The A-Z of running

Day 21. 30/9/11: Merna Mora to Merna Mora

Looking towards Wilpena Pound from Merna Mora

We're currently bouncing down the road in the van, towards Hawker. It's just after midday. Lily is driving, wearing a short 70's style orange-pink-red patterned skirt, a black cardigan and Ralph Lauren sunglasses. Having just finished a half marathon followed by a hard 21km ride over corrugated dirt roads into a howling headwind, can you do anything but admire?!

We've loved staying in our little flat at Merna Mora for a night (And we still have another night tonight!) with a kitchen (there's an oven! We had roast potatoes!), two bedrooms and a shower. I should say bathroom, but it's the shower that's the big ticket item in there! After a night spent writing and inventing card games we slept well on our big queensize luxury mattress. The card games were called: Crazy Joe Sevens; Dumb Ass Fours, and Mr Potato Head Will Die, so we probably got to bed a little later than normal.

Lily had been putting our times and distances into the computer (from the records kept on her super-duper Garmin watch/GPS) and it was nice to see that, already, we've been getting fitter and showing improvements. It can be hard to tell, given that the times don't tell the whole story. This morning, for example, we ran really well. But we started the clock and then, about 50 metres later, Lily realised that the ankle she had rolled a little bit a few days ago was more sore than she'd expected and needed to be taped. So we stopped and did that. (We carry a first aid kit with just enough for the bigger things that might make it hard to at least get back to the van for more stuff...) Then, about 500 metres in, Lily realised that nature wasn't just calling; it was yelling out her name! So she looked after that. And all before we'd even started running!

But once we got going we started the classic car game of thinking of things that begin with every letter of the alphabet. First it was fruits. We got stuck on F and a few others. Then authors (surnames, and with at least the name of one book they wrote); then movies (with one actor); then movies again, then songs... After all this lovely distraction, and with us cruising along at about 10km/hr most of the time, we even managed to run an extra km by accident in our second round of running. We walked a km, then ran six, then walked another, then ran seven! With just over five to go we kept running and were still doing about 10km/hr in the last km of the run. We both felt great at the end of the run, but realised that the wind had picked up a lot during the run and was a serious headwind for us on the way back. The sun was out but it was cold at the break so we got started back quickly, and battled our way back along the Moralana Scenic Road to the van.

The road itself, particularly at this (the western end) is stunning, with views of the Elder Range on one side and the ABC Range (The Western side of Wilpena Pound) on the other, and the wide expanse heading out towards Lake Torrens in front of us. It really was a joy to run and ride it, especially to run it so well. And just as a little note on the side, Tim started the day with a bit of a worry about his sore foot again. He took a bit of a risk. With a sore foot, normally the response would be to protect it, put on some stiffer shoes and see if that gives it a chance to heal. Sure. Well, how about trying to change that and put on softer shoes - his FiveFingers, to be precise - and see if making his body more aware of where the soreness is works out. He'd also never run more than 7 or 8 kms in them, but felt like with the weeks of lead up his stride was in good shape. And it worked! (Well, so far; we'll see how the recovery goes, but he ran fine. Had a bit of pain in his foot towards the end of the ride... so we'll see. Great running, though! Hooray!)

We're at Hawker, now. Time to buy some more fruit, and get another one of those chocolate muffins!

Ride

Time (hr:min:sec):

Speed (kph):

Distance (km): 21.7

Run

Time (hr:min:sec):

Speed (kph):

Distance (km): 21.7