Stormtroopers and Leopard Print Jocks.

Ran Melbourne today.
My first 10km fun run.

Up early.
Cut toe nails.
Taped feet.
Called switch to transfer the on-call to my boss*.
Quick bite to eat.
Rugged up warm for the walk down there.
Beanie. Two jumpers. Long pants.
Up to St.Kilda road for the start.
Said goodbye to J who headed off to take photos of the top runners and some of the crazy costumes.
Waited, freezing, in shorts and t-shirt for a number of waves of faster runners before it was finally my turn to start.
Traffic jam at the start - slow out, looking for gaps in the crowd to dart past people.
Once out of the crush, ran the first few kilometres a fair bit faster than expected.
Blisters by the third kilometre.
Hill on the fourth kilometre.
Paid for the fast start on the middle section.
Pushed on.
Lots of other runners and course entertainment to distract from the pain...
Eventually at the 8km mark.
Could see what I thought was the last hill.
Over that.
Round the next corner to see...
...yes, another hill.
Bastards.
Made it up that.
Quite a crowd at the top cheering everyone on.
Pretty happy to hear them yell out that there was only 400m until the finish line.
Short downhill stretch.
Token sprint at the end.
Didn't remember to stop my watch right at the finish.
Said 55.30 when I looked at it, so think I probably finished in about 54 minutes.
Pretty chuffed.
Aiming for under an hour, so certainly did that.
And have a medal to show for it. ;)
Tough run... but I'll probably do another one in a few months...
Glad of the free Powerade at the end.
Found J.
Walked home.
Shower.
Big lunch.
On-call transferred back to me.
Apparently quiet morning at work and, so far, nothing lined up for the afternoon.
Hopefully it stays that way as I'm planning an afternoon nap...
Evening dinner plans cancelled as Joey and Stevie Babes are sick.
Boo!
Stop coughing, get better!

Work-dependent, I might put up my holiday backblips later today. Check back...

Today's photo is of me, red-faced, not far from the finish. Thanks J, for taking the shot.

Edit: have started on the backblips of our Kimberley Road Trip. Not all up yet, but they start here. Crocs, strippers, Bungles and sunsets so far...


*Very nice boss.