Volunteering - Park to Park, Ipswich, Sun 31/7

It was a HUUUUGE weekend. I enjoyed a Saturday night at the Broncos with MJ, team mate Chelle and her boyfriend Shane along with the usual suspects in attendance. A nice come from behind win by the Broncs despite not quite playing our best continued to establish the team's premiership credentials.

An obscenely short four hours sleep followed before I got up at 2:55 am on Sunday AM and drove out to Limestone Park at Ipswich to help set up the course for the inagural Park to Park Half Marathon/10k/5k. Fortunately I heeded my mate RooBoy's advice to keep all the car doors locked when driving through Ipswich as I had 4 drunks run out at the car in the middle of the road when I was doing 50km's per hour! And there were two paddy wagons waiting for the inevitable arrests outside Players Nightclub when I drove through the main street. Aaah, Ipswich - it hasn't changed at all!!!

Course set up proceeded relatively smoothly compared with some of my past experiences at this activity and then I spent the duration of the 3 races assuming the role of lead bike after the original volunteer failed to show. This involved riding 36k's in total and lots of hills, probably about 5k worth when I really had to dig into the pedals to get up. After not being on the bike for a few months, hopefully the DOMS from this activity won't curtail my aspirations of a fast 3K TT on Tuesday morning. Still it was a great experience being lead bike, particularly in the Half when I led this years Gold Coast 10k winner, Chris Reeves around the course. What a runner! Afterward, I put on my journo's cap and proceeded to interview the Half winners, Reeves and Helen Stanton for the Race Reports I am compiling for the new Run For Your Life magazine. It was a treat to pick the brains of these elite runners and get a feel for their mindsets. I've still got a lot to learn about interviewing techniques but I think I've made progress in my short time in this game. My shorthand definitely needs a lot of work though!

So, on four hours sleep, a woeful food intake and 36k's on the bike, it stands to reason that I might have struggled a little with my Sunday long run after getting home from Ippy, right? Wrong! I got out to the Nundah Criterium around 11:30am and set off along the path next to the Kedron Brook in warm 25 degrees plus weather, wearing sunscreen for the first time in a while. From the word go, I settled into a comfortable and relaxed rythm of low 4:40 k's which didn't let up even when I finally started to bonk with 15 minutes to go. The end result: 100mins of running for 21k's at 4:42 k's. I want to stress that I was not pushing it hard and was really surprised that I was running 10 secs faster than my usual low 4:50's long run pace. Who know's why I ran so well? Perhaps it was:
a) The hard work with my glute firing exercises starting to pay dividends?
b) The new Brooks Glycerin 4's I was wearing?
c) My body was really warmed up after a morning of vigorous activity?
d) I'd accidentally swapped my watch with the one Coach Pat uses when 60 sec Standing Recoveries mysteriously become 50 secs?

Anyway, a shift at work followed and it was a pleasure to hit the sack genuinely exhausted after getting the most out of the day!