heartbreak my butt

I had a pre-City to Surf hit-out today. Figured it was about time I did some serious hill runs because the C2S has the "legendary" Heartbreak Hill. Maybe it is because I've run a few trails now but maybe it is because the hill was nicknamed by someone who lived almost entirely on the flat, but the hill was not at all bad. I decided yesterday to run the City to Surf course from the City (dur) to Bondi. It is 14km. I ran it form home and added some to the end as I finished at Mara's flat where I could have a shower. Anyway, cutting to the chase, despite stopping once to buy a drink and once to have a quick poo, despite having to run on pavement and not the course's closed roads and despite having a small backpack on I managed a creditable 67mintes. I was a little concerned about my prospective time because I requested, and got, a start in the preferred runners first wave. You need a previous C2S of 75min or under to get a spot and I got mine on the strength of my Sydney Half Marathon time. Anyway, I was pleased.

The weather was lovely. Clear and chilly to start, temperature maybe nine degrees. Hardly a breath of wind. Perfect for running. Bondi was lovely when I got there. A nice wave, not too crowded. I stopped for only a couple of minutes, but half way up the hill that is Bondi Road I was wishing I'd stopped a while longer. Anyway, I finished the run at Queens park at a shade over 28km in around 2:25. Not a bad hit out. I stretched and searched without success for a cache that is (well) hidden in the park, then caught up with Sal and Mara for breakfast (I had three) and a failed attempt at anther cache. Good job I found one later in the afternoon...

Right, that's it for today. Diving tomorrow morning, so I should have some more to report...

time flies when you're having fun

Or not. Unsure what happened with this week, but it has passed and here is another Sunday. Work continues to suck and there are a number of us thinking we are subject to some trial-by-boredom, while others await each decree from the mother ship, fairly sure it will be even more barmy than the last. I find myself with an arse-cheek in both camps. But the rivers still flow and the sun still rises and it could be a whole lot worse.

To enliven the week I searched out more caches, looking on the way from and to work and on my lunch time runs. I managed to find a few, knocking off pretty well all but one of those I pass when going door-to-door. Said it before and I'll say it again, geeky fun.

Saturday was an unmitigated cache hunting disaster in an otherwise ordinary day. Neither Sal nor I got much sleep on Friday night. We were staying on the NSW Central Coast, at the in-laws home, ad we were under strict instructions to not allow the dogs inside the house. Rumpoe made his howling displeasure known regularly through the night. I was knackered by day break, Sal was knackered and ropeable. To allow her time to get a few more hours sleep I took Rowlf for a long walk.

A very long walk. He is almost a year old, and although I am not running with him yet I am starting to up the distances we walk. Yesterday I was planning to run across the Ridgeway as a warm up for the City to Surf. Instead I walked the big lump. By the time we got to Terrigal he was nowhere near knackered.

That despite the distance being a little over 18km. So after a quick coffee we headed for the beach, Sal and Rumpole having joined us, and we went for a swim.

Yesterday was the shortest day of the year here in the south. Winter. Every so often you need to be told something like that. When you see blue skies and me with my shirt off on a beach you may not work it out. Winter indeed! It was a little parky this morning, but winter is a bit tame here.

Another boring post, I should come back when I've got something to moan about. Best clarify my cache-hunting disaster mention. I only failed to find one that I looked for. Up on top of the Skillion in Terrigal. The disappointment was tempered by seeing a whole load of whales. They were on the annual northerly migration, but a bit too far from each other for me to call it a pod; I have no idea how far apart whales can be spaced and yet still regarded as a pod. Nor if there is a minimum number to be a pod. So maybe it was a pod..anyway, I failed to find that cache, but it was a bit busy and I had Rowlf who does draw a crowd.

Earlier, crossing the Ridgeway, we had passed 'No Dogs' signs that kept me from hunting for another couple...though the signs were not what stopped me entereing the Kantanda Reserve. No, I stopped because there was a large lsatian up ahead and no owner to be seen. And very early I failed to look for one in Niagara Park that is on a railway station (I think) because there was someone waiting for a train. I could have gone back later, but after failing to into the in-laws house upon our return (they are away, our keys spontaneously stopped working) we headed home.

I do, actually, have somethign to moan about. Central Coast dog owners, at least those living along the route I walked yesterday, are an iffy bunch of dog owners. I guess they have a different worliew to us townies. No footpaths means no dog walkers which means your dog is likely to stay on your large property. Of course this all falls to bits when a dog walker does walk past, as I did yesterday. Several dogs ran out from open gates, some into and some across a road that people hammer over. Luckily there were no fatalities, and double luckily I am probably the only person likely to do the Ridgeway walk...but dog ownership 101 says you have a secure, fenced property. If you are on an acreage, at least make sure you have the road facing gate fenced...fairly minor whinge really.

I could whinge more about the tight stomach I suffered last night or the gastro it became this morning. Bu it is neither interesting nor gross enough to make good reading, so I'll go back to sulking on the sofa.

I suppose it had to happen

At last a run that I am not happy with. OK, if I think a little more rationally - which I will - it was still a decent effort. However, I was hoping to dip under 40mins for today's 10km MiniMos and came in at 40:52. So the numbers piss me of. However, it is a tough, hilly course and the wind was howling, so it was not going to be the best it could be. Still, I'd like to see my finish-time start with a 3 for the 10km.

I briefly met Simmo before the race. Simmo is a trithlete and the 10km is about the longest run he does, wheres it is the shortest I typically do. So I'm not surprised I came in ahead of him by a few minutes because he would, I am sure, hammer me on the bike and in the water. We had a quick hello and I headed off to stay warm as the southerlies were a bit chilly and I was in my running gear with 25mins before the gun. I saw Simmo again as he came home, but I was skulking off to my car as he was finishing, in no mood to have much of a chat. And besides, Sal could need the car, so I gave her a quick call.

I managed to wake Sal and she made no sense as she mumbled something at me. Well, she made a little sense, and that little was 'I am going to stay in bed, seeya later.' So I decided to see if I could find some more geocaches. Yesterday I managed to find two; one in the morning and one in th afternoon. Rumpole was booked in to be groomed (not in the internet sense) and there is one in a park that is within easy walking distance of the vet. So I went and grabbed that one with Rowlf after dropping Rumpole off. Then, after cutting the lawns in a brief period of dryness, I took Rowlf for a seond walk and a second find. On that walk I also failed to find a third. It's called 'still the one' and is a renowned bastard to find.

In fact yesterday Rowlf had a lot of walking. A lot. All up we must have walked about 15km, though not in one whack. At one point we stopped for breakfast and met Sal who had gone and bought some new toys for the boys. One of the toys was the 'Everlasting Treat Ball.' This toy, the shop assistant had assured Sal, was keeping her lab and staffie occupied after days. Days! after around one minute Rowlf had removed the treat from it's everlasting carrier. I replaced it. He got it out again. I replaced it, this time upside down, apparently trickier. Apparently not. After fifteen minutes the treat was gone. Beating Rowlf is the gold standard in chew toys. Few manage it. So he had a big day, but that was yesterday. Back to today.

I thought I'd saved the GPS co-ordinates of one particular cache but hadn't so I am not surprised I did not find that one. But I had saved the numbers for two others and managed to nail them both, the first one remarkably quickly. Both are in Cremorne, or thereabouts, in green areas in otherwise built up areas. Very nice. Sal called just before I found the second one, and it was time to head back home. She needed the car to get to the shops in order to buy replacement bras;replacements for the ones my dog has destroyed. Not funny. Well, maybe a bit funny.

OK, so I had to have another look...

I found another one of those cache things this morning. Film cannister hidden just back from another park I walk Rowlf in. Two down.

geochaching

I am not sure I have the patience or attention span to get particularly excited about Geocaching. However, it is at the moment, taking a fair bit of my attention. To be fair, in that respect it is filling the void left by work which has lost whatever ability it had to inspire. And I am not alone in that. My office is a motivation-free zone right now. Anyway, back to geocaching.

You can read all about it here but in the nutshell it is an online community of folks that hide stuff and post the GPS co-ordinates of their caches on that website. The cache will have, as a minimum, a logbook and often cheap and cheerful treasure to swap with fellow hunters. And that is it. You log your finds online. Kinda like a scavenger hunt. Only with satellite navigation.

scatrd and Mrs. scatrd go a-hunting and told me about this a while ago, before I owned a GPS. Fast forward to Monday-last and I was home alone as Sal had gone interstate to visit her sister. For reasons that escape me I logged onto the geocaching site to discover one in a park I regularly walk Rowlf in. And I could download the co-ordinates to my GPS. Hell, why not?

For the record, the answer to that question is because I should have been on a coastal cliff looking for whales. But I forgot about that, was bored and hence...

This gave me a perfect opportunity to explore some extra features of my Garmin 305 (it is a fantastic gizmo) and that is what I did. I downloaded the location, grabbed the dog and went off to find the cache. A fairly easy challenge and it took me only a short while of wandering back on forth as my GPS told me I was on top of the cache..no, it's over there...no there...no, right here...

I felt like an excited kid when I found it, filled with the sense of achievement work fails miserably to provide. I phoned scatrd - at home getting over a bout of iritis (I know what that is like, luckily once for me though) - and had a natter before heading off in the rain to fnd some food. At that time I wished I'd downloaded a few other locations. As the drizzle came down I was happy to be undercover hough. Thanks again to JR, aka scatrd for introducing me to this.

Since then I've been looking for the locations of other local caches and have had a go at finding three, failing on all counts. In my defence, I've looked for one at night and one in the morning beore it got light and both of those times I was walking Rowlf. I looked for another at lunch time today while out running, but I was pushed for time and there was a muggle about. Yes, a muggle...

And here I introduce my bigget problem with geocaching. The term 'muggle' refers to a non-caching passer-by from who the location of the cache is kept secret for fear of it being 'muggled', or stolen/removed/abused. I think it is the word that leaves me feeling uneasy; all a bit Harry Potter isn't it?

So, my jury out, I am fairly sure I will go out now and again to hunt caches when I have nothing better to do. I want to discover the ones I have had a brief hunt for; unfinished business. So you may read more about this pastime here. But you might not.