Something Different....

Last weekend, along with thousands of others, I spent the weekend on the Sunshine Coast to take part in one of the many events that made up the Mooloolaba Triathlon Festival. A hugely impressive production was put on for the elites racing on Saturday and Sunday afternoons as part of the Triathlon World Cup. Due to a late injury, I got the call up from some friends to do the 10km run leg in the more social Corporate Teams Triathlon event on Sunday morning.

This was the first time I'd really tested out my achilles injury since aggravating it about 6 months ago. In those 6 months I have religiously rolled out my calves and soleus' a couple of times a day using my TriggerPoint Therapy massage rollers and gradually increased my running. The result after 10km flat out = 7th in our category and a 12 year 10km PB! Very happy :-)

Thank you to one of our team supporters Kristian from TP Therapy - I highly, highly recommend your products, they got the result that my physio did not!

Damon Goerke wins AURA Maroondah Dam 50km Ultra

Damon cleaned up the AURA Maroondah Dam 50km Ultra on Sunday. The full results can be found here. Damon's report follows....

It’s been nearly 10 years since I last ran the Maroondah Dam trail run. I’d only ever done the 30km option and was keen to check out the full 50km. Starting from Fernshaw Reserve just out of Healesville, it climbs up to Dom Dom saddle then across to Mt St Leonards before a knee crushing 13km descent to Maroondah Dam. The total ascent is almost 2000m, with an almost equal amount of descent. The weather was cool and clear, ideal for running, but unfortunately the recent bad weather had trashed the trail and we were warned to be prepared for a bit of bush bashing in the first 10kms.

I found myself at the front within the first 500m and by the time I hit the overgrown section, everyone was already out of sight behind. The organizers had done a great job marking the route with tape, but they were right about it being overgrown. There was no track for several km’s up the first climb and I was bashing through chest high scrub covered in wait-a-while vine, trying to stay out of sight of the runners chasing me so they couldn’t follow my route. After about 45 minutes I found myself out of the scrub and onto a fire trail, my legs covered with blood after being ripped apart in the vines. That was the end of the fun stuff, and the next 30km’s were a combination of fire trail and some off road sections to the summit of Mt St Leonard. I was still in front and told I had about a 10 min lead. I was pretty confident I could maintain my lead on the long descent, so I didn’t take any risks and took the rocky, slippery trail easily. I was just starting to hit a low patch when I came to Donnellys Weir, which I knew was 3km to the finish and was able to finish strongly on adrenaline in 4hr24. Dave Eadie came in 8 minutes behind in second place.

Tingalpa Trot Kayak Race

The Tingalpa Trot, although only a 10 kilometre race holds a lot of prestige amongst South East Queensland canoe clubs. The overall winner spends the next 12 months bragging that they are the reigning 'Trot' winner. Dave and I (Kim) had never paddled on the stretch of river which starts from the Wynnum Canoe Club near the bay and winds it's way 10.6km upstream to the finish line. The river starts off about 50m wide but gradually gets tighter and tighter until there's only room for one boat to squeeze through the mangroves. There are also a couple of tight 180 bends in the Creek which catch many unaware.

Dave and I were both in the first start of the day with all the other K1's. There were about 30 boats in our start so things were very hectic particularly at the start. Dave got away to a flyer with the lead boats, whereas I (despite my unquestionable explosiveness!) was left to battle through what could only be described as a washing machine. Things settled down about a kilometre into the race where I found a few other boats to work with. In the mean time Dave was up the front with just one other boat going into the narrow section. Unfortunately he was caught unaware going into one of the last tight corners and finished a very close second overall in a very strong field. I'm not sure where I came overall, but I managed to win the women's section by a couple of minutes in 54.40mins, plus paddle past several paddlers who were taking unintentional dips in the sludgy waters!

All in all, a great day out in what turned out to be the hottest day in Brisbane in over 12 months - the humidity felt like it was at about 500%.

I'm looking forward to reading about Damon and Josh's day out in their 50km ultra trail run.....