Manly Dam - 21(18)

Manly Dam - map and statistics

I started off pretty slowly - I'm not sure exactly where the cameraman jumped out from, but I think maybe about 5 or so km into the race. Anyway, the particular slowness in this shot is caused by a combination of nervousness about descending generally combined with a nervousness about the right knee, which has been playing up. Stairs have to be the right shape to attack; they either have to be narrow so you don't need to stride, or they have to be wide enough to fit in a full stride, which is about 1.3 meters at speed. These were neither, hence the "no neck" look.

The landscape is pretty typical for Manly Dam / Garigal National Park. It isn't all like this; there are some more open areas, and some near rainforest areas as well, but in the main it's this sclerophyll. Likewise, there's a mixture of fire trail, tarmac and pre-fab pathway, but the bulk of the run is on more-or-less technical single track.

Last year I ran it in sub-1:50, I think, so I was a little disappointed in the time, but it was very wet, and I didn't attack the course so maybe 1:57 wasn't unreasonable (last time I beat the 40-49 age group home). It's a great course though, and I really enjoyed the run. It's well organised - free coffee! and I've signed up to do it all again in February.

Stromlo - 30 km

Garmin data

Perfect running at Stromlo - cool and dry. The location is primarily a bike track for off road bike enthusiasts - we were running on the fire and maintenance trails, so there were no incidents. We did meet some horses, and one fairly stressed kangaroo bounced across the road at about 8K. It was a well organised event, with Rob de Castella likewise bounding around enthusiastically as chief spruiker. The man is a serious enthusiast. I like running too, but it can't possibly be as good for you as he thinks it is!

 Before the race; in fact a little nervous, but also pretty excited. The gloves are the result of a tip from the organisers of Manly Dam and Camay National Park to the effect that the most common injuries their first aid tent sees are the palms of the hands, after a fall. I'm a famous faller - irritatingly - so I've taken the advice on board, although so far I haven't needed it. Which means I don't fall in every race, doesn't it?
                The headband keeps the sweat out of the eyes, but more importantly off the lenses of the glasses. It attracts a deal of mockery from those who don't remember the great 80's fashions but I haven't found a better solution. I actually finished a race once without the glasses because they were so smeared I could see worse with them than without them.
                I've actually gotten thinner - but not lighter, puzzlingly - since I bought the belt, which holds 4 200 ml drink dispensers, allowing me a mix of sports drink and water. The belt seems to be perpetually about to fall off, although it hasn't yet (and didn't this time either).

 On the left you can see me finishing, and on the right going through 10K in 46 mins. "Compare and contrast...." Certainly too fast, in a way, but it's very hard to work out timings on a course you've never run before. Certainly faster than I planned, but what could I do? I wasn't pushing myself, as you can see. I felt strong on the downhills - which is a big factor in the good time. Once the legs feel a bit wobbly, running fast down rocky tracks is much less appealing, so the 2nd half downhills aren't nearly as fast.

The 30K picture has me looking better than I feel, plus you can't see the blood on the left knee. Still, I'm quite pleased with the fact that I managed the last two kilometers in sub 5 minute pace. There were some repeats built into the course, and the comparisons are instructive:

Kilometer	1/11	2/12	3/13	4/14	5/15
time	5:04/5:21	5:05/5:12	5:20/6:15*	4:34/5:01	5:12/5:21
Kilometer	6/26	7/27	8/28	9/29	10/30
time	5:21/5:41	5:16/7:16#	5:16/6:22#	4:10/4:44	4:33/4:55

* Shoelace

# upward bits .... that's where the lack of training shows - on the flatter sections I'm only 20 seconds slower (~7%) after the additional 20K, but on the hilly bits I'm averaging 30% slower!

I did in fact fall at the 15K mark, on a perfectly flat bit of road for no apparent reason - well, my foot slipped, but on an innocuous part of the road. The gloves were a saviour - I would have had massive grazes on the palms otherwise, and it's much harder to ignore hand pain than leg pain. In fact I didn't notice any knee pain until I stopped. It was only a shallow (large-ish) graze, nothing like the deep cuts I've had before. It is crucial to keep running after a fall, assuming you haven't damaged anything, because if you stop for too long you suddenly get very discouraged. 

Karloo and Uloola Falls - Royal National Park

  Melbourne cup day a break, because I work for a Melbourne company that is incapable of managing the administration in having different public holidays for staff in different states.

So, I took the troops bushwalking - well I offered, but not many took the offer up, partly due to the casual Cup-related work on offer for the students, partly because of the weather. In the end there were three of us.

I've been running in Royal National Park a few times, but really only on Lady Carrington Drive (I think), so I don't know the walks. This was really the first, probably of many I feel, as there is fantastic public transport access.

40 minutes from Central to Heathcote, and the bush starts 10 minutes from the station. My phone ran out of battery, so there are many fewer
pictures than there might have been. It did in fact

 rain, but not heavily - a classic English drizzle really, for 2 of the 5 hours.

Most of these pictures are from water level - a lot of flowers, most familiar in form if not in name. Although I have an idea that there are a few Australian, as it were, "forms" that are shared around a variety of species, so I'll spare people my guesses.

 
The grasses in the above caught my eye with the very black - I assume seeds - tufts.

A classic rock pool - not raining at the moment this picture was taken.

There were a lot of these - not something I think we've attempted at home.

More rock pool vistas. The path is very well marked, except along the creek banks where there's no real necessity for it as the creek is not difficult to follow.

Cockatoos + house - the top one is actually emerging from a hollow in the tree. This taken from the top of the ridge, about 200 meters into the descent.

These were everywhere, up hill and down dale.

Lots of these trees, but not many with the impressive array of bumps.

I've never seen this fruiting before - amazingly like bunches of grapes. I also saw fruit on some of the casuarinas - also round green globules, but smaller and not bunched as here. I don't think I've seen those before, either - which is amazing when you consider how many casuarinas there are around the Cooks River.

These were also on the upper levels, near the bush-suburbia border. Thee were also an enormous number of gymeas on the ridges, but very quickly vanished going downhill. I was surprised by how few of them had flower spikes - they may have been very young plants. It looked in place like the most recent fire wasn't all that long ago, and I wondered if the gymeas might not be opportunistic post fire.

New plantings

With cat protection ... sadly the neighbourhood is a bit cat-infested at the moment. Obviously better than rats...

This is some kind of (hopefully) dwarf casuarina.

Similar hopes for this banksia - at least it has small leaves.

 This is shooting up - hopefully not a presage of future greatness.

 Looks amazingly like a juniper, but apparently not.

Very small indeed.

 There are a few of these in the neighbourhood, they're very indigenous to the Cooks river. On the evidence of the area, 3 meters should be about tops, but the label, I have to say, is threatening a lot more. Could be chainsaw territory!

Mind you, we've been killing a lot of plants in the last 2-3 years. Who knows how many of hese will survive!

Woronora wildlife

Spring garden, 2015

 Borrowed from #12 (shades of Berewolgal)

 It's the one time of the year that this ornamental is worth the space...

And now, South America

One fo the last vestiges of the garden when we arrived

A long shot - I misjudged the light. About 4 of the trees are neighbourly contributions

Another survivor

West Australian, I think...It's never happy, but it's hung on for about 15 years now

Memories of Asia

Deadman's Creek

 We took the boats out at Deadman's Creek this AM - really the first unambiguous day of spring. It's a tributary of the Georges River, as is the usual spot on the Woronora, so the landscape is similar.

It looks beautiful, and it is, but the roar of traffic is omnipresent. It doesn't have the remote air of the Woronora, although looking at the map there probably isn't much in it.

 It's about 18 months since the verge garden project, and last spring was a bit early to get the full effect on the streetscape, but now the difference is significant. I need to find some "before" shots to ram it home, but there's no denying it looks a bit more welcoming.

I haven't quite managed to group them all sensible below, but these would be the best eight; there's another nine or so, but they need more weeding! I think there are four of us who take the gardens reasonably seriously, in terms of weeding and mulch and design, plus a couple of others who would like to do more but can't through infirmity.