that I had found that the time I ran in New York (10 months earlier) would have put me at #15 in the ACT Vets 60 – 65 age group. As I turned 60 (or as Frances put it, depressingly, entered my 7th decade) 2 days before the race this seemed to be my best chance of additional fame.

Day 1 was a drive from Carwoola to Marlo on the East Coast of Victoria. This started by confirming that the shortcut through Captains Flat and Jerangle actually cut 20 minutes (as well as 50km) off the trip. The highlight of the drive was seeing a lot of echidnas wandering around. We have seen them in the past but this year they seem to be everywhere.

We started touristing at the Bemm River rainforest walk where there were a lot of birds calling, but as usual in rainforest, none were visible. We moved on to Cape Conran, taking a photo of a young person boogie-boarding and added a few bird to the list. A call was made to the Cabbage Palm Creek picnic area but no topknot pigeons were seen. A large number of mosquitos were seen and felt (and killed).



We were booked in to the Marlo Motel who recommended the pub across the road as a provider of food. The Motel was good, but the food at the pub was overpriced and rather ordinary. The next morning (Day 2) was my actual anniversary so I didn’t cop even the warranted criticism for an initial stuff up for our walk. We recovered from that and had a very enjoyable stroll from the French’s Narrows lookout to the Southern Ocean. Highlights were: a number of white fronted chats – including a great distraction display; copulating pied oystercatchers; and adding striated fieldwren to my life list.

The remainder of the drive to Melbourne was fine, although the tollway was clagged badly so we left it to its own devices. Some amusing bumper stickers seen en route:

• ”Adventure before dementia”
• “I used to have an open mind but my brain kept falling out”

It is also salutary to note that our fuel consumption on this leg approached 35 miles per gallon (8l/100km) to contrast with about 30mpg normally. The difference is driving a long distance at a steady 110kmh.

After checking in at the Ibis pub we went to the Vic Markets to acquire some bottled goods (dark brown in hue) for after the marathon. A very interesting process and some user feedback will be added in another post.

For the evening meal we went to the “Namaste on King” restaurant. This was of the Indian persuasion and was absolutely splendid. We know a tad about Indian grub after our time in Dar es Salaam and this was an excellent mix of spiciness and tastiness and very reasonably priced: a total contrast to last night at Marlo.

The following morning I went for an early morning cater around what used to be called “the Tan” track around the Botanic Gardens. As the old tanbark has been replaced by gravel I reckon it is better referred to as The Beige. This was done satisfactorily and we headed off to the Gardening Australia Expo at Caulfield Racecourse. The event was quite interesting in terms of quite a lot of unusual plants being available and several were purchased. However, as a friend noted it was quite expensive and there was nothing about garden design or such like. I spent the afternoon dozing (after bumping into Rob Ey – with whom I was to run on Sunday – in Spencer St. as he got off the airport bus). The evening was a visit to Docklands for a meal: we (Frances, Rob and I) went to Medici and put ourselves outside some Italia grub and a bottle of Tantanoola Tiger Cabernet.

On the Sunday Rob and I trotted off to near the Melbourne Cricket Ground – hereafter referred to as “the G”. This was the start of the marathon and we were pleased to get there with about 20 minutes to spare. Then it turned out that there was a problem on the road so the start was delayed by 20 minutes. Given that Rob’s flight back to Canberra was fairly tightly scheduled that could have been tricky.

When we got going the next issue was that the kilometre marks were a bit hard to spot due to them being on cards at ground level. However it seemed that we were travelling at about 5m 10secs per kilometre which was a tad brisk. By about 10kms Rob had issues with a blistered trotter and we lost a little time at one aid station trying to find the first aid dudes and then at the next one (15kms), getting the blister dealt with. We the poddled off again and for the next 15kms (mostly at about 5:25) trotted along with some thought given to how Rob’s foot was going.

By 30kms said foot was going rather well, just in time for my body to start disimproving its relation with my pain receptors. Rob expressed – quite firmly on a couple of occasions- the view that walking would not assist this so I might as well keep running. His arguments were persuasive and I found that as we approached 40km, having dropped to about 5:45 per km, I hadn’t walked at all – a first for me in marathons. We then trotted past Frances – who had wondered what had happened for her to miss us (not realising the 20 minutes delay at the start). A steady couple of kms including a very unpleasant ramp over a road going into the G, a lap around the outside of the G and finally ¾ of a lap of the sacred turf only a week after the Aussie Rules Grand Final. The result was a finish in 3 hours 54 minutes and 35 seconds, according to my watch. Most excellent and extremely satisfying. It was even better to find the official time was 8 seconds faster than my time and I was 17th out of 58 in my age sex class. It will also be the 15th fastest time logged by a member of the Canberra Veterans AC.

After rehydrating – I am told there is a lot of water in light beer – and gently strolling along Southbank in the afternoon I felt an early night of stacking zeds was in order. Despite waking after a short while and getting Frances to strap my right ankle (and waking again about 4am to undo the strapping) I slept for close to 12 hours and woke feeling fine.

We then headed off to a new Botanic gardens at Cranbourne which was excellent, including a nice walk through some heath with a bunch of birds. Much excitement was caused by spotting a 60cm Tiger Snake which staff of the gardens came to catch to relocate to the bush from whence it had come. Most entertaining, especially as it was the first tiger I had seen. The best bit was when it made a break for freedom between the catchers feet! We then headed further South to an historic garden run by the owner of the Diggers Club of which Frances is a member. A few $ were transferred to the club and we spent an enjoyable 40 minutes exploring the excellent gardens before returning to the City for another Indian repast with friends who now live in Melbourne.

The journey home the following day (Tuesday 10th ) commenced with another visit to the Victoria Markets where much good value meat was purchased. After a little grief we found our way out of Melbourne, including finding a new motorway, replacing about 30km of suburban slugging with 110kph trundling. We stopped for lunch at Chiltern Mt Pilot National Park and to do some birding. Relatively few birds were about, but another visitor did show us where a koala, plus attached joey (note the nose just above the diagonal branch), were hanging out. After this excitement, a few hours more blat and we were home.