Flying Foxes

During my training for the Melbourne Marathon I met some great people and I now have my first Ultramarathon friend, Cathy. Cathy is part of my running group that does interval work on Tuesday nights. She wears her Garmin, runs perfect splits and seems to use no effort getting from A to B. I had the honor of being invited to one of her weekend runs, which I attended this past Sunday.

The day started with a 10km bike north through the city. The roads are much better at 7am on Saturdays... We met in an empty parking lot next to a golf course on the Yarra River. There were 13 runners of all shapes, sizes, and ages. Of course the morning started with sarcastic jokes about people being slow, lazy or showboating which seem to accompany every close running group (or for that matter any sports team). Our plan was to run an "easy 20k" trail run along the paths of the Yarra River. Only in a group of Ultra runners can a 20k trail run be called easy. Not only was it an easy run but for some it was also a recovery run (recovering from the 100k run they had run the previous weekend. Loco.)

I was a little intimated at first but started running with an older guy with an awkward gate who was carrying a few extra pounds. I'm thinking of all the runners here I should be at least be able to hang with this guy. We started talking about what races we have done and realized we had both done the Melbourne marathon. We commiserated about the wind, weather, etc both wishing we had performed better. Unfortunately for my confidence his disappointing time was 3:20. He was targeting under 3 hours. Oh-oh.

After 5k or we came to the top of the hill with a nice lookout over the river and we all took a break to regroup. After catching my breath I realized the lookout wasn't designed for the river but instead to view the flying foxes. There were thousands of them! Most of them were fast asleep but a few flew a little to close for my liking. This is what those buggers look like:

After the flying foxes we all settled in and I felt like an aboriginal on the move. Pretty sweet feeling... Well this is already getting to be a long story so I'll wrap it up with this. Survived the 20k run and was invited to join Cathy and the Flying Foxes (unbeknownst to the group, I've given them this nickname) at her next race, which happens to be a long one (shocker). It's in about 5 weeks... https://sites.google.com/site/marysvillemarathonfestival/home/course/42-2km-marathon

Yes another marathon. Yes on trails. And maybe I'm crazy.