Dashes to Ashes

Right, Thursday. big news of the day was that I was off to see day 4 of the 5th Ashes test. Which meant a slightly earlier and reversed dog walk (wanted to make sure I could still get a coffee) then a quick change into my running gear. Plan was to head to the city, drop my backpack at the office then do half of the Sydney Half Marathon course plus a bit. Target distance was a half, then I'd shower and head to the game.

Hit the road at just after 6:45 and made it to the Bridge in about 24mins, which is maybe a little slower than usual, probably because I had my clothes in a backpack. Being a bit dim, I'd forgotten to take a change of clothes to work on Wednesday when I'd got the bus to work. As I got to the middle of the Bridge span a huge grin broke out on my face as I looked out over a shimmering Harbour, the sun hitting the water in a particularly picturesque way that I did not stop to take a picture of. Continuing the dim theme I added an extra 1.5k to my pre-drop-bag-off leg. The method to my madness was that if I added a bit before doing half-the-half I'd need to add less to the end when I'd likely be feeling a bit shit. I hugged the waterline, dropped my bag in the change room at work that is in the car park and therefore meant my stop was no longer than I sometimes stop at red traffic lights. No rest for the wicked.

The next leg as the 10k-ish that is one loop of the half course. By doing a known distance I figured I could switch off a bit, not bothering about keeping track of distance. I made surprisingly good pace considering I was sweating my arse off and fuelled only by a banana and a cappucino. Should really have grabbed a Gatorade. My first leg had been about 9.1km so I was looking at a little under 20 by the time I finished the loop. I'd need to find another 1.5km to reach target distance. I toyed with a few ideas before settling upon the idea of finishing on the flat Barangeroo wharf where I would attempt to draw a cock with my GPS track. Juvenile though this might be, it is still very funny. I wish I could say it was my idea, but alas it is not. Sadly my effort is not up to the standard I feel is needed to enter my cock on GPSCocks.com.

I was feeling a bit woosy at the end, then got a message from James saying he'd made good time to get to the Sydney Cricket Ground early, so I had a shower and headed over to get a bus, starving hungry but happy to have more runs on the board.

Anyone want to read a little bit about my day at the cricket? Yes? No? Oh, alright then.

Arrived at the ground just before 10, which was handy as play started 30mins early, at 10 and not 10:30 as advertised. Sitting in Bay 12 we were right in front of a bar and next to the Barmy Army. Perfect. Grabbed a beer, a pie and a crunchie for breakfast. Right, rather than expose my relative ignorance of all things cricket, here are the things that stick in my somewhat beery mind.

The Barmy Army seems to comprise largely of football fans and a lot of the songs are rehashes of old favourites. There are, however, some notable additions. I do like the rousing chorus of God Save the Queen that is tailored for the Aussies with "...long to reign over YOU, God save YOUR queen." Clarke took some stick with "you're just a shit Ricky Ponting, shit Ricky Pon-ting, you're just a shit..." and to the same tune "sacked in the morning, you're getting sacked in the morning."

Mitchell Johnson had a day I'm sure he'd like to forget. "He bowls to the left, he bowls to the right, that Mitchell Johnson, his bowling is shite!" And then it got a bit surreal as Mitch came out to bat. Other than "Aussie! Aussie! Aussie! Oi! Oi! Oi!" there are no songs from the Aussies, something the English point out with frequent chants of "one song, you've only got one song, you've only got one song..." So, as Johnson came out to bat there were a few bars of "shall we sing a song for you" and then "super, super Mitch, super, super Mitch, super, super Mitch, super Michell Johnson!" Out first ball, I damn near wet myself laughing as he trudged off to more "he bowls to the left..." Shame Tremlett, who had taken Haddin with the previous ball, didn't get his hat trick. I had consumed a reasonable quantity of carbohydrate sports drink (ahem...) by then. I know you're not supposed to say it but...there is something very funny about a dwarf standing on his seat chanting "stand up for the En-ger-land!"

Other things of note. The Australian bowling was simply awful. No sense of direction, urgency, just poor. Prior looks like Jason Stratham, and I think Stratham should play Prior in "Ashes - The Movie." A run out (the 4th of the series and all Australian) brilliantly executed by batsmen number 1 and 2? Come on, what on earth is that all about? Pity we couldn't finish the job in extra half an hour of play, but whatever, I was there to see England win the Ashes in Sydney. All in all, not a bad day's work.

And that will be it for my cricket review. If you're English then buy the highlights DVD and if you're Australain don't. Unless you need some instruction. Back on the exercise thing; had pizza for dinner. It sat on top of my meat pie, crunchie, 2 sausage rolls, bags of crisps and several fucking awful VB Mid strength, aka Mexican Cat Piss. I did have a banana and an apple, so it wasn't all bad, just mostly. After the excitement and exertion of the day I finished up feeling really rather seedy. But happy.

Day six done.