Tagging Milly for the Mt Taylor run (fullsize) |
As I mention in the words I ended up in pairs this year again, racing
with Milly after our swimmer for the event injured himself. Our goal was
to have a fun day out in Canberra looking forward to the finish line and
beers there. I think we managed that and enjoyed hanging out with all
the others transcending the hills and lakes of Canberra.
Great to see Rowan have so much fun on course again, also Cam had an amazing day out with 12h15m solo and finishing third. Ben Crabb got to race again with his normal team before disappearing to the UK for three years. So many others were having fun and so were Milly and I (though the early shot of her before the swim start she does not appear so sure), looking through the event gallery on the Sri Chinmoy events site there are some good photos of everyone around too. My words and photos are online in my Triple Triathlon 2015 - Wheres Our Swimmer - Mixed Pairs gallery. Good day out bring on 2016. |
Heading into the water with our tubes (fullsize) |
When I looked at this album I realised I still have not published or added
comments to my 2011 geoquest album. I guess that will be next. For now
this was 2012 with Seb, Lee and Eliza up at Forster again. Before Eliza was
quite so hooked on MTB near the end of her doing Triathlon we were trying to
convince her long silly AR stuff is the best thing ever, I hope we did not
scar her too much with the longest event she had ever done.
KV, Ben and Matt were our rather awesome support crew engaging in a bit of speed camping around the region and seeing us come past once in a while, thanks to them for the effort. It was a remarkably hard (well long at least) course this year and though there was no ocean paddling there was a bit of time in the kayaks. The event was a lot of fun as always, though I still need to sort out some of my insulin type and timing issues (as I was reminded this year when I had some lows). My 2012 Geoquest - Out of Range gallery is online for anyone to have a look, I almost was worried I managed to get a photo of Eliza not smiling, however it appears not to have happened so all is right with the world. |
Posing with Jeebus (fullsize) |
Wow right now I am finding it surprising I have not been to the single
speed nationals since 2012, (un) organised every year by a group of
locals somewhere, sort of overseen by Australian Recreational
Singlespeed Enthusiasts (ARSE). The
2010
Canberra SSNATS event in Majura Pines was heaps of fun, organised by
Canberra One Gear Society (COGS).
In 2013 the event was in Cairns and though it sounded fun I decided it was just a bit too far to head up there for the event, in 2014 I tried and tried to talk friends into heading up for the weekend in Dungog NSW, however few of my Canberra friends were keen and I did something else that weekend (softie that I am). I am still hoping the road trip to Wombat State Forest in Victoria will go ahead for the 2015 event. There was a ANZAC event in Rotortua over easter however I skipped that. This however is all getting off the topic of 2012. I made it down to 2012, camping with McCook and having a fantastic weekend of mtb riding with the crew in Beechworth. The rather important aspect of beer was sorted that weekend and Bridge Road Brewerers in that town and they are possibly my favourite brewer in Australia. The Beechworth mtb park is a great mix of interesting technical stuff and fun all in native bush, there were other ride options as can be seen in my gallery also. Photos and words from the 2012 Australian Single Speed Nationals are online in the link. |
At the start line (fullsize) |
This was the first year Sri Chinmoy had run this Ultra, an event now in the
third year (and I again ran it this year in a team and once more doing 2
legs). In 2013 they had not yet decided on the increase by 1km every year
plan, however the course already showed off Canberra really well.
Alex and I decided to Alternate legs, in retrospect probably harder than doing 2 in a row each, however we had a good day out, and this year I got to do 2 in a row to compare. Of course I had my camera out there and took a bunch of photos which are online in my Sri Chinmoy 100 2013 gallery. |
At the start line (fullsize) |
I lined up for my first run at the Six Foot track Marathon in 2014. Many
ACTRun friends have been doing it for years, this year I managed to get
in and was lining up with them and other friends new to the race to have
a run along the track to Jenolan Caves.
Jane and I had spent a weekend in the Blue Mountains ini the lead up to the race to get an idea about the run down to Coxs river and also for me to scope out the finishing stairs in the new TNF100 course. It was useful to scope out the first 15km of Six Foot, however come race day things were different (a lot more runners out for one). As is so often the case I went out too fast and paid the price on the climb from the river and along the range. However it was still a great day out and I will be back for more (I did it in 2015, knocking half an hour off my time and plan to line up again in 2016). My gallery and a few words from the day are here in my Six Foot Track Marathon 2014 gallery. |
A ridgeline during the race, amazing views (fullsize) |
As I mention in the write up a few friends and I had decided to head to
Kepler Challenge in 2014. Marty heading back to defend his title, David,
Julie, Bec and I heading over for our first attempts, Chris rocking up
for the Luxmore Grunt.
Fiordland is an amazing part of New Zealand, this in a country chock full of amazing outdoor places really was something special. I understand why this event is so popular also why the walk itself it so popular. We all had a great time there and though the trip was short it is definitely one to go back for some time. Of course I had my camera with me and took photos so have some words with them in my 2014 Kepler Challenge write up. Thanks to Dave, Julie, Marty, Bec, Pete and Chris for the company. I hope to head back and do it faster in the future, fun indeed. |
Julie running back toward me at the top of Buffalo (fullsize) |
This event was not in my original plan for 2015, though nursing a bit of a
problem with my right aductor and glute I was feeling alright after six foot
to do some big stuff. This turned out to be a tough day out, the incredible
steep gradients on the first two climbs (and also on the way back the last
two climbs and thus the descents on the other side) were something to behold.
That we did over 1000m of climbing in the first 10km of running, including 4km of flat at the start and a descent to the bottom of a 500m valley in the middle says something. This event lived up to the SkyRace tag really well. Also the victorian alpine region is amazingly pretty and Bright is a great town to hang around in. Photos and a few words from my day out are here on my Buffalo Stampede 2015 page. Thanks to Paul for his entry and to Dave, Julie and Alex for the company. It was fun to catch up with Hanny and Graham down there too. |
Dane crossing a log in the dark for fun (fullsize) |
I had a break from doing Geo for 2 years, I guess I got a bit hooked on
running and was not keen to try to get a team happening for the event. It
almost happened again, however some of the team members in Thats Cray were
injured so Cam and I both got an invite to join in the fun.
Geo s always a good event and this year I really enjoyed just joining in for the fun and letting the others worry about Nav and a bunch of other stuff. I have to admit the lack of paddling in the last 2 years made that bit hard, however the event was a lot of fun as always and surprisingly felt pretty good all the way through. Maybe my running fitness helped me get through comfortably. Photos and some words from the race are online on my Geoquest 2015 album. Thanks to Dane, Lee and Cam for the company, thanks to the awesome support crew and it was good to be back. |
The Wild Bill crew at the finish, KV, Gangles and Bender (fullsize) |
I really enjoy Sri Chinmoy events, their attitude and encouragement for
people to be healthy and active to have a better life and world through peace
and those goals. Given a choice I try to do most of the long or multi sport
Sri Chinmoy events. I had run in this event in pairs with Alex in the
first year, alternating legs that year.
As I was planning to do another 100 not long after I was not overly keen on a solo entry, however at Gangles's birthday KV and I managed to convince him to compete in the event with us in a team of 3. This would be his first long run (over 20 km, doing the last leg) and KV was stepping up for the first leg (I had the middle two to get done). I got some celebratory t-shirts made up as Gangles' (Adam) middle name is William KV and I decided to call the team Wild Bill Bo Jangles and crew. (I promise it made sense to us) So we got to join in the fun and run with many of our friends and other people on the day. I took some photos and they are online in my Sri Chinmoy Trail Ultra 2015 album. |
A cool rock feature in the Myponga Conservation Area (fullsize) |
I really have been taking a huge break from putting stuff online here. I
have still been taking many photos while out doing fun stuff so even if
I am not writing much else (I have been sucked into social media I
guess) I can still upload the links to the various adventures I have
photos and reports from.
The main advantage I find is I at least can easily find the links to refer to without needing to see a directory listing on the website. In this case I headed down to Adelaide to hang out with friends there and also run in the Heysen 105 run. Feeling the need to do another 100km ultra this year and the short holiday in Adelaide helped attract me to this one. Report and photos for my Heysen 105 2015 run are online. Nice part of the world and I had fun both in the event and hanging out with friends in Adelaide. The coopers brewery tour is also rather excellent. |