Iron Cove

Endomondo Running Workout: "16.22 km in 1h:15m:43s."

This is actually a race, run by an organisation called Sri Chinmoy who organise a huge number of distance events for quite low prices. I assume it's their business but they seem to do it pretty well. They manage to provide hot food & fresh fruit at the finish line - more than anyone could whip up in Canberra for four times the entry fee. Mind you, they don't do the high tech approach to timing, chips & computers and because the numbers are pretty small the manual approach works fine for them.

I ran in this event last year and took 83 minutes, so the 75 minutes this time represents 30 seconds per kilometer improvement. I'm quite happy, although I was semi-secretly hoping to break 72 minutes. Maybe next time. Last time I also finished with shin splints in one leg and a strained adductor in the other, so my current uninjured state (sore glutes, but that's all) is also a significant improvement on last year as well. I'll add links to the pictures if they appear. They have - not their best photographer, but it gives an idea.

As far as the race went, I finished 3rd (up from 5th). The two guys who came in 1st and 2nd ran 61 and 64 minutes respectively, which is pretty dam' impressive. Frankly, my cardiologist would be very cross if I tried any harder (I got a check up before I started all this running business, wasn't super keen on being a total Fixx follower) so I'm not sure where the next improvements will come from. Technique, I guess; that's a long slow road (grins maniacally).

Iron Cove itself is quite nice, especially along the Leichhardt bank, but much less so on the Drummoyne side. We run on the public walking/bike tracks, and there's a lot of unofficial competition with the GP, who were out in force. To my mind, the Cooks River tracks are much more pleasant (amongst other things, no cars) but there are never anything like the same number of people using them. Perhaps it's the size of the body of water, and the associated larger amounts of reflected light that make the Iron Cove paths so popular. Perhaps it benefits from the cachet of Port Jackson. Perhaps it constitutes "ocean" - you can bet money it does in the real estate literature for the area.  Later in the day, and perhaps more so in summer, there are sailboats, which are definitely picturesque. This morning there were rowers, whom Liz dismissed with withering contempt - they go backwards! No more coaches on bikes with bullhorns either (which you can still see on the Yarra); here the club coach was out in a tinny, motoring backward and forward between crews. Leichhardt rowing club is pretty serious. Members have to enter something like 26 out of 30 seasonal regattas to keep their place in a boat, and they're expected to practise regularly as well.

Regular readers may recall that the Hawthorne Canal empties into Iron Cove. The regular Sunday running group was going to do the canal today, but I didn't see them; not that we make a big impact on our surroundings with the usual group of two or three. Mind you, we do seem to be growing a little at the moment. We might start getting five or six out fairly soon, judging by the increased email traffic.

I can't think of a lot else to say. Well, one thing: when I finish with the marathon bug, 16 km races really are a perfect distance.