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The older I get the better I was... but after many years of idle burrowing the candle of desire is still burning and I have come to realise that running is as much a part of me as my heart and lungs... In Christmas 2008 I was 82kg and was not running a step..This is my journey , the journey of the wombat...Dogged...determined...persistent...and maybe a little grumpy.. but like the wombat my journey is territorial, its about running and I am going to work to protect it...Come along for the ride and see if I can become the wombat warrior. 2009 was a mixed bag for the wombat's journey.A top ten placing in both the Bridges and the City Surf brought a small sense of achievement but also a degree of frustration.... I think I can do better and better I will in 2010. A better run in the Busso Half iron man in support of TV in his swim and bike ride and that was about the extent of my racing. Lets see what happens in 2010 as "My journey Continues". Now in 2011 the wombat will continue his journey, but not alone the wombat has a youngling who knows how to dig. 2015 and its a new beginning , time goes on and the journey to the 2016 World Masters is under way.

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Diary Extract 1996.... Last long run prior to Beppu marathon

The following is an extract from my 1996 training diary. Two weeks out from my Beppu marathon on the 4th February 1996 where I qualified 3rd behind Sean Quilty and Rod DeHighden for the Atlanta Olympics. Mona had already secured the first place for the team which left me out of the team.

Sunday 21st January Reads:
7.10am. Big pack at Helena Valley. Suiter and I ran from the primary school to the end of the road and joined up with Baxter, Evan K, Cameron J, Mark Presley, Paul Mac and Paul. Travelling well but a little slow on the hills this morning. (Out 54m12s/Back 49m24s) Ran alone from 1hr 32m. (ran extra loop 18m8sec) Time 2hr1m54s. Distance 18miles.
7pm: Form home, looped the local oval then 3 1/2 laps of the community oval , mainly grass,moving well. Time 25m7sec. Distance 4 miles.

Diary Entry for 4th February 1996 marathon day reads:
Woke 8.10am Breakfast 3 x toast and jam, Coffee with 2 sugars. Feeling good walked to the stadium. Really easy warm up over 12 minutes. 12noon start. Went with second main pack and floated off the back for much of it.. Missed my bottles at 18km and 24km. Fell off the pack at half way.At 25km (1hr 18minutes ) I felt like shit. Worked through it and got to 30km. Started to pick up a lot. Worked the climb and at about 32km I passed John Andrews and the group he was leading. Continued to pass runners and caught sight of Rod at 35km. Tried hard to close and was doing this slowly and steadily but ran out of distance. Finished well with a much better run than the Gold Coast last year. 3rd Aussi home , 5th over the line. 39seconds behind Rod Dehighden in 2hrs 15min 5seconds. Doona (Sean) 2hr13min 26sec. Happy with a personal best but disappointed that I could not get Rod. 39 seconds works out to less that 1 second a km. Looks like I will be watching Atlanta on television like most of the planet.
Light job on bloody stiff legs. Rab said I ran a bloody good second half coming through the pack. Wayne Larden DNF. Dolly finished in the back of the field after a quick start.Back to the drawing board.

Barrel on Wombats...
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1 comment:

  1. trailblazer777January 16, 2011 at 9:27 AM

    39 seconds hey...what a bummer...but you came home hard giving it a red-hot go after feeling like it was all over midway in (Ive had that feeling halfway through some of my better races too and then recovered too), so well done. Its good to have past training records (mine go back to 1988) to learn from and use as motivation and other useful things. way to go!

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