Day 142 : I ran

What a weekend!  Saturday was crazy - off the the Petit Bateau sale at 9am, into the jewellers at 10am, down to the house to take some quick pics, packed a bag in between, then at 1pm flew to sunny Sydney for the City to Surf.  The day itself was perfect for running:  18C and fine.  As usual, all the good citizens of Rose Bay and surrounds were out to cheer on me and my 79,999 new best friends.  There was a bit of cursing about not doing any hill training once we hit Heartbreak Hill, but it was over fairly soon.  What I did notice more this year were all the other little inclines that you hit afterwards before getting to the flat before the downhill stretch to Bondi Beach.  That's when you know why you do this run - the sight of the sea and the silvery sands reminds you that there is no other event like this in Melbourne and this is why you make the pilgramage every year.  A couple of little gripes - the poor volunteer crew did not have time to sort the bags into order, so had to call out numbers in the hope that the owners were waiting, mobile phone calls fail (even when it appears that there is signal) and the queues for the buses back to Bondi Junction and the city were horrendous.  I found, then lost S and spent a while trying to call, before catching up with her on the beach to grab something to eat and a couple of glasses of bubbles.  After a long run, this was a nice way to spend an hour before heading back.  We went looking for Y, gave up in the end, and then decided to walk to Bondi Junction rather than join the multitudes in the queue for the buses.  Once we got through the crowd for the trains, getting back was fairly straight forward.  Back at home base, we employed our usual post C2S recovery tactics - a couple of hours in the spa with bubbles from a bottle and treats.  Not what the health professionals would make of this but we've never been stiff and sore yet.  However by 9.30pm, we were all tucked up and sound asleep in no time.  Today we got the adjusted times for our run - while F was thrilled with her 77 minutes, S and I were less impressed with 80 and 81 minutes respectively.  We had hoped to achieve a time of under 75 minutes, so we will need to re-assess our training for next year.  And there will be a next year.

Day 137: Sumer Love Sensation

From Cool Cats Blog http://so-me.coolcats.fr/2009/05/ugliest-band/

I read somewhere that you can tell a lot about a person from the playlist on their iPod.  I only have one playlist per se which is my Running Music.  If you are defined by what is on your playlist, I am in deep trouble. If anyone knew what was on this list, I would lose any illusion of sophistication or culture that I may have.  Because to make my running music playlist, a song needs to have the following characteristics:

- it must be something that I can sing to, if only in my head
- loud guitar riffs are good
- Glam rock is most welcome and I think my running music playlist is overweight in this genre
- I find music from  the early to mid 1970's strangely compelling.

The above traits are necessary to keep me from thinking about how boring I find running.  So why run?  Well, I like to have a goal and I have been training for the City to Surf, the iconic Sydney 14 km run that starts at Hyde Park in the CBD and finishes at Bondi.  So the playlist has been getting a workout lately.
I have done this run a few times but this year is special because I missed last year's event. because of the reco  F and I are heading off the Sydney on Saturday and will do the run with S on Sunday.  But back to the music.  Courtesy of Stos, we have a large music library.  Some of the taste displayed in the collection is questionable.  However, this gives me a huge choice when it comes to picking daggy music for the Running Music playlist.  The list is pretty stable but earlier in the year, I discovered that we had a Best of Bay City Rollers CD (or something similar).  I added a couple of tracks and am now totally loving Summer Love Sensation.  All of a sudden, I am again 12 years old, sitting in the loungeroom of the old house watching Shang-a-Lang (the Bay City Rollers television show) with L.  Maybe I was a bit older as I seem to recall spilling Happy Blue Cutex Nailpolish on the carpet while watching those spunks strut their stuff.  I was in love with Eric (second from the left above) while L had a thing for Derek (far left).  I remember seeing older girls wearing Roller Strollers and stripy socks like our idols, and wishing Mum would let us do the same.  Well, we all have our dirty little secrets.