Date: Sunday, 21 October 2012

From: Neil

Postcard from Kalyarr

Don't try to find Kalyarr on the map, but you go west of Hay toward Maude then veer off again toward Oxley, then go bush.  It is a National Park on the Lachlan that used to be a sheep station.  It was 'dry as a bone' on the saltbush plains which is normal, but the amazing thing was the amount of water that is around in all the depressions and creeks.  There is water where no one can remember water before - and the birdlife ...   It is not yet open to the public but the Murrumbidgee Field Nats were allowed access for the weekend, and what would be a weekend without a Sunday morning ride.

Date: Sunday, 21 October 2012

From: David

Rankins Springs

With Anthony out of the region, it was up to Heff to tell us all about the Rankins Springs weekend of birds and running.

Seeing as Anthony was unavailable to do this trip’s postcard, I thought I would try and fill the gap without an “App”.

Last Sunday was the second running of the Rankin Springs Fun Run, which several Ferals came, saw and conquered. (See photo)

The weather and the hospitality of Richard and the organising committee at Rankin Springs was great, with the Birds of the Bush Festival and Local Markets adding to the atmosphere.

The races were run and won, with the following Ferals being rewarded for their efforts:

5 Km

1^st Male (by a country mile) - Anthony Trefilo

1^st Female U/12 – Ava Kelly

10 Km

1^st Male (1^st outright) – Tony Gullo

1^st Female – Glenys Curphey

1^st Seasoned Competitors (Over 50) – Rita Fascianelli-McIver and David Heffer (2^nd outright)

Matt Ross also secured 3^rd (outright) and Nicole Dehnert claimed 2^nd female home.

All the Ferals performed well, and another enjoyable day was finished off with a steak sandwich from the Fair, and a few beers at the pub.

Date: Sunday, 21 October 2012

From: Janet

Melbourne Marathon 14 October 2012

Perfect, perfect, perfect, that was Melbourne last Sunday. It was a beautiful spring day with no wind and a comfortable, cool 12 degrees. Arun and I arrived at the start of the 35^th Melbourne Marathon about 5 minutes before the gun went and avoided standing around nervously waiting for 7am. We’d warmed up on the 15 minute walk from our hotel and Sadhana accompanied us, while Wendy went for a run to take in the exciting pre race atmosphere.

The night before, we went over our race strategies. Mine was to do the first half no faster than two hours and hopefully do a negative split for the second half and to take my first gel at 10 km, and to take the rest every hour after that. Arun’s plan was a bit more methodical and well thought out. He had a map of the course and knew where every water stop was and when he’d stop to have something to eat and drink. His main concern was the inevitable loss of a few toenails. (See photo)

The course is flat and fast, just had to watch out for tram rails, traffic obstacles and drunk Irishmen. The race started near the Rod Laver Arena and we made our way to St Kilda Road, and at 5kms did a loop of Albert Park, around the lake, then another loop near the lake, past the 10km water station, then ran up to Fitzroy Street and made our way to St Kilda and very long loop on Beaconsfield Parade where we hit the 15km, 20km and 25km marks. Even by the bay, the wind was hardly noticeable and the Spirit of Tasmania was in port. There were still lots of spectators and kids handing out jelly beans and gummie snakes. It was near 15kms that I caught up to Honorary Feral, Stuart McIntosh, the Man in Black. He was running as efficiently as ever, but at a slightly faster pace than I was comfortable with, so we parted just before 20kms. He finished in 3.44.     The loop at St Kilda is great for looking for friends and I saw Arun just after I’d passed 20kms and he would have been at about 14kms. We saw each other again, still at in St Kilda when I was at about 27kms and Arun was taking a well earned stop to eat and drink at the 22.5km drink station.     We were both still feeling good at this point, hoping it would last! At about 28kms, the course headed back into the city just 14kms to go, with a couple more loops in the city and around the Domain.

I had planned to run with the 4 hour pace group which I stayed with after catching a few kilometres into the race. I stayed with them for a few kms, but I felt good, so picked up my pace and got ahead of them. At around 39kms, the pace group were on my heels, so with not much left, I managed to stay just in front of the group and saw the welcome sight of Wendy cheering me on at 41km. As the MCG came into view, everyone around me seemed to perk up and move a bit faster, someone called out that there were only 600m to go and suddenly we were inside the stadium. A crowd was cheering and the sun was shining and all pain and tiredness vanished. I don’t know how else to describe it except to say it was truly awesome and an unforgettable experience.

After a drink and some fruit, I slowly made my way out of the tunnels to look for Wendyand we waited with loads of spectators for Arun to finish. He finished strong and happy with his time of a bit over 4 hours. Sadhana found us a bit after that at the Dennis Lilly statue. We slowly walked back to our hotel and celebrated later with champagne. Both Arun and I had done PBs and are looking forward to next year, hopefully with a few more Ferals participating. We were also a part of running history as the Melbourne Marathon became the largest Australia marathon with 6128 finishers.

Date: Sunday, 7 October 2012

From: Sharon

Tough Mudder 2012

A multiview postcard from Sharon. Anytime you hear her kids saying they've got one tough mother, you'll know that they ain't kidding!! 

Hey Ferals, here’s my adventure, Tough Mudder 2012. I have included some pics, not sure if you want them or not.

Seeing as the postcards were becoming very male dominated I decided to let you guys know how I went in the Sydney Tough Mudder event in September.

A group of 15 of us set off on Friday morning for Terrigal in the bus, excited but also fairly nervous about what to expect. Everyone had seen youtube clips about different obstacles on the course and  needless to say, being electrocuted was probably high on our list of things we weren’t looking forward to. ( Me especially, and the rest of the group certainly took pleasure in reminding me about the 10,000 volt wires) So, after a few calming ales on the trip down and at dinner, I slept soundly.

We woke at 5.30am, had a quick coffee and some toast, and jumped back on the bus for our 40 minute trip to Glenworth Valley. Fairly quiet trip, I have to say, with a lot of people complaining that they couldn’t get to sleep as they were too anxious (again, thank you VB).  Heading into our venue, we collected our registration packs and had our race numbers written on our foreheads (??) To say there were some fancy dress costumes would be an understatement, (Florescent mankinis, smurfs, Kevin Rudds, superheroes) we were feeling very conservative in our black team singlets.

Our team had a start time of 8.30am, with waves being started every 15mins, so after a quick tug’ o’ war with the Solo promotional team, (won ourselves a free t-shirt) we climbed a 2 metre wall into the start area, where we took our Tough Mudder oath (this is a challenge, not a race), listened to safety rules and set off in a cloud of orange smoke (not poisonous) with the background music blaring ‘Eye of the Tiger’.

The Tough Mudder course has about 18- 20 kms of running (a lot uphill too!) broken up with around 15 obstacles to complete. Our team of 15 soon broke up into 3 separate teams and we stuck with each other throughout the course.

We did a lot of creek jumping and swimming, crawled through so much mud under barbed wire and had to scale 4 vertical walls of different heights. We ran through a corridor of smoke caused by lit hay bales, carried a log around a swamp loop, jumped lots of muddy channels (saw some pretty nasty accidents here!) and made our way up and down steep narrow hill paths. We had greased monkey bars to cross (fell early here, gloves were no help!), a mud mile of channels and hills to traipse, and a tall rope ladder to climb.

The most challenging obstacles however, were the ice pool, in which you had to jump in, walk to a wall, then go under the wall and climb out the other side (to say it was freezing, would not do it justice), getting to the top of the half pipe ( thanks to my team mates for hauling me over!), the 5 metre jump into murky water, and of course, the electric eel! Imagine a 30 metre slip and slide with hundreds of wires dangling above it at about knee height. You slide in on your tummy and basically crawl like hell as fast as you can out of there! There is no use trying to avoid being zapped, as you can’t.  At first the wires gave me  small, slight zaps, which were uncomfortable but tolerable, then, you get these incredibly powerful ones which make your body spasm uncontrollably. (I can’t even tell you what came out of my mouth, but I probably put a sailor to shame)

To top it off though, right at the finish you have to run through those delightful wires again, but being at the finish, you have lots of spectators around laughing at your inevitable falling and mud plants. (A bit ashamed to say, but I also stood there at the end and captured some pretty funny moments on my phone!)

And then (2.45hrs later)  you cross the finish, get your revered orange head band (which, I’m told you can’t buy, but must earn), a can of VB and Solo (guess which one I chose to drink first) and your official tough mudder t-shirt. You celebrate with your team mates, toss your shoes (if you’re still wearing them and haven’t lost them to some mud pile) and wash off in a (cold) wash bay.  

All in all, an incredible experience, made even more so by the camaraderie and friendship surrounding you, and one I will definitely be doing again.

Date: Sunday, 30 September 2012

From: Neil

Neil and the Great Ocean Road

Took the weekend off Scenic Hill to ride the Great Ocean Road with 4000 others.   Twenty minutes quicker than last year, and it hurt less, so I'd call that a success.   A bit nippy this year, but the same magnificent scenery and fresh air and heart starting uphills and heart stopping downhills.  Highly recommended.