Sydney Striders 30k

I left the house at 5:35AM. The sun was just starting to rise. I ran down the steep hill to Lane Cove National Park. I was meeting George for a ride to the Sydney Striders Sunday run. As I got to the park George spotted me from across the street and waved his arms. It was only a short drive to the start of the run but not knowing the area I was glad I had the ride.

We soon arrived at another park about 5k away. There were already about 30 people there. They had a table set up with a cash box, maps, plastic map protectors and some GU’s. It was the honor system. You paid your $4 and grabbed the maps and a GU it you wanted it. Another guy named George was the organizer for this run. He explained the course to everyone. There would be the standard 30k run but there was also the option to cut it short at about 23k. He also told us that the difficulty level (hilly) was rated at a 4. They use a 5 point scale. George then wished them well and off went the 6:00AM group. This first group had about 30 people in it. It was a little difficult trying to calculate the paces from km to miles. I was not sure what paces everyone was running but George (the guy that I have been running with, the one that gave me the ride) said that I should wait until the 6:10AM group started. The first group ran at around 10 minutes per mile. He said that the 6:20AM group was FAST. There was also another group that ran 10 – 15 k that started at 7:00AM.



More people started to arrive. George (the organizer) then went over the same information and the 6:10AM group was off. It was not 300 yards before we hit the first hill. There were about 12 of us running in this wave. My watch indicated that even with the hills we were running at a mid 8 minute per mile pace. The hills made this a tough run. There were a group of girls out front and they were pushing the pace. I was running at my conversational pace for much of the run except when the hills hit. You could hear everyone’s breathing become labored. These hills were hard. Our group stayed together for about the first 6 miles and then it started to spread out – this is when we started to overtake much of the 6:00AM group. At this point one of the girls up front decided to push the pace and left the group.

We continued on and soon we were Bush running. These were not technical and the pace remained high. At just past the half way point we entered into Lane Cove National Park and back on the road. I had run these roads all week. Someone mentioned that they had a 10k race the past weekend in the park. I had discussed this with someone earlier. Once again, this is very hilly. I mentioned that a 10k race on this course would ‘eat my lunch’. The girl on my left laughed and said “What?” I repeated that the hills would eat my lunch. She asked what does that mean. I thought about it for a moment and said that I was not exactly sure where the saying comes from but that it meant that it would be difficult. I said that it means that it would take advantage of me – maybe, I am speculating here but like a bully taking your lunch or lunch money. She thought that was funny.

I then commented that they had just as many odd sayings. She asked, “Like what?” I threw the zinger “Bob’s you uncle” at her. I said I understanding the meaning in context but what was its origin? They use the phrase to mean like – “you put this with that and tie it in a knot – Bob’s your uncle.” I take it to mean something like “there you have.” One of the guys in the group said that it meant ‘comfortable’ because like everyone has an Uncle Bob. I guess it is like running – you just put one foot in front of the other and Bob’s your uncle.

Anyway, we were at about mile 14 of the 30k (sorry about mixing units of measure – mile 14 of about 18.6). We soon left Lane Cove and then started back on some more Bush. This was a more technical area. We passed a few more people that were part of the earlier group. Fatigue was starting to set in. We had dropped several of our group and several had cut the 30k short. This was really a challenging course.

On one of the technical areas of the Bush I took a spill. I was trying to keep up with one of the guys. I could hang easily on the road but in the Bush he pulled away. As far as falls go this was about the best I could hope for – my foot caught a rock, I turned my ankle and I went down on my palms. My hands hit soft sand. Only my hands touched down and I jumped up quick without missing a step. I did not even have a mark on me! No harm no foul.

By the time we wrapped up the run we were all haggard. I have run (and even raced) this distances before – but, oh the hills. We finished up the 30k (my gps had the run closer to 19 miles) in 2:56. It was very challenging to say the least.

We got back to the park and George (the organizer of this run) had set up cold drinks and snacks for everyone. There was lots of fruit and candies and cakes. There were also a lot of sodas. I took advantage of the diet cokes and tin tams. I got my fill while chatting with the runners. I left the park with George and asked if I could be dropped off closer to my sister’s house. I really did not want to walk up the steep hill on Fullers Road.

With this challenging 30k it capped off a solid week of running. While not my highest volume I did hit 100k (62 miles) for the week.

Running Lane Cove

I got up early this morning. I headed out for a short run before most of the house rose. There was very little traffic on my way to the park. The Lane Cove National Park is quite hilly like most of Sydney. This is good for me. I ran at an easy pace for most of an hour. I had to get back to the house to walk the kids to school with my sister. We would be heading to downtown to run around today.

The park has a mix of road and trail runs. Any run that is no on a road is called bush – so hiking on a trail or running on a trail is a Bush Walk or Bush Run respectively. I did a combination of road and bush running. I did see several road cyclists in the park. They were riding up and down the hills. There are some pretty good hills in this park. I got back to the house with plenty of time to grab breakie and pack a lunch for the day.

We walked the kids to school, which is also quite hilly. My calves are getting a workout with just the walking. At the school the kids have to line up by class and the all of the announcements are made. My sister and I then headed to the trains to head to downtown.

We got off the train at Circular Quay. This is the hub of Sydney Harbour. It is the founding site of Sydney and the home to the Sydney Opera House and Royal Botanical Gardens. On the north side is the Harbour Bridge and The Rocks.

After walking around this the Opera House we visited the Sydney Museum of Contemporary Art. We then had lunch in the Royal Botanical Gardens. The gardens are expansive and impressive. There is a pond with lots of birds and eels.

Harbour Bridge

Sydney Opera House

Me in front of Sydney Opera House

In addition the trees are very unique. In the tops of the tress there are many huge flying fox bats. I have been told that at dusk it is exciting to see the bats take flight. After the gardens we headed to the Sydney Library where they have a small but interesting exhibit about the first aboriginals their interactions with the first westerners.

Duck in hiding

Bats (Fying Foxes) in trees

Bats (Fying Foxes) in trees

Close up of Fying Foxes - You do not want to picnic under these trees

Century Old Trees

The day had flown by and it was time to head back to Chatswood, do a little grocery shopping and then pick up the kids and walk home. When we got home I had a small bowl of oatmeal for a snack at got ready to meet the Lance Cove Runners at the park. They meet Tuesday and Friday evenings. I ran down a steep hill of Fuller Street (about ¾ mile) and arrived at the park just as three other people were congregating. I introduced myself and one of the guys was Jim who I had corresponded with a couple of weeks ago. Two of the other people were Tom and George. They are both accomplished Bush Runners. In fact, Tom has a 100K bush run this weekend. We started the run at a comfortable pace and the road got hilly. This ended up being a challenging run. I would say it ended up being comfortably hard. Tom and I pushed the pace in a couple of sections but we were able to keep it conversational most of the time. Tom asked me if I thought that Australia had an obesity problem. I said that compared to Mississippi Australia had nothing to worry about – Tom was still concerned.

I ended up getting just over 13 miles running plus several more walking around the city.



Finding new running friends

I contacted the Lane Cove River Runners in Chatswood West (Sydney). They run in Lane Cove National Park a couple of times a week – bush trail or road.  I also contacted a Barbie from Trying A Tri.

From the Jim at the Lane Cove River Runners -

We have a run every Sunday morning in a different location for distances from 10 to 30 k’s, the people who want to run 10 to 15 start at 7:00 AM and the 20 to 30 k runners start at 6:00. The 6:00 AM start is for 4 hr Marathoners 6 :10 for 3 ½ hrs, 6:20 for 3 hrs and 6:30 for those super human types who run sub 3 hrs (or club champ at the moment is running in the low 2:20’s

On an average morning we can get around 100 people out on the streets, the runs cost us $4.00 and for that you get a map with directions, great company and at the finish there is fresh fruit, drinks, cakes and other runner centric snacks. The club welcomes international runners as we also travel all over the world so please come along, we have around 700 adult members so a very mixed bunch of ages (18 to 84) and abilities.

I think that I will have plenty of people to run with!