No, this is not a slanderous report about the shady zoological goings-on of our erstwhile Brighton-based colleague a.k.a.
Seafront Plodder of Almeria video fame*.
In fact the seafront plodder in question is myself, as I took to the beaches for my long 'un this morning. The plan was a good one - up before dawn, a bowl of oatmeal and yoghurt plus a banana, a twenty minute drive to Seven Mile Beach and a cruisy 20+ kilometre deserted beach run as the sun came up. However, recent storms re-gathered overnight, and when my alarm went off at 0520, there was a significant drumming of rain on the roof and worse, wild winds threatening to lift said roof off from over my head. I stuck my head back under the covers and thought "maybe later".
The "maybe later" was in fact not too far off. Once the sun was up, the wind abated, the rain vanished and all looked good again. To my amazement, I rekindled my early run plan, and found myself on a still-deserted beach bang on 8 o'clock with a belly full of oatmeal and banana and a pint of isotonic stuff strapped about my waist. To be fair, the real reason I forced myself out of bed was to honour my mate Bill, who is running his first marathon tomorrow, a charity fund-raiser in
Belfast. Best of luck, mate.
So in true poetic style I headed off into the rising sun, salt and sand stinging me awake, and within a few clicks was pretty much having a ball. I reached the turn-around point (10.25 km) in 63 minutes, a fair bit ahead of what I had planned, but then when I turned around I realised why. A stiffish tail wind had built up, which of course was now going to be a bugger of a headwind for the run back. Oh well, not a lot to be done about it except head down, arse up and get into it.
About 3 kms from the start point, the beach passes the local airport runway at right angles, which is great, as you get super-way-cool ultra-close broadside views of planes coming into land. Had you been seated in a right hand-side window seat of the 0930 Qantas flight landing in Hobart this morning, you would have been momentarily distracted from the nauseatingly tricky landing the pilot was attempting in what was a very nasty crosswind by the sight of
moi grinning madly and waving at you like a loon. This is partly because I've flown into Hobart many times and know how close the people on the beach seem to be, but mainly because it was a neat distraction from the stinging headwind and tough going that this run had become by that stage.
But it got easier after that. More and more beach combers, walkers and nuisance dogs (two of which thought it would be fun to try and knock me over from behind) meant I wasn't far from the end. No negative splits today, but the return leg was done in a respectable 66 minutes, so all up 2h 9m for 20.5 kms, which I am very happy with. A few more of these and some speed work and a 2 hour half marathon looks a distinct possibility. Cool.
Also brilliant was being able to cool off in the surf for a bit - which is somewhat like having an agitated ice-bath at this time of year, but my legs are thanking me for it now. And the guilt-free chocolate protein drink afterwards tasted sensational. Mmm. (What? No beer?? Later, Hortense, later.)
Fans of Brooks shoes might be interested to read that I did this run in a new pair of Brooks Vapors. My podiatrist strongly recommended some semi-serious running shoes even for just knock-around everyday use, so I bought a pair of these yesterday, and couldn't resist trying them out on the beach. I'm quite impressed. Somewhat stiffer than the Asics Kayanos (and Asics generally I think), but a good ride. I like them. I think they'd make quite acceptable off-road shoes generally. I'll let you know.
Track
du jour for this run was Small Faces'
Lazy Sunday Afternoon - a nice boppy little number to bounce along to, and appropriately enabling me to envision the actual lazy Sunday afternoon indeed ahead of me.
So another week done. Despite missing one mid-week run, I managed 31 relatively tough kilometres for the week, so I'm quite happy. I have an 8km race next week, so my mid-week runs will be relatively sedate I think. Must start thinking about having a crack at a half marathon race as well. There's a few of interest on the calendar. We'll see what eventuates...
Oh, and as for the
12 Monkeys - well that probably belongs in the
Culture thread, but while I'm at it here... this is of course the Terry Gilliam film to which I refer, and was a fortuitous purchase following my shoe shopping yesterday. I found it in the heavily discounted bin at a roadside DVD retailer, and grabbed it with not a little glee. I've always liked this movie, but having watched it again last night, am now madly in love with it (well, sort of). This is Gilliam's best movie IMHO, even better than the superb
Brazil. Exceptional, and helped by unlikely stunning acting by Brad Pitt (I'd forgotten how good he is in this) as the crazed leader of the Army of the 12 Monkeys, and Bruce Willis, as the time-travelling convicted criminal. Also worth looking for Simon Jones (the original Dent Arthur Dent) in a minor role. A brilliant, quirky, crazy movie, quite unlike anything else. Five stars.
A good day. I'm happy.
*
For slanderous reports about that Seafront Plodder, see my previous threads, or those of Sweder, or indeed just about any significantly active thread on RC.