Sunday - Weekend at Woodgate

Friday 10/5/10 mins @ 5:10 mins/km with 1 min Walking Recoveries
Saturday 3 x 10 mins@ about 5:00 mins/km with 2 min Walking Recoveries

Ditched my Thursday run after feeling fluey - am clearly still not over that low grade virus. Bloody hell! The effects continue to come and go around once or twice a week. But there was only optimism as I headed north on Friday for a weekend at Woodgate with some of the Pat Carroller boys, Langy, Slash and Aza - nothing like the rehabilitating effects of a good fresh sea breeze!

Langy had already headed up to Woodgate (which is about 20k's south of Bundaberg as the crow flies) on Monday to enjoy some 'me' time and fortunately, his tinnie broke down in the local estuary on the first day ensuring that any mechanical problems were well and truly overcome by the time Slash, Aza and myself arrived at Woodgate on Friday night after a 3hr 50 min drive in Aza's Prado. We had a great two story brick house on absolute beach front that Langy had obtained for $380 a week - not bad for a house allegedly worth $1.1 million. With the northern tip of Fraser Island about 80k's out to sea but out of sight below the horizon, it wasn't much of a surf beach that greeted us but the swells were rolling nicely. Langy was already burnt to a crisp and had the muddies and fish in the freezer to prove that he had been out in the sun much of the week - as if we couldn't tell! Now, anyone who knows me well will tell you with amusement that I am not a big fan of eating fish and whilst I make exceptions for prawns, I dislike most forms of seafood. However, I can now make an exception for any Singapore Chilli Mudcrab that is cooked by Slash after his fine efforts in the kitchen on Friday night! The well flavoured muddie was certainly an improvement on my previous experiences of tasteless fish slung into a fying pan with some butter. As is typical with any first night away with the boys, a generous quantity of alcohol was consumed throughout the dinner and quite a few hours of playing Up and Down the River - a version of the 500 card game. Naturally, I ensured that the background atmosphere was enhanced by bringing up some Deek, Pat and track race videos for us to watch. Its always a hoot having a few drinks with team mates and you rarely fail to learn something new about them - for example, do not talk with Slash about Kerry Packer's tax contributions or alleged lack thereoff!!!

A rather slow start to the day followed the next morning as we all nursed our respective hangovers. Still we manged to cast a line by 8am so it wasn't too bad. Predictably, despite having never fished before and taking time to master the art of casting, yours truly caught the first fish of the day - a small garfish from the surf. After lunch we moved to the estuary with the tide coming in and my touch improved as I proceeded to bag two bream and a butter bream bringing my total to four for the day. Langy also caught four, fishing with a light rod and reel like myself whilst Slash and Aza fishing with bigger rods were out of luck. Better luck next time fellas!! Late Saturday arvo saw Langy and Slash go check the crabpots whilst Aza and I did a 40 min core strength workout(ignoring much ridicule from Slash and Langy!) and then went for an easy 30 min run on the quiet espalande which featured the beautiful sights and soothing sounds of the ocean on one side and beachfront homes and grazing kangaroos on the other, including two kangas that would have been at least five foot tall!! Shins handled the run ok but the heart rate was forgettable - thanks to the alcoholic indulgences of the previous night.

I was on crabpot duties with Langy for Sun AM so was out of bed at 6am to jump in the tinnie and go check em with Langy - several females were released and only one male was snared during a pleasant cruise down the estuary and creek. A few hours later, I pulled up the stumps on my 40 hour getaway and we all made our journey back to civilisation. It was a great getaway and Langy is optimistically talkiing about making it an annual event - hope it comes to fruition. At least I now had a few stories to go alongside the countless stories MJ had waiting for me about life in the Army Reserves when we caught up in the arvo.


Km's this week - 15
Km's this month - 39
Km's this year -108