Catching Up

So blogging isn't really our strong suit.  We'll try to fix that in 2012.  Just a quick run through of what we have been up to the last couple of months.

In December I took another trip down the Great Ocean Road with a couple girls from work. Adam started working for a children's fitness program and also as a women's running coach.  We flew to NYC on December 17 and spent the holidays visiting friends and family.  It was a great trip and we were so happy to have seen so many people during our two week visit!  We flew back on New Year's Eve, which turned out to be a pretty good night to fly since the airports were empty and the planes had quite a few empty seats.  We even got a free upgrade from NYC to LA!

Since we've been back in Melbourne we have been enjoying the summer.  We've been to the outdoor cinema twice, headed to Sydney for a weekend and attended the Australian Open yesterday.

We had fun in Sydney despite torrential rains at times.  We took the ferry to Manly Beach and on the way got a nice tour of the harbor, including the famed Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Sydney Opera House.  In Manly we indulged on a delicious fresh fish lunch.  Sydney is home to the largest fish market in the southern hemisphere.  We walked a ton to get the lay of the land, saw a show at the Sydney Theatre Company (it was a history of the world in reverse, from the current day to the big bang) and enjoyed the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibit at the Australian Museum.

We've got a lot of fun things planned for the next couple of months: kite surfing lessons, dog sitting, St Kilda festival BBQ at our apt, weekend running camp in Queenscliff, long weekend trip to Tasmania, potential visit to Ayer's Rock, and a trip to Adelaide/McLaren Vale/Kangaroo Island for Easter/Passover.  And then in May we have our first visitors!!!

"The Tennis"

Marathon Take 2

26 miles on trails. Pretty pretty pretty good. Of course, I don't have the skills to really explain the power of where I ran so I borrowed some words from DandyRunner.com. Here you go...

"... immortalised set of running trails in beautiful temperate rainforest just an hour's drive from Melbourne....In winter it can be quite daunting to emerge from the car, with the mountain often shrouded in low-lying cloud or misty rain. But that's all part of the adventure. Once you're in the forest and running, who cares about the mud and the rain and the cold! And in summer the forest is a cool, leafy respite from the hot plain below...Once inside the forest and running, you enter another world. Everything becomes much quieter, even your footsteps are hard to hear as you are running on forest detritus for much of the way. The only sounds are those of your lungs sucking up the air and the occasional lyre bird calling out to a mate...If you have arrived with the intention of doing your long run, it is easy to cover 25 kilometres minimum and not retrace your steps over the same trails...Most of the running is along gently undulating trails that wind through the forest, sometimes following mountain creeks and waterfalls. The amazing thing is that you hardly feel you are running uphill at all."

My race experience was phenomenal. The idea of running a marathon through mud, over hills, and up to waterfalls with only about 5k on actual roads was a tad daunting... The event started with a ton of overnight rain and the anticipation of lots of mud. I'd love to say the race began without a hitch but of course the race leaders missed the very first turn and we added an extra hundred meters or so to the course. Starting in last place and having the course take an abrupt U-turn put me in first place, which was nice.

Once we got on course we slipped and slopped through mud

about an inch deep. While concentrating on each step I almost missed the wallaby bounce past us. From miles 5-10 we attacked the rolling hills of the forest climbing about 1000 feet. The park was devastated by a wild fire two years back. But the resiliency of the forest was in full effect, with the brightest, thickest undergrowth I have ever seen. Fern fronds out the wazoo. The bright green undergrowth, the burnt shells of tree trunks and the steady mist left hovering above left an eerie calm over the race. Near the top of the climb we came to a 1/2 mile single track climb up to Keppel Falls. It was well worth the climb.

The next 5 miles were basically downhill. Then 5 hills of muddy rolling hills leaving me only 6 miles to go. I finally stepped onto cement at mile 20 only to immediately start a vicious 2.5 mile climb of about 800 feet. I walked a ton but still passed multiple runners... This climb led to Steavenson Falls (decent photo from 2009 race).

After the falls, I turned around and completed the last few miles back into town. 4 hours and 43 minutes of running fun. Also, a special shout out to Dom, my running friend who I partnered up with around mile 16. The race was much easier to finish with a running partner! And of course a special thanks to Kelly who dragged herself out of bed at 4:30am, tackled the 6 mile waterfall climb race, cheered me on, fell asleep waiting for me to finish and ended the day a fine hue of red.

P.S. Already thinking about a 50km race (first race longer then a marathon) in February.

It ain't called Mt Easy

Go! No go! Go! No go! 2 months of the same debate. Typical corporate world crap. No problem. Except when the debate occurs first thing in the morning, NY time! That's midnight for me, which is sad.

Adam and I hoped to leverage a "free" vacation day around Melbourne Cup Day, on which the entire State of Victoria shuts down for a horse race. We planned a lovely 4-day overnight hiking/camping trip, followed by 2 days of wine tasting, in the Grampians. Of course, my client decided that this was the week of "Go!" After postponing our vacation and Italy's debt blowing up, my client went from Go, to Maybe Go, to Thinking about Going, to Not sure about Going, to No Go. I went from sane, to partially sane, to partially insane, to predominantly insane, to I'll find you $3 Billion myself, leave me the f alone.

We rescheduled an abbreviated version of our vacation for last week, only to have my favorite above-referenced client decide at 5pm the night before our departure to "Go". Luckily for me (and Adam), I have an amazing colleague who offered to help out so we could take our mini-getaway. I kind of guilted her into it by telling her that Adam had already packed "snack-packs" for us! Adam picked me up at the office at 8am after an all-nighter and we finally made the 4 hour drive to begin hiking and wine tasting in the Grampians .

We did a couple shorter hikes Thursday afternoon, then headed to the campsite and settled in for the night. We started our overnight hike up Mt Difficult on Friday morning. I hadn't had much time to put any effort into planning this trip, and given the fact that most parts of Victoria we've seen so far have been fairly flat, I had a notion that a hike up Mt Difficult would be more of a "bush walk" (as they often say here). Not so much.

The first 500 meters or so was a bush walk. Then we came upon a rock wall. I looked around for the yellow arrow trailmarkers to see how we were supposed to get around this rock wall, only to find that we were supposed to scale it. We eventually conquered that and shortly thereafter I traded the big backpack to Adam in exchange for the small pack that he was carrying. About 5 steps later, I took all the water out of the small backpack and added that to the big pack, which had previously only held a couple of sleeping bags (feathers), a couple of pillows (cotton), and a tent (cloth with a few metal poles). Oops, I guess I should have gotten some sleep in advance of this trip.

We continued on, often ascending very steeply, until we encountered an essentially flat section of the trail (relief!) that turned out to be crowded with various boulders, rock formations and crevices (hmm...kinda wishing I never saw the movie "127 Hours"). It turned out to be our favorite part of the hike, trying to figure out whether it made more sense to crawl through the crevice or scramble over the rock formation, risk leaping off a big rock or cautiously sliding down on our butts.

We made it to the Mt Difficult Bush Campsite just as it started to drizzle, dropped our packs and headed for the summit. By the time we scrambled to the top (sans trail), the drizzle had turned into more of a ferocious wind and thunderstorm. We snapped one quick picture and headed back to the campsite.

Lots more stories to tell, just ask away. Here are some ideas if you don't know what to ask about:

Aboriginal Art

Olive Oil

Sparkling Shiraz

Town Hall Film Festival

Kangaroo named Lemon Tree

The Balconies

Waterfalls

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.

Melbourne Marathon

We ran the Melbourne marathon last weekend, 42.195 kilometers of fun (and pain).

Kel:

They'll call me freedom, just like a wavin' flag.

As work had been extremely busy throughout September, my training had really suffered and I was simply hoping to cross the finish line. The race started at the “G” (aka, the MCG, as in the Melbourne Cricket Ground (Australians love to shorten words and use acronyms as much as possible)) at 7am and headed through the CBD (aka, the Central Business District), out to St Kilda (aka, our ‘hood). We turned into Albert Park, a course we’re quite familiar with as it’s a block from our apartment, popped back out in front of our place and headed for an out and back on the beach road. We passed our apartment again around 30k (aka, ~18 miles), and I was quite tempted to call it a day and crawl back into bed. But I persisted and journeyed back to the G. Ks 30 through 38 were extremely difficult, but once I realized I only had 5k left, I put the World Cup theme song (“Wavin' Flag”) on repeat and kicked it into gear while “singing” the lyrics and attracting quite a few odd looks. I crossed the finish line in 4:26:37, 9 whole seconds faster than my previous best time! I hobbled around until Thursday, when my legs finally decided to start working again. I’m still suffering from toenail issues. Gross.

Adam:

Awesome journey but still looking for the destination.

I developed some great friendships with the other runners in my training group. I didn't miss a long run. I banged out my tempo and interval runs. I felt absolutely great and am closing in on my college fitness level (less some fast twitch muscles). The 4 month journey of training gave me plenty of confidence for race day.

On race day I banged out 5:30km like it was my job (3hr 50min pace) for 30km. Spot on for my training, talking to all the other runners, and feeling great. However there were a few warning signs that the final destination of 42km wasn't going to be so easy... 1. A fairly consistent set of 25km gusts blowing the water stations over. 2. Not having enough saliva to eat a cookie waiting for me at the 28km mark. 3. Cramps. Damn you cramps! They seem to own me every marathon. And this race they were especially bad over the last 10km making the final hour of the run (or, in my case, hobble) an ugly mess.

Although I am very disappointed with the "results" of the destination, I am more satisfied with the journey of disciplined training, developing new friendships, and watching Kel cross the finish line with a new PR. I have a few more marathons in these legs and one of these days I'm going to solve those damn cramp issues...

We’re looking forward to tracking Dad, Sis and Damen as they run the Marine Corp Marathon on October 30th. Rest your aches and pains until then and have fun on race day!

Xoxo,

k&af

The 49ers

I know football season just started but don't worry this isn't another fantasy football article on the 49ers. This is about the town of Bendigo, the home of the Australian gold rush. Kelly and I rented another He-on-day (aka a Hyundai) and journeyed two hours north of Melbourne to check out how the Gold Rush town was holding up. Although the gold mines are still open for tourists the main draw for us was the plethora of restaurants focused on locally grown produce and the exhibit at the Art Gallery: The White Wedding Dress: 200 years of Wedding Fashion.

Main street Bendigo is right off a Victorian Colonial style Hollywood movie set including the Court House, Town Hall, Post Office, Bank, and the Local Watering Hole.

After a quick walk through the 1850's and a snack at the local market of fresh bread and olive oil we were off to check out the wedding dresses. Here was my analysis of the exhibit: "Lots of white, crazy long tails, and very uncomfortable looking". Pretty insightful on my part. Here was Kelly's take, which is likely a little more meaningful...

“I’m certainly no fashionista, but I seriously can’t imagine how some of these
dresses were ever stylish. And some of the corsets that women donned back in the day -- their waists would have been less proportional than Barbie! I’ll definitely be taking the more comfortable route with my wedding dress. Some of the “tails” that Adam mentioned above, also known as trains, were quite magnificent and many of the veils were absolutely beautiful. Gwen Stefani’s dress was my favorite; Dita Von Teese’s not so much (she wore it to marry Marilyn Manson, if that says anything). Adam was a good sport and didn’t ask once if I was ready to go yet. I’m looking forward to wedding dress shopping when we’re home in December.”

Me again. After some tasty snacks and a few glasses of wine in town we headed to the outskirts of town where we stayed at a great little winery, Domaine Asmara. We crashed in the 2nd bedroom and enjoyed a nice family style dinner with Andreas, Henni and their son Benjamin. Andreas cracked open a few bottles of wine including their newest not yet released Cab Franc/Cab Sauv mix, which Kelly and I happily

indulged. Great wine is the perfect way to carbo-load as Kelly ran an awesome 20 miler the next morning!

Sunday was filled with two ridiculously fresh meals split by a visit to Australia's oldest working pottery. Kel and I spent some time on the throwing wheel crafting a cup and a bowl. After they are glazed and fired we'll have some home made mementos from our great little weekend in Bendigo.

Love

Adam and Kelly

PS Spring has sprung.

Everyone Counts

Australians only seem to take a few things seriously:

1. Sport: Aussie Rules Football and Rugby

2. Chucking Sickies: Using sick days to chill on the beach

3. Food: Beetroot on burgers, throwing a shrimp on the barbie (they actually do that, but Foster's is not Australian for Beer), and meat pies

4. Utes: The front is like a car, the back is like a truck, the front is where you drive, the back is where you...

5. The Idea of Surfing: They love to talk about it, drink in the parking lot and watch it, but not many seem to actually know how to surf

And one that I was not expecting: The Census

You need to scream, shout and beg to get any waiter service at a restaurant but if the thought of the census even creeps into your head then the "Census Guy" just magically appears at your door. He has visited the apartment at least 10 times over the last 3 weeks dropping off forms, reminding us to fill them out, attempting to collect the forms (multiple times) and warning us of the hefty fine if we failed to hand it in ($110/day fine starting Sept 1 if you fail to submit it). With the threat of the fine, Kelly and I officially became Australian "statistics" as we submitted our form yesterday and hopefully never have to hear from the Census Guy again.

So unlike New York City, which claimed to have missed at least 50,000 people in the 2010 census costing them desperately needed federal funds (suckers) everyone counts Down Under.