Old Photographs #3

This is an interesting one. It's from the winter season of 1984. I'm not sure of the race - perhaps the ACT 25k road championships. Yes, for some strange reason, half a marathon wasn't long enough back then.

There are a couple of interstate runners competing. The blue singlet on the left is from the Victorian Glenhuntly club. Who is the runner? How many of this crowd are still running in 2006? Looks like a typical Canberra day - no gloves or beanies and plenty of sun. The race must have been in April or March! Also on the front line are a couple of classy 1500 metre runners.

Old Photographs #2

Speedygeoff is migrating north for some mid-winter sun so I thought I'd post these two old photographs. They're from the 1980's.

Does any reader recognise the athlete on the left? Or any of the other athletes? One of them is from South Australia! The occassion was a track meeting at Sydney Athletic Field. The athlete on the left was better known as a marathon runner but on this occassion she won the 1500 metres in a time of around 4:10.

She commenced her career as a track runner and moved from 1500 up to 3000 metres because she couldn't 'sprint' and win international 1500s. At this time there was no 5000 metre race for women at the Olympics so she tried marathon running and did very well. I think this shows that being fast at shorter distances is helpful even for marathon runners.

Come on, back!

ACTVAC handicap results

Oakey Hill 7.5k
3 Barbara Williams W60 42:12
10 Helen Larmour W45 35:32
17 Roger Pilkington M45 32:08
19 Caroline Campbell W60 41:06
20 Rod Lynch M45 30:34
26 Christopher Lang M55 40:02
27 David Baussman M45 35:58
33 Alan Duus M60 37:35
39 Geoff Moore M55 32:57
40 Barbara Tucker W55 43:09
43 John Alcock M60 37:49
57 Ruth Baussmann W55 44:34
70 David Webster M50 32:54
75 Geoff Barker M60 40:17
78 Graeme Small M60 45:14
83 Mick Saunders M55 37:24
84 Cathy Newman W45 38:13
85 John Kennedy M55 34:36
90 Margaret McSpadden W55 45:23
93 Charmaine Knobel W50 40:52
94 Tony Booth M65 40:21
95 Rae Palmer W55 43:03
103 Mick Charlton M50 42:31

Oakey Hill 3.5k
10 Ken Gordon M40 14:11
12 Gary Bowen M45 14:34
13 Kerry Boden W45 20:44
21 Neil Boden M55 16:37
22 Katie Forestier W40 15:43

My training progress

last week's target 80k actual 86k

this week’s target 80k? (whatever I can fit in when travelling)
quote of the week “ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put”
weight 65kg
song of the week

Come on Back To Me – Third Day, from "Wire"

You’ve been hiding now for so long

Never understanding why

Running far away from the truth

And all along chasing after lies

I have loved you from the beginning

Long before you knew my name

Even though you’ve broken my heart

I’ll love you just the same

I’ll love you anyway

Never mind your worries

Never mind your fears

They can only take you far from me

When you feel there’s nowhere

Left for you to turn

Well, I got all you want

And everything you need

Come on back to me

Do you believe in second chances

Or in a love that never fades

Put your faith in what you can’t see

Just put your hand in mine

And I’ll show you the way

My back is great, I came through the Oakey Hill effort with flying colours. Now for the big one next week. The Queensland Half. Something to which to look forward.

News Wrap

Saturday's Carillon 6k results
Women
11. Caroline Campbell W60 34:28
12. Barbara Tucker W55 35:18


Men
35. Ewen Thompson M45 30:29
37. Ken Eynon M60 30:44
38. Mick Saunders M55 30:57
39. Neil Boden M55 31:28
41. Geoff Barker M60 33:10

Sale. Don’t forget to get to the runners shop for their June shoe sale.

Trail. The perfect running trail..

Working Hard or Hardly Working?

I managed a long run yesterday. Mr Flibble told me it was 18.1 km and 104 minutes. I haven't had time to try downloading and analysing the data yet.

This is a ten minute pb for the course - probably because I was listening to a new music list. I don't think I am suddenly that much fitter!

Hearts of the Innocent – Kutless
Lonely Nation – Switchfoot
Roots in Stereo – P.O.D.
Square One – Coldplay
Tunnel – Third Day
Eagles – Third Day
Lights Out – P.O.D.
Shut Me Out – Kutless
Stars – Switchfoot
What If – Coldplay
Beyond the Surface – Kutless
Cry Out to Jesus – Third Day
Happy is a Yuppy Word – Switchfoot
If You Could See Me Now – P.O.D.
White Shadows – Coldplay
Fix You – Coldplay
Goodbye For Now – P.O.D.
I Can Feel It – Third Day
Smile – Kutless
The Shadow Proves The Sunshine – Switchfoot
Easier Than Love – Switchfoot
Keep On Shinin’ – Third Day
Promise of a Lifetime – Kutless
Sounds Like War – P.O.D.
Talk – Coldplay
Communion – Third Day
On the Grind – P.O.D.

Today I ran another 5k easy in preparation for racing tomorrow. I am not all that confident, as my back still feels sore.

A Message

Lake G Handicap (from Ian Clout)
"Just a reminder that the next Lake Ginninderra Handicap run is on Tuesday 30 May. As the bike path is still closed at the normal start line, the registration point is behind the Bella Vista in the car park.

"In line with their new corporate uniform initiative, runners from DIMA will be required to have shirts tucked in and shoes laces properly tied.

"As mentioned at the last run, one of the organisers, Michael Aylott, has transferred to Melbourne with work. The remaining organisers would therefore welcome offers of assistance so that they can do the occasional run themselves. It's not difficult, especially when a few people can share the load. So please email me back if you're prepared to help out, even if it's only a couple of times during the year.

"Finally, if you wish to donate a bit more than a gold coin to the Cancer Council and get a receipt for tax purposes, please bring your donation on Tuesday or contact me in the next couple of weeks."

I will add the handicap to my "coming events" list.

Dickson training
Over twenty runners were at Dickson last night to enjoy or endure a set of 600 metre runs with equal-time recovery. I had a good hard workout, that's two days in a row! It was great to see John Morton return to the training group.

If you want to see a really good write-up of this and other training sessions we do as they happen, Strewth usually attends both Monday and Thursday training at present and summarises each session very well in her blog.

A Message From God
One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the rascally behavior that was going on. He decided to send an angel down to Earth to check it out.

He called one of His angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.

When he returned, he told God, "Yes, it is bad on Earth: 95% are misbehaving and 5% are not."

He thought for a moment and said, "Maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another opinion." So God called another angel and sent him to Earth for a time too.

When the angel returned he went to God and said, "Yes, the Earth is in decline; 95% are misbehaving and 5% are being good."

God was not pleased.

So God decided to E-mail the 5% that were good because He wanted to encourage them. Give them a little something to help them keep going.

Do you know what that E-mail said ? ? ?

No?



I didn't get one either.

Introducing Mr Flibble

Dark Mondays
A reminder to everyone who trains with me Mondays to bring a TORCH to Parliament House. Bring two!

The New Mr Flibble

Mr Flibble is my new Garmin 305 which arrived yesterday. So this is what the 21st century feels like.

And watch out for new technology like this! Change is faster and furiouser than ever.

Half Marathon

SMH half results can be found here. I see Don finished in the famous 666th place.

My running

In the BBQ Stakes yesterday I ran within three seconds of my course pb (one full clockwise lap, the normal direction). Does this mean I am suddenly, somehow, back on track despite being nowhere near recovered from injury?! Maybe I can run a sub 90 minute half next week?

The original Mr Flibble

Here he is. From the "Quarantine" episode of Red Dwarf V. The best episode of them all. "Mr Flibble is very cross."

10 cubic meters

A 10 cubic metre skip was sufficient for the debris from the demolition job done on our old kitchen plus some of the accumulated junk from 36 years of living in the same house, mostly from the garage. But wait there's more! There are still two room fulls of stuff we will want to throw out. We will have to order another skip down the track! Maybe not quite as big?

How you voted
speedygeoff's filter of the AGM of the ACT Veterans Athletic Club held last night at Wests leaves us with the following information

Great venue. Much better than the crappy places we have met in past years.

Great food too.

Great club. There is none better than the ACTVAC. The 45 or so people at the AGM - the low numbers in itself a sign that members are happy and don't want change - overwhelmingly approved the actions and directions of the club.

Our President's message focused on the challenge that we cannot just "carry on" with ongoing administrative business, but we also must contribute to keeping people active in our society at large. We are an organ through which people can deliver programs to help an aging society. We must protect that role and look to other activities and other collaborations to progress that.

Two new faces in a small turnover of committee members (not the 100% of last year!) saw Craig Wisdom elected to the committee, and Rosemary Parker, a former club secretary, rejoining the committee. The Secretary's position remained vacant and will be covered by the committee until a permanent secretary can be found.

Treasurer acclaimed as the finances were accepted with joy and a stamp of approval on the new budget. A very large surplus because of some one-off income means the club can repay members via holding membership fees as is, and reducing weekly track entry charges from $5 per person to $3 per person for 2006-07.

The new committee
Patron Jack Pennington
President Geoff Sims
Vice President Christopher Lang
Secretary vacant
Treasurer Will Foster
George Kubitzky
Peter McDonald
Roger Pilkington
Rosemary Parker
Craig Wisdom

Aki Installation

Our kitchen is being installed today and tomorrow with mostly everything completed by Friday. Painting and some flooring will wait. Aki (Australian Kitchen Industries) supplied the kitchen so I half expected a young slender jogger-lady with an ultra-long ponytail to do the installation but no, it was two young men doing the work. Competency with lego preferred but not essential.

Head for the Hills
On Monday night we reverted to a hill session we hadn't done for a year or so, not since the grassy slopes around Parliament House had been dug up and then left unattended for ages.

Trevor, Zel and I had an early run up Mugga Way and back down Flinders Way at 4:30pm, before we met everyone else for the main warm-up run at 5:30pm. Then after everyone had warmed up, the group's fast work consisted of six reps of a circuit on five minutes; the speedier runners took about 2:40 and the tailenders up to 3:40.

The circuit took in three sprints up a nice little hill and two loops joining the top of the hill to the bottom. On completion, runners jogged back down the hill to wait for the five minute whistle before starting again.

I was delighted to see Jennifer K turn up for her first Parliament House training session; another seriously fast Veteran Sprinter joins the group. We welcomed back CJ, I remember her excelling on these hills in the past. John A and Charmaine made welcome returns, and Annette rocked up the first time for a while. Altogether, 22 runners trained with us last night.

The new grass was soft and great to run on. There was no moon and the sky was clear of clouds which would have reflected the lights of Canberra, so it was very dark. Torches essential.

Over and Out

Progress?

last week target 80k actual 60k
this week’s target 80k plus?
song of the week – "The Blues" Switchfoot, from "Nothing is Sound"

Is this the New Year or just another night?
Is this the new fear or just another fright?
Is this the new tear or just another desperation?

Is this the finger or just another fist?
Is this the kingdom or just a hit n' miss?
A misdirection, most in all this desperation

Is this what they call freedom?
Is this what you call pain?
Is this what they call discontented fame?

It'll be a day like this one
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in

I'm singing this one like a broken piece of glass
From broken arms an' broken noses in the back
Is this the New Year or just another desperation?

You're pushing till you're shoving
You bend until you break
Till you stand on the broken fields where our fathers lay

It'll be a day like this one
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in

There's nothing here worth saving,
Is no one here at all?
Is there any net left that could break our fall?

It'll be a day like this one
When the sky falls down and the hungry and poor and deserted are found
Are you discontented? Have you been pushing hard?
Have you been throwing down this broken house of cards?

It'll be a day like this one
When the world caves in
When the world caves in
When the world caves in

Is there nothing left now?
Nothing left to sing
Are there any left who hasn't kiss the enemy?
Is this the New Year or just another desperation?

Does justice never find you? Do the wicked never lose?
Is there any honest song to sing besides these blues?

And nothing is okay
Till the world caves in
Till the world caves in
Till the world caves in
Till the world caves in
Till the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in
Until the world caves in

quote of the week “In the beginning there was nothing, which exploded.” - Terry Pratchett

Team Moore Results North Lyneham 6.2k
Women
7. Maria O'Reilly W50 28:12
13. Kathy Sims W50 32:28
14. Barbara Tucker W55 34:53
Men
14. Roger Pilkington M45 25:55
37. Peter McDonald M50 30:41
38. Neil Boden M55 30:50
45. Geoff Sims M55 34:00

Team Moore Results North Lyneham 3.1k
8. Roger Pilkington M45 12:26
21. Katie Forestier W40 13:48
31. Barbara Williams W60 17:33

SMH Half Marathon

Martin first Anthony second. Go ACT!
I haven't forgotten that Anthony trained with us for twelve months as he got his athletics career going.

Jogalong

I finally found the jogalong results from 2 weeks ago. And quite a few training group members ran. Including Michelle, expecting her second baby in a month or so. (OK, she walked)
21. Barbara Tucker 33:34
31. Michelle Wells 54:59
69. Amanda Walker 32:53
77. Helen Larmour 27:40
85. Katie Forestier 27:37
92. Pam Faulks 33:23
98. Barbara Williams 35:33
107. Charmaine Knobel 30:33
112. Caroline Campbell 32:17
152. Annemarie Calnan 34:01

IE7
I have just loaded IE7. It looks a bit different from IE6. Quite good, really. But the appearance of fonts on these pages is a bit strange to the eye. Interesting.

My kitchen's gone!

I am planning to run the Oakey Hill familiarisation run at 9:00 tomorrow, if people want to meet there.

We have completely dismantled our old kitchen in preparation for the new one to be installed next week.
Nothing's left, not even the kitchen sink.

Volunteer of the Year

Mr David Hobson, of the ACT Cross Country Club and occasional runner with the ACT Vets, accepting his award as 'Volunteer of the Year 2006' in the 'Sport and Recreation Category'.

custom built

Customs 5k 30th anniversary next month
Customs Joggers had their first recognised handicap run on Friday, 11th of June, 1976. As most of you will know, they have about 50 handicaps each year. Their 30th anniversary run will be held on Friday, 16 June, this year. We are trying to get as many of our past runners as possible, (and new runners/walkers as well), to celebrate this occasion.
The event starts near the toilets, about 100 metres from the front of Stage 88. It is run on a handicap basis, on a gross time of 35 minutes,with the gun going off at 12.15 pm, but this time we will have earlier starts for those who are now just walkers or even gentler runners.
If you are arriving by car, there is a parking area near the Archbishop's House and then walk towards the Stage 88. There will be the normal first, second and third prizes for regular runners and barrell prizes for all competitors. Most of these are from The Runners Shop.
There will be snacks and biscuits available, along with different types of drinks. Different types of barrel prizes will be supplied which will partially be paid for from the $2 event fee.
For more information, contact Rick Hatcher on 6258 5465.

Masters Cross Country

My style is shot! Looks like I have developed a "rolling" style to compensate for the soreness of having run a marathon. Needs work!
Ron Vines is in the foreground (#6134) looking a lot better than I am.

Ron is Margaret McSpadden's brother-in-law. Photo taken by Jeni Greenland.

half photos

There will be more photos, full photos, half photos, all kinds of photos. I will be posting photos of all kinds of events as time permits. Specially if I purchase a camera soon. Or will I buy a 305 next? Decisions decisions. Meanwhile Allrounder's half photos are not half good! Congratulations on a great pb.

Foood is goood

Team Moore Dinner Photos

I spoke

I still spoke

Margaret gets a koala

photos by Ken

Another food opportunity
Annual General Meeting - This is a reminder that the ACTVAC AGM is to be held at 7:30 pm, Tuesday 23 May 2006 at the West District Rugby Union Club in Catchpole Street, Macquarie. The committee encourages you to attend and advises that supper will be provided.

B1 and B2 have left the building

Riki the cat guarding the last of the bananas. Photo taken 13 March. No bananas have been seen since.

I have had bananas with my breakfast almost every day since 1962 until now...

The C word

It all starts here.

To be a winner, all you need to give is all you have.

The winners of the prestigious Caramel Koala awards at last night's Team Moore dinner were -

Maria O'Reilly. Attended more training sessions than anyone else in the group. And her results reflect that!

Margaret McSpadden. Inaugural female winner of the Moore 3000 trophy.

Aki to Zel

I forgot that the Half Marathon results would appear on an obscure web site, not the Cross Country Club one.

Team Moore results
93. David Webster M50 1:33:00
104. Geoff Moore M55 1:34:21
116. John Kennedy M55 1:35:54
126. Gary Bowen M45 1:36:31
146. Jeni Greenland 1:37:59
171. Zel Bodulovic M50 1:39:20
200. Thea Zimpel 1:41:41
214. David Baussmann M55 1:43:12
216. John Alcock M60 1:43:37
226. Cathy Newman W45 1:44:46
251. John Stoney M40 1:48:31
293. Caroline Campbell W60 1:52:12
351. Carolyne Kramar W40 1:59:17
359. Barbara Williams W60 2:00:34
360. Ruth Baussmann W55 2:00:38
364. Margaret McSpadden W55 2:02:00
Barbara Tucker W55 dnf – taken out by a bicycle

Relay Teams
4. Speedy Geese FF 1:36:12 - Maria O'Reilly, Charlie McCormack.

Caroline won the W60 section; Speedy Geese was the first female relay team; Thea took about nine minutes off her pb; Zel about five minutes off his.

One of my new rules of thumb should be - avoid gym work for six weeks before any important race. (CJ would do well to note this too!). Otherwise if it's not an important race just train through and take what comes, but don't expect a pb.

Did I miss anyone? (Can happen).

everything

last week did very little except "raced" the half marathon
this week’s target 80km plus?
song of the week - Everything by Lifehouse
quote of the week "If we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?"

The Jogalong results from the 7th and the Half results from the 14th are not available yet, so I will have to talk about something else... despite the crummy time I ran in the Half, my next target is the Queensland Half at Doomben in three weeks time, when I may plan to set off at 4:10 per km, slightly faster than yesterday. Up in Brisbane as long as the course is flat I should be OK with this, for as far as I can tell heat is not a limiting factor at the moment in my running, rather injury is. Let's just hope my back problems repair by then.

There was so much traffic on the course yesterday it's a wonder more people were not injured. From our training group, Barbara T had an altercation with a cyclist and was at the finish line somewhat bloodied. Her glasses were smashed, I hope she is alright. A half marathon is bad enough without that. And the doughy girl who did it just rode off.

A reminder to look up regularly the “coming events" link in the side bar. I keep it up to date. That way you will be sure that training sessions or on, or when any special events might be happening. Like tonight.

Have a good week everybody.

Closing the Gap

Today's Canberra Half Marathon has come and gone with some quite good times and some not-quite-as-good times on a beautiful autumn day - actually I would have preferred fog and frost at the start to the clear sunshine, but I am sure the nice weather brought the runners out.

An off day
Everyone wants to know the result of the race-off between yours truly and the Speedy Geese Team. Hardly a fair race; both the team and I were handicapped and had off days. I ended up running SLOWER than I ran at Weston Creek; marginally so anyway. My splits (at EXACTLY the half way mark, and at the finish) were 45:00 and 49:20. I ran around the 4:15 per km target pace to about 15km, and then my back seized up. I had strained it badly a week ago doing hip flexor exercises (Southy please note) and had done little or no running since that happened. I felt reasonably OK for the first 15 km but the final 6km were excruciating and I was forced to jog, at times a fast jog and at other times close to stopping.

The geese are closing the gap
Speedy Geese suffered their first blow when the chief goose went home sick, and the second as the other two members discovered they had to run 10.5km each instead of 7km. The splits for the two runners were 46:20 and about 49:50. The good news is they ended up FASTER than the time the Speedy Geese ran at Weston Creek; marginally so anyway. The other bit of good news is they were the first two-person team to finish. They came in after me by just under two minutes.

Aki to Zel
Official results will appear soon. Some people, ranging from Aki to Zel, ran massive PBs. I will publish full Team Moore results when available.

Everyone has an off day; seems like mothers' day 2006 is best forgotten for some of us. Others will long remember it as a stepping stone to greater things.