Surf Coast Hell Run 2015 - Relay Team Challenge

When: Saturday, 5th September 2015.

Where: Lorne, Victoria

Time: 7.00am

Distance: 21.1km (half marathon)

So, Bin and I kinda retired right now. That's right. 

Then Jon invited Bin and I to be part of his 21km relay team less than 3 weeks ago. 

Best team name ever!!!!!

We spent Friday night at Lorne Foreshore Caravan Park and spent the of race day at Sheoak picnic area.

Due to too many events taking place in August and September, the crowd at the inaugural Surf Coast Hell Run was a small one. It felt so much more cosier this way, which I rather enjoyed, although I'm sure any race director/organiser would prefer it the other way round.

The 21km runners were flagged off at 9am.

There were 4 categories: 7km, 21km, 42km and 63km. Except for the 7km, the rest of the runners had to run a 21km loop which consisted of a U-turn point at the 11km mark. The 63km runners needed to do 3 loops and the 42km runners would do 2.

The route was described as, 'up, up, up, and then down all the way.' Despite the undulations and 'gentle' slopes, the route was mainly made up of 4WD tracks with no trail technicality involved.

"WHERE'S MY TEAMMATE??" Jon panicked.
"Hello????" I furiously waved my arms in the air to catch his attention.

SCTR Laksa Lovers was the 1st team to sign up, with SCTR Catch Me If You Can signing up at the last moment. There was friendly ribbing between the 2 team captains Gavin and Jon a few days leading up to race day.

Clueless me went into the race thinking our team was just in it for a relaxing weekend run. Haha!

Gavin and Jon were the 1st runners for the teams, with Gavin coming in at 2:11:xx and Jon at 2:18:xx, giving the other team an 8-9 minute head start. I was pretty impressed with these 2 chaps!

"I'll just keep ... running ... until ... that tree ... over there ..." I huffed.

The weather was nice and cool that day, with occasional showers. 

The first 4km of the run was filled with teasing undulation, which made me think, "OK, this isn't too bad!" until 4km. The next 4km involved trudging up (with the help of 2 sticks) and a few seconds of flat after every 1.5km.

It probably doesn't make any sense to you, so don't bother doing the maths!

"Let there be a view!"

 7km in, the slopes were a bit kinder to the legs... kinda.

No view.

I was looking forward to the aid station!

The one and only aid station at the 8km/14km mark.

John Yoon and George Mihalakellis were there to greet me, with George telling me hurry up as Ken was 14 minutes ahead!

*yawns* 

I was like, "Whatever..." :P

Hello September, Goodbye August!

Time flies, and it's zooming by really quickly.

Where are the brakes?

I don't want the year to end so soon!!

It's been 2 years since I've moved to Melbourne and there's so much I've yet to experience or see. We probably need to speed things up a little but it's hard when a) they can cost a bomb and b) we just want to stay at home and do some gardening, or go trailrunning, or catch up with friends.

Winter has been tough, in a sense that we don't feel so inclined to go out there and run. We found ourselves doing a bit of workout in the comfort of the gym and I have to say that multi-tasking (watching TV while running on the treadmill) makes me a happier person - I wanted to watch Masterchef Australia!

Now that Spring is coming, we can't wait. More daylight means being able to tend to the garden when we return home from work! We'd feel more energised, too when we arrive home after work. Winter's dark evenings kinda sucked the life out of us that made lazing in front of the TV more tempting than going out for a run.

Last weekend saw us taking an hour drive from our place to Olinda, Dandenong for a 20k trail run. Jon wanted to recce the route for the Dandy Hipster Run (taking place on 26th Sept) and seeing that we needed some training for our race this weekend, we succeeded in dragging our fat wobbly arses out of bed at 5ish am. 

Disappearing into the wilderness.

Photo credit: Jon.

We felt so alive! Wooooo....

We walked up this stretch and joked about setting up a few mobile coffee stands along the way.

I thought it was the end of our run but turns out that we had another 2k to go after this this.

It was great running in the Dandy's again. We love love love being surrounded by the lush green and tall trees and the muddy trails. I rolled my left ankle when I tripped over nothing and it took 10 minutes of rest before I could continue on. With 5k to go, it seemed like a huge feat but somehow, I could walk OK, especially on the inclines. Once my ankle felt much better, I managed to jog the last 3k as the route was flat. I was pretty pleased; thank goodness no major injuries. *mixed feelings*

Yet somehow I managed to twist my RIGHT ankle a few hours later. In my tired state of mind, my foot slipped off the pavement while we were walking towards Freedom. Arghhhhhhhhhhh!

Now that hurt 10x more than the earlier incident!

I sat around on the sofas in Freedom while waiting impatiently for Bin to make his purchase and go.

I hobbled around most of the day and it was only at night (after our dinner guests had left - we invited them over at the last minute so we could continue catching up) I managed to ice and heat both ankles.

Anyway, to cut the long story short about my being a heroic idiot with 2 injured ankles, I haven't been able to walk properly not because of them, but because of my very sore quads! My ankles are good, albeit just a little swollen. :)

Website: Inaugural Dandy's Hipster Coffee Run