Racing around the world

Trip highlights. Last blog entry - thanks for reading!!

2010-04-28T16:42:00.000+01:00

Six months have finally come to an end. We always knew this day would come. It is somewhat inevitable. If there is anything that is constant in life, it is knowing that time will keep marching on no matter what (some Physicists won’t agree with me, but those geeks can shut it!).

When we first boarded our flight to Australia and left a tearful Tina and Rhona (Andrea’s mum and aunt) to begin our trip six months ago, the end of our trip in Las Vegas seemed like such a long time away. But six months isn’t very long, just think back to what you were doing six months ago and you quickly realise that time goes by really fast. It won’t be long until we are saying it was six months ago that we got back to the UK! It means that you have to appreciate every hour of every day and not wish away any moment and I think that is what we have done. It has been the trip of a lifetime and neither of us would change anything. It has been great to spend so much time together and travel around seeing some beautiful parts of the world and meeting some great people. We both feel very blessed. We know that not everyone gets that chance. Travelling isn’t some divine right and we both know that we have been very lucky!

So we have tried to pick out some highlights from our six month stint. There have been so many great things it is really hard to pick them out. We have also tried to put them into some sort of order - we know it’s a bit cheesy - based on nothing more than what we enjoyed the most or what sticks out in our minds (very subjective we know). So before we catch our flight in around 4 hours we’ll do a final countdown of our top 10 trip highlights:

10, Falls Creek. Three weeks into our trip we stopped at this beautiful little mountain resort in New South Wales. The views were amazing, the walks breath-taking and the Viking Lodge totally deserted - always a bonus.

9, Death Valley. What an incredible national park that is. The desert is totally different to anything in the UK. Seeing Badwater and getting to run up and down sand dunes was awesome fun. A must-see to anyone in the area.

8, Penguin Parade. I initially wasn’t too bothered about going to this, but on a cold night on Australia’s south coast, we saw thousands of adorable penguins making the run up the beach to their burrows. There is something really cool about seeing nature at work without mans involvement. Andrea wanted to take one of the penguins back, but after warning her that they eat smelly fish I quickly put her off.

7, Sydney Olympic Park. This is definitely more one for the geeks. Being massive fans of the Olympics, anything with the word Olympic in it, definitely has the thumbs up from us. We were lucky enough to actually stay here twice and properly explore the park. Hopefully it won’t be our last experience of Olympic Parks!! Watch this space ;).

6, Flagstaff. Our second stay at altitude of the trip. We saw some beautiful scenery including the grand canyon and the red rocks of Sedona and met some fantastic people. You guys are always welcome to stay with us!! Please come visit.

5, Universal Studios. The Simpsons, Jurassic Park, Shrek, the Mummy. So many great rides. We had an absolute blast for two days. Thankfully the queues weren’t that long either!!

4, Broken Hill. Only a week into our trip we visited this oasis in the middle of the outback. No towns or villages for 150miles before we arrived, it is literally in the middle of nowhere, but somehow people survive and they even have McDonalds and the internet! There were some amazing views and great wildlife, more kangaroos than you could shake a stick at!!

3, Blue Mountains. This is what we needed just three days into our trip. A few wobbles at the beginning of the trip were quickly dispelled with the incredible views of the blue mountain rainforest. Top that off with getting within a meter of one of the worlds most deadly snakes, it really was an incredible place.

2, KiwiRun. Words cannot describe how much fun we had on the North island of New Zealand. Fantastic places, great food and even better people. Steve, Richard, Craig, Hayden, Charlotte, Nick and Sierra we thank you all for putting so much effort into two fantastic weeks.

1, Andrea winning the New Zealand 10000m Championships. Neither of us wanted to put a running moment as our top highlight of the trip. It didn’t seem quite right as you can literally run anywhere, what is so special about a race in New Zealand? However on that night in New Zealand something changed for both of us, not only was the race a 2minute PB over the distance of 10000m on the track, but we both felt that Andrea finally ran a race which did justice to her current ability. A sort of realisation dawned on us that there are greater possibilities than we had initially thought. After working together on Andrea’s running for around 15months this was a big highlight for us. Hopefully just the start, but as I have said before it is important to appreciate what has passed. There are no certainties in running (and in life!) and this may be as good as it gets. Fortunately we have been lucky enough to enjoy this fantastic but brief moment and it is something that we will remember for a long long time.

Lastly we have to thank everyone at home (and around the world) for reading the blog and being a part of the trip. Six months is a long time to not see your family and friends, it is always great to read the comments and it makes people seem not so far away (what a great tool blogger is!!). Thanks to you all and we look forward to seeing you over the coming weeks and months.

Over and out.

Chrissy & Andrea

Vegas

2010-04-27T21:33:00.003+01:00

Sin city!

It’s been a fun few days and certainly very eye-opening. Neither myself or Andrea have ever been to a place like it, perhaps because there isn’t anywhere in the world like it! Our hotel is the Riviera, at the north end of the strip. It is one of the best places we have stayed in on our trip - its great to have our last few days here. The hotel has lots of amenities including many restaurants and shops, a pool area (where fat people get a tan), a wedding chapel (with an Elvis impersonator - of course!!) and a huge casino (which is busy whether it’s 6am or 6pm) taking up most of the ground floor.

The strip is an interesting place, we haven’t walked that far down it as its 3miles long, although we have explored some of the casinos around us. There is Circus Circus, which has free circus acts playing most of the day, Treasure Island, which has a few pirate themed shows in the evening involving scantily clad women and men with their shirts off (sex sells), and also Wynn, one of the newest and poshest casinos in town, which has some blackjack tables with a minimum buy-in of $500 per game! Mental!

Our end of the strip is more our scene. We have managed to find a place which sells really cheap drinks and also found some fun slot machines which allow for 3p bets. So far we are about $14 down (as expected - the odds are all in the house’s favour), but we don’t think that is too bad for two days of entertainment!

So far we have had a great time here. Tonight is our last night in Vegas before our flights back to the UK tomorrow. We’re still deciding how to celebrate the end of our trip - perhaps we will graduate from the slot machines to a blackjack table - or perhaps not, it‘s more expensive when you lose!

So this is the penultimate blog post from us, expect only one more before we see you all back in the UK !!

The view from our window

The Calm before the Storm

2010-04-24T14:09:00.002+01:00

We have really enjoyed our stay in Flagstaff. It has been great to have some home comforts after a month of motels and microwave meals. There are only so many different ways you can cook noodles and rice!! We have met some great people and managed to explore the town in case Andrea gets a chance to come training here next year without me. Hopefully if things go well she will do.

One of the main purposes of coming up here was to suss out quite a few of the training options available to runners. It has been really good, there are quite a few people around to point us in the right direction and so we have been to different trails and routes every day. Supposedly we haven’t even scratched the surface. There are even some good trails which open up in the summer which some adventurous runners can go on and reach peaks of 10000ft altitude. Not for the faint hearted (more for the light headed)! It really is a great town for cyclists, runners and walkers alike. We love it here!

So in less than a week we are back in UK. The volcano ash seems to have cleared and hopefully we’ll get home without any problems - we really don’t want to spend more time than we have to in Los Angeles airport!

We have one more day here in Flagstaff before heading to our final destination of Las Vegas for three days. Time to win all of our money back!

So is it red or black? What do you reckon??

Andrea has a plan to take little Cody with her. I'd keep an eye on her Alicia!!

Grand Canyon

2010-04-21T15:22:00.002+01:00

Today was our eagerly anticipated visit to the Grand Canyon. Less than two hours drive away from where we are staying in Flagstaff, we took the opportunity to visit one of the seven natural wonders of the world and we weren’t disappointed - despite me learning that the Grand Canyon is infact a completely different place to the Rocky Mountains - an illusion I have been entertaining for quite some time.

We arrived at the visitor centre and made our plans for the day, which included walking from one end of the ‘Rim Trail’ to the other (about 3 miles) along the South Rim, and then succumbing to being an American tourist and hopping on the free shuttle bus back to our parked car.

From the car park we couldn’t see a thing - nothing remotely canyon-esque, but this quite excited Chris who was predicting a big wow moment every time we emerged from behind a building or a tree. Despite the noisy construction work taking place directly behind us, the first glimpse we got of the canyon was pretty spectacular, and we spent some time taking photos of the painted picture like view into the canyon. Surprised a little by how high up we were, we also noticed that all perspective on distance was lost, and had it not been for information gleened from wikipedia earlier on in the week, we wouldn’t have know if it was a mile or three hundred miles across to the other side of the canyon (it is in fact around 16km average).

After waiting almost in line to get the typical photo with the canyon behind you, we carried on with our walk. We were a little disappointed that there were so many people getting in our way. One has this image of visiting somewhere like this and being the only people there, but everyone seemed to have the same idea as us. Fortunately most of the tourists evidently preferred the shuttle bus in both directions and once we neared the middle section of our walk, the crowds thinned out significantly and we were able to saunter along in peace.

It was a pleasant walk but neither of us felt we were really seeing a different view, and not having the proper equipment to take a hike into the canyon itself, we then headed back. No skywalk glass floor for us today after we learnt it is over 250 miles away from where we were and closer to Las Vegas. Never mind, I’m still recovering from the Jurassic Park ride t Universal Studios anyway.

Chris standing in front of a painting

Spectacular - it doesn't look real does it??

Flagstaff

2010-04-19T18:51:00.005+01:00

We have been in Flagstaff now for almost two days. After an eight hour drive (that is nothing these days) east from Walnut we arrived in Flagstaff around 3pm. Flagstaff is really nice and is one of the prettiest places we have been to so far in the US. It is like living in a forest, there are tall trees and parks wherever you look and the town is serviced by hundreds of miles of trails - a reminder of the towns logging history - which weave in and out of the forest into parks and joining up with the residential parts of town. Oh yeah and it’s at 7000 feet altitude, making it the highest elevation place we have ever been to!!

That is the main reason why we are here. Flagstaff has become a haven for distance runners. Not only because of the altitude (which elite distance runners have been using for years to attain higher fitness levels) but because of the amazing network of trails around the town. We are only here for 8 days, not long enough to benefit from the stimulus of altitude, but long enough to work out the trails and best places to train for future trips. Plus we are staying in a house of runners so hopefully we’ll get some good advice!!

Yesterday we went to Sedona, which is a couple of thousand feet lower than Flagstaff and descends into the red rock canyons. We were blown away by some of the views and amazing rock formations, which line the drive. Sedona itself is a tourist haven and has many gift shops, which actually have some really cool stuff; lots of native American artefacts and artwork. Damn us having no luggage allowance left for our flights!!

Today we are going to check out downtown Flagstaff itself and maybe catch a movie (it’s a hard life), before checking out some of the other natural wonders in the area. A trip to Grand Canyon awaits!!

Aaaahhhh! Alicia's (our hosts) cute little pug.

A view of the red rocks from Sedona village

Walking some of the trails around Sedona

Mt SAC Relays

2010-04-18T17:11:00.003+01:00

At the end of last year Chris could be heard bragging that he hadn’t been to watch an athletics event all year. If he hadn’t already, our 2 days at Mt Sac Relays in Walnut more than made up for it.

The Mt Sac relays is basically an open athletics meeting. However it attracts some of the best athletes from across America aswell as many elite foreign athletes. Despite my withdrawal from the competition we decided to attend for the first two days to watch.

One of the main differences between this race and anything we get in the UK is the depth of the races. This means that rather than having a 5000m and a 10,000m for men and women, we sat through a total of six 10,000m races and eight 5000m races, each with around 30+ athletes in. It might sound comparable to watching some paint dry but for true athletics geeks like us it was great and we loved every minute. There were some great personal bests by some of the British athletes as well to boot.

After two days and 15 hours of athletics action (including an 11 hour stint on Friday) we felt pretty exhausted. The Mt Sac relays do in fact go on for another day on the Saturday, however we are heading to altitude in Arizona for a stint of training. In less than two weeks we return to the UK and events like Mt Sac relays and the Stanford Invitational will seem like miles away. We wish all athletics meets could be as enthusiastic and entertaining as this one...

Beginning to get busy at the Mt San Antonio College Track

Palm Springs

2010-04-15T17:48:00.001+01:00

The 150th blog post! I’m glad you're still here!!

We had heard that Palm Springs was meant to be a nice, so took our opportunity to visit as we are based less than an hour away. So far we have had mixed opinions on US towns and cities and were wondering whether a trip to “LA’s retirement village” would possibly change that. One interesting fact about Palm Springs is that it has over 100 golf courses to satisfy its 40,000 strong population. Crazy!

When we arrived we thought it would be a good idea to drive randomly around the town to get a feel for it and inevitably got lost. As we drove aimlessly around the town we both thought it looked pretty; palm tree lined boulevards and grass on some of the sidewalks (yes we know, some Americans do actually know what grass is!) We ended up stumbling upon, what we would consider, the most European style recreation area we have seen since coming to the US. It was really nice and on a gloriously hot day we had our lunch there and basked in the sunshine for a couple of hours. We then had a wander around downtown Palm Springs, stopping at a café, before heading back to Joshua Tree.

Tomorrow we are heading to Walnut California to watch the Mt Sac relays. I’m hoping that Andrea won’t get too depressed as she was hoping to do this event, but all it means is that she gets to race more over the summer in the UK! And after the success of this blog, I’m sure she’s going to have hundreds of adoring fans lining the sidelines for her, chanting her name, when she makes her return! ;)

Joshua Tree National Park

2010-04-14T16:40:00.004+01:00

Before today, I thought that Joshua Tree was a rather random name for a national park. I wondered if it had maybe been named after someone. A Mr J. Tree. Perhaps a quite unfortunate name if there ever was one. It never once occurred to me that it was named this because of the type (and one of the only types) of tree that inhabit the park. The tree is called, yep you guessed it - the Joshua Tree.

The Joshua Tree

So as you can imagine, a large portion of the day was spent trying to get the perfect photo of a Joshua Tree. Tricky considering the number of things out to ‘get us’ and distract us from our mission. Kangaroo rats (we think), pheasant-y type birds, humongous beetles, prickly cacti and of course a large number of lizards - each demanding a portion of our time, attention and roll of camera film. Even the large, boulders and rocks that are scattered across the park - weathered into weird shapes and sizes - hindered us. Each cried out to be climbed or hopped across - or indeed to be sat on by a new lizard - one which we had not seen before so requiring excessive photographing and cataloguing by explorer Chris and his willing helper.

Joshua Tree National Park

Interesting rock formation

Lizard number 1

Lizard number 2

And so the day was spent in such fashion. We visited four or five different ‘points of interest’ in the Park and took a stupid number of photos. By the third stopping point Chris announced he didn’t need any more photos of cacti and we had to stop by the side of the road for a 20min sleep we were so exhausted. Nearing the end of the day, hope was beginning to fade of finding the elusive snake. I was devastated by this as you can imagine. Infact I celebrated with a rather large glass of Root beer upon our return to the motel and put my feet up (with a bag of ice) whilst Chris, dissatisfied with the days efforts decided to go out on the bike.

All in all a good day. Whilst the park was great, it was a little less spectacular than Yosemite or Death Valley national parks (sorry Mr Tree), however our furry and scaly friends more than made up for it.

Into the Desert

2010-04-13T15:51:00.003+01:00

Today we left the sanctity and safety of city life and drove from Oceanside on the Californian coast into the South-Western Sierra Nevada to the small town of Joshua Tree. This is where our base is for the next few days while we visit Joshua Tree National Park (which is 10 minutes drive away) and the town of Palm Springs - where many of America’s rich retire to.

The town of Joshua Tree itself consists of not much more than a main road, a few motels and a few hundred houses. It seems that a whole industry has developed in the town to service the national park which is right next door. When we arrived in Joshua Tree we took a walk up one of the mountains just behind our motel to check out the landscape. We enjoy staying in the desert, partly because of its incredible beauty and also partly because there are not many people. It almost feels like we are discovering something new or at least seeing something that very few people in the world do.

Below is a photo of Joshua Tree and the mountains of the national park behind. We are both looking forward to visiting the national park tomorrow after our fantastic experiences in the last two. Bring it on…

The town of Joshua Tree when looking towards the mountains of the national park

Carlsbad 5000m

2010-04-12T16:49:00.003+01:00

The main reason we were staying in Oceanside was so that we could watch the “world’s fastest 5000” road race in neighbouring Carlsbad. We were up early as the festival of running started early - the masters races began at 7:05am!!

When we arrived in Carlsbad most of the roads were shut off and there was a party atmosphere - live music, beer drinking and lots of stalls, oh yeah and some races going on. There were quite a few mass-participation races before the elite races got going and we enjoyed watching some gritted teeth, fancy dress and sprint finishes (which turn into walks by the finish line).

Unfortunately as the morning went on the wind picked up and by the time the elite races got going there was a gale blowing and any chances of course records (which also happen to be world records) went out the window. Despite the hard conditions the races were still strong and the men’s and women’s races were won by Eliud Kipchoge (two time Olympic medallist) and Meseret Defar (two time Olympic champion) respectively.

It was interesting to see how the races were organised and note differences between those in the UK and those we have seen here. There isn’t too much difference, although we particularly liked the idea that race participants were able to enjoy two free beers after the races in an open air bar!! UK race directors take note please. We like that idea a lot!!

Elite women getting on their way

Injury Woes :(

2010-04-11T16:58:00.003+01:00

Bidding our farewells to Los Angeles (at least for four days anyway) today we were travelling about 80 miles south to a small town called Oceanside. I say 80 miles, but whether or not it was further or much closer I don’t know, in fact does anyone know where Los Angeles stops and other towns and cities start? It seemed as though we had only shortly got out of a built up area and then we had arrived at our next destination.

Oceanside is a small coastal town only forty miles north of San Diego. Despite it being a pretty little town with a busy beach, our primary reason for stopping here was to enable us to watch the Carlsbad 5km road race tomorrow - which is boasted to be the fastest 5km race in the world and attracts a high quality elite field. Oceanside is staggering distance from Carlsbad so it seemed a sensible choice.

An obliging pelican sitting on the pier overlooking Oceanside

We also bring some bad news today (and it isn’t that we are home in just two and a half weeks, although that is, granted, a pretty scary thought). Due to a niggling foot injury, coach Chris and myself have made the decision to pull out of the race next Friday, the Mt Sac Relays, and the race which I was most looking forward to. It’s gutting, but we’re hopeful the injury is not serious and that a few days of rest should take care of it. It also means that my target of reaching 2000 miles run in the duration of the trip is in serious jeopardy so fingers crossed I’ll be back on the training in the next few days…. In the meantime, it’s spectating for me and a few days of feeling like a blob!

Andrea

Universal Studios

2010-04-09T15:30:00.003+01:00

Wow, what a two days!

We wanted to do one of California’s big theme parks, Disneyland and Universal Studios Theme Park were two we had in mind, both were expensive but a “two days for the price of one” deal at Universal Studio’s Hollywood made our decision for us. For those who are unsure Universal Studios Theme Park is a theme park owned by Universal Studios, who make attractions which have themes from their movies.

The great thing about Universal Studios is that it literally has something for everyone. There are interactive shows on the production of Universal films including shows on ‘special effects’ and the ‘animal actors’ used in their films, while there are also more lavish productions with ‘real’ actors. There are also a few conventional rollercoaster’s for the greater thrill-seekers.

We ended up doing everything and some things more than once. Andrea surprised herself by even doing the rollercoaster rides. She has a bit of fear for this stuff, but in the end did actually really enjoy some of the scarier rides.

Out of the dozen or so attractions that we went to there was not a single one that we didn’t enjoy. In fact we enjoyed all of them. Our particular favourites were the Shrek 4D ride, Jurassic Park (Andrea’s favourite) and the Simpsons ride (my favourite).

We definitely have a bit more of a taste for theme parks. Andrea even says that she has lost a bit of her fear!! Our aim now is to get a Universal Studios franchise to open in the UK, care to sign our petition below??

Proof that we really are in Hollywood

Outside the Simpsons ride

Looking good in 3D glasses

Hollywood

2010-04-06T18:50:00.005+01:00

Today, we tried to do the almost impossible – Hollywood and Beverly Hills on about $10. Before that though we had another challenge to overcome, the roads and traffic of Los Angeles. Roads seem so busy in LA, and every road seems to have multiple lanes, bizarre slips roads and tricky junctions. Add in the customary larger than normal potholes and an extensive array of crazy traffic fearless pedestrians and it can be somewhat stressful to take even the shorter of journeys.

We managed to navigate our way up to Beverly Hills without incident though (hootings of horns and potential near misses no longer count as ‘incidents’) and as an added bonus we sussed out some free street side parking down a pleasant looking side street. Beverly Hills seemed quite quiet and with a lot of boutique shops blatantly out of our price range, we wandered across to a road side park where we planned a spot of lunch. It was a nice day and we spent a bit of time sat in the park, which was basically a wide grass verge with some trees and a bench. A nice grass verge all the same!! Pleased with our free parking, we treated ourselves to a hot chocolate on one of the street side café’s before setting off to brave the roads up to Hollywood.

One of the first town signs we have seen without gunshot holes in it!

To be honest, we were both a little disappointed with Hollywood. Think Blackpool but maybe with more people and an even wider range of tourist shops and gimmicks. Even the stars embedded in the pavement failed to interest us a great deal, probably because we recognised only about ten of the names in the whole street. We did manage to get a snap of the Hollywood sign on the hill, so we can honestly say it is now ticked off the list and we don’t need to ever return.

The gov'nar!!

The Hollywood sign between the Paris Hilton and Kick-Ass boards

Before we headed back, we took a short drive up onto the hills and along Mulholland Drive where we were pleasantly surprised by some of the views of the city. Los Angeles looked surprisingly green from a height, but you also got to see just how big a place it is. There are buildings as far as you can see and at any one time there seems to be around four aircraft in the sky leaving or arriving at one of LA’s many airports.

We’re not blown away by LA, but maybe our jaunt to Universal Studios in the next couple of days will sweeten us up a bit!

Death Valley and Sand Dune Races

2010-04-04T17:43:00.003+01:00

From our base at Ridgecrest we would be able to visit our second national park in the space of a week - the frighteningly named, Death Valley. We had enjoyed Yosemite so much earlier in the week that we had high hopes for what Death Valley lay in store for us.

After a short run in the morning we hit the road and after crossing some steep mountains (we rose around 4000 feet in 10 miles) we descended into the valley. We were immediately struck by the incredible views, which stayed amazing all day. In every direction there were jaw-dropping mountains surrounding us, different colours, structures and shapes meant that no view was the same. The park was massive and with only one day to explore we had to pick and chose our selections wisely.

Our first major destination (apart from all the pitstops for photos) were the sand dunes, which we passed on our drive in. They are what a lot of people think of when they think of a desert. If it hadn’t bee for the crowds of people we could have imagined we were in the Sahara Desert. I found out on Wikipedia the night before that Star Wars had been filmed around here. In fact the whole of Death Valley is very popular with Hollywood, perhaps because of its close proximity… After some photos me and Andrea ended up having a race running up and down some sand dunes. The video of which is below. I won’t tell you who won, you’ll just have to watch!!

Relaxing on the Sand Dunes

We then headed south and deeper into Death Valley to Americas lowest point - Badwater. It sits approximately 280 feet below sea level and is famous for its salt plains and perhaps also for the crazy 135mile ultra marathon which starts from here every July. The salt is so white it can almost be mistaken for snow and we both had to check (just to be sure) when we crossed onto it. It was here that we saw our first film crew of the day, who were doing something involving wedding dresses!!…who knows what!!

Badwater Plains. Its not cold its actually really really hot!!

We then started to head back via Zabriski Point, which overlooks the highest and lowest points in Death Valley. Here there are some amazing rock formations which have developed over thousands of years. We also saw another film crew shooting a music video. We felt quite sorry for the band as they were all dressed up and the day was pretty hot… We got some photos and then headed back. Zabriskie point was a great way to round off an amazing day of exploring. Tomorrow Los Angeles beckons us…

Zabriski Point overlooking Telescope Mountain and Badwater

A Drive into the Desert

2010-04-03T05:35:00.003+01:00

Having exhausted all the free activities in Santa Barbara, today we were bound for Ridgecrest, a small town in the Californian desert. Sitting two hundred miles from Santa Barbara we planned to use Ridgecrest as our base from which to explore the sinisterly named Death Valley National Park - another park which comes highly recommended by the guide books and locals.

We managed to complete the journey in an almost unheard of two stops, although this was most in part due to the fact we were on a highway with no stopping places not because of the lack of potential photo opportunities. After an hour or so driving along the coast road, we veered off in land and it wasn’t long before we hit the desert. I wasn’t expecting to see camels and cacti however I was still a little surprised at what awaited us. There were vast flat plains with nothing but sand and a few bushes, but then you had spectacular red, brown and orange mountains at either side. Every so often, you came across a little cluster of houses, semi deserted, a bit like something from a horror movie. It therefore came a bit unexpected that we experienced some of the best bits of road so far in the US. On what must be newly sealed roads there were none of our friends - messers pothole, crack and ridge were to be seen. Strange how you learn to appreciate simple things!

One of the views from the car

We stopped briefly in Red Rock Canyon State Park which was enroute and took a short walk up the nearest hill to snap the scenery. The red rocks were amazing, but having listened to Chris talk endlessly for days about which snakes he wishes to spot, and remembering half way up about the existence of scorpions, I have to admit that progress was somewhat hindered by unusual serpent shaped twigs and branches which suddenly seemed to be everywhere.

Red rock canyon park

We arrived in Ridgecrest mid afternoon - just enough time to have a quick explore and check out not one but two supermarkets (one twice!). Ridgecrest seems quite quiet but one of the biggest places we’d seen since entering the desert. It seems to have everything you might need although probably only attracts people like us - on route to Death Valley. It’s a good temperature here but very windy. It’s meant to be like this all weekend. Always the way when there’s a track session looming!

Santa Barbara

2010-04-02T16:43:00.006+01:00

We are so glad that we chose to stop off at Santa Barbara. It really is a beautiful little town, with palm trees lining all of the main routes through the town and the Los Padres National Forest covering the mountains as a backdrop. It is idyllic and unsurprisingly has made Santa Barbara a hotspot for retirees and tourists alike.

Our motel is situated on the main road into Santa Barbara, so in the morning we took a walk through to the main shopping strip. We found that there were many up-market restaurants and cafes and even on a Thursday morning it was really busy. We continued down to the beaches and piers, stopping off for a tasty burger along the way, before making our way back.

The view of Santa Barbara towards the sea from the courthouse tower

The promenade

In the afternoon we had a walk around a mission that was set up by the Mexicans to bring Catholicism to the American public in the late 1700’s. We took some pictures from the outside and then had a sunbathe on the lawn before wandering around a botanical garden in the north of the town. Our attention span for native Californian plants was pretty low and we again descended into lizard spotting! How sad we are!

The Mission

We really enjoyed our short stay in the town and have exhausted most of the free activities here. Maybe some day we will return with a bit more money to enjoy some more of Santa Barbara’s fine dining and fancy bars!!

Big Sur, the Californian Coast and the Return of the Lizard

2010-04-01T18:23:00.005+01:00

Today we bade farewell to San Francisco. It had been a great few days and we were sorry to leave. Having now boshed out the rest of our accommodation bookings for the remainder of the trip (all of four weeks :( ) we have lots of look forward to. Our itinerary for today involved meandering our way to Santa Barbara, 300 miles away down the Californian coast. We planned to take the scenic route which took us through ‘Big Sur’, a popular and recommended area due to the great views of the coast.

Despite getting on the road by 10am, it took us most of the day to reach our destination. Our progress was severely stalled by the frequent stops we had to make once we entered the Big Sur region, and the discoveries we made. We had planned a stop in Julia Pfeiffer State Park where we knew of a short walk we could complete, however by the time we had even reached there, a fair few photo stops had already taken place and we were already behind schedule. The reason? The views of the pacific ocean were truly magnificent, and it was simply impossible not to stop to try and capture the images – even with a camera which really doesn’t do it justice.

Some amazing coastline

After arriving at the State Park, it then took us over an hour to undertake what was around an 1km walk. It didn’t take long to photograph the waterfall into the sea, or the cliff view, but it was here we made an exciting, or should I say, two exciting discoveries. Yep, the lizards are back!! The first lizard was basking in the sun on a rock and Chris was able to get close enough to take about 20 photos. Then just when we started back to the car, I made an even more exciting spot, in a bigger lizard – with a blue tail. I think I win this one.

Chris spoiling the view of the waterfall

The lizards are back

Almost Chris' best ever photo!

Happy with our wildlife spots, we got back on the road and with over 150 miles still to travel and with it already getting late in the afternoon, we were determined not to stop again. We were doing quite well until we saw a gaggle of people in a car park ahead. They seemed to be looking out at the beach to where there were lots of light brown, long rocks. Strange. We weren’t entirely sure what was going on. As we approached, I suddenly realised that these ‘rocks’ were actually the biggest seals I have ever seen in my whole life. A rather dodgy, last minute manoevure from Chris and we careered into the car park on two wheels to investigate.

There was hundreds of what are called ‘elephant seals’ just sleeping and flipping sand over themselves on the beach. It was amusing to be so amused by a bunch of fat seals who were so lazy they almost looked dead. Chris rather liked watching a particularly fat seal ‘shimmy’(?) down to the sea – blubber wobbling in ajelly like way. I think I might quite like to be a seal when I grow up.
We still couldn’t get back to the car though as there was a tiny bunny and then a cheeky squirrel in the bushes demanding their photos taken. It was a bit like something from a film where the animals are out to get you.

Fat seals!

Cheeky squirrel

Finally, much later than planned we made it to Santa Barbara, where a run in the dark for me followed whilst Chris recovered from his nausea after having to pay twice the price for some petrol at some country garage (we were pretty low). Despite the travelling, it was a pretty cool day and just what we had been hoping for.

Yosemite Park

2010-03-30T19:15:00.004+01:00

After visting a dozen or so Oregon state parks over the first 7 weeks of our stay in the states, today we finally got to see one of the big guns - a national park! A mere four hours (!!) away from San Francisco was Yosemite National Park (pronounced Yo-Sem-It-Ee) and we were determined to see as much of it as time would allow.

We were up at 5am so that Andrea could do a track session at a nearby high school before it opened at 8am. It went well and we then came back and rushed to get ready so we could hit the road as early as possible. It was a long drive and with only my rough drawn map we managed to get to the park perimeter with only one 20 minute detour.

Our primary destination was the Yosemite Valley, which is the main tourist center, mainly because of the incredible views of the many waterfalls and surrounding cliff faces. There are also many trails and walks that hikers may take up to the fall heads and in the valley itself there were many families on bikes and the odd jogger making the most of the miles of paths.

On driving into the park we were immediately struck by some of the magnificent views of the valley. There were some convenient stopping places, so rather than driving off the road trying to crane my neck to have a look, we were able to stop and get a proper peak.

Messing about

Looking across the valley

After 4-5 photo stops we eventually reached the valley basin and headed for the trail leading to Nevada Falls. The previous evening we had been advised to take a look at them by some of Doug’s friends. However, we found that a few of the trails were closed off, so what should have been a 5mile round trip, would have turned into a 10-12 mile trip. On our tired legs we decided to give it a miss, but still managed to get some more great views of Vernal Falls and the other side of the valley (to what we had seen on the way in) at the cliff top.

Yosemite Falls

On our way home we stopped by a Sequoia grove. A Sequoia tree being the most massive living entity on the planet. Andrea was really tired from having done two runs and already walking half-way up a mountain at altitude so I decided to go it alone. It was getting dark and it was meant to be a 3mile round trip, so inevitably I decided to run it. Having not run for a couple of months, running on 2feet of snow and at 5000ft altitude wasn’t the easiest. Especially on the way back which was all up hill!! After forty minutes I returned, very tired and hot. Luckily nobody saw me stripped to my underwear as I ran back up the hill towards the car. I did say I got hot didn’t I!!

Sequoia Tree

We eventually arrived back at our motel at 11pm. A very long day, but totally worth it. We’re looking forward to our next national parks now!!

Pier 39 and a traditional Japanese dinner

2010-03-29T17:45:00.004+01:00

After only a couple of days out of Eugene we are well back on the tourist bandwagon and today continued our discovery of San Francisco.

After a long run around Alameda, just ten minutes drive from our Motel and a nicer area (ie looks like there may be less chance being shot), we headed into downtown San Francisco. We had a couple of items on our itinery for the day - firstly a trip to Pier 39 - home of the sea lions and hoards of fellow tourists and then onto Doug’s house (who we met on our Kiwi run tour) for a spot of dinner and socialising.

Pier 39 didn’t disappoint despite us feeling a little chilly in our shorts. The pier consisted of lots of typical souvenir shops and a number of delicious looking (and smelling) café’s. We marvelled at them for a while whilst sat outside eating our squashed homemade cheese sandwiches, planning what we would buy when we come back with nice fat juicy bank accounts. We didn’t stay too long as I was keen to see the sea lions. I have to admit to not really knowing what a sea lion was - I thought they were basically seals. I wouldn’t have been so far wrong except they are absolutely huge! Bigger even than me, and not something I’d like to have fall on top of me that’s for sure (not sure I‘ll ever be in a situation where that could happen though so it‘s all good). They had attracted quite a crowd, and were entertaining everyone by barking loudly and plopping off the pier into the water for a swim.

Pier 39 Sealions

Crazy backflipping breakdancers in town

After negotiating the street car back to Doug’s house, we spent the rest the afternoon and evening with Doug, Doug’s wife Kazumi, and Emi, Doug’s daughter, aswell as another couple of Doug’s friends. We had a really enjoyable evening and Kazumi cooked a traditional Japanese meal which was delicious and more than made up for our budget lunch. After dinner, I was challenged to some Wii fit by Emi and I was horrified to achieve a ‘Wii Fit age’ of 37!! I’m going to blame that on the couple of glasses of champagne consumed beforehand, either that or the machine malfunctioned just when I stepped on and then was fine for everyone else!

Our fantastic hosts

San Francisco

2010-03-28T17:56:00.005+01:00

The great news about our rental car meant that we would be able to spend some time in the bay area and central California. We were both really excited that we would be able to see a bit more of the area than we had initially anticipated and today we made the most of it.

After renewing our car rental agreement in central San Francisco we had some lunch in Union Square, where there was some street dancing and filming going on for some tv program. We’ll never know which one, but our performance of ‘excited faces in crowd; number 100 and 101’ means that we are probably going to be in high demand as we venture south to Hollywood in a couple of weeks.

After lunch we set out on our driving tour of San Francisco, which was a great way to see some of the cities most famous sights in 3-4 hours. Our first stop was Lombard Street, the wiggliest street in America, which was born out of a need to reduce the 27% gradient so that cars could still drive down it. It is also made famous by movies ‘Bullitt‘, ‘Vertigo’ and ‘Herbie the love bug’! The top of the street is also one of the highest points in downtown San Francisco and gave us some great views of the city and also of ‘Alcatraz Prison’!

Lombard Street, America's turniest street!

Alcatraz - home of some naughty naughty men

We then took a drive past Golden Gate Bridge, which is what most people think about when they think about San Francisco. We managed to find a free car park (of course) a hundred meters away from the really touristy pay one. It is an amazing sight and we were pleased we managed to get some good shots. We then drove along some of the headlands, through some of the posh areas of San Francisco and through Golden Gate Park, which is similar to New York’s Central Park, I.e. massive. It was very pretty and green and unsurprisingly very busy. Everyone likes to go to the nice parks on a sunny day!!

My face ruining the Golden gate photo

That's better!!

We had a great day and so far, as tourists, San Francisco is our favourite area of the US so far. Looking forward to another days sightseeing tomorrow…

Stanford Invitational

2010-03-27T17:15:00.001Z

We made it to San Francisco in a mere eleven hours yesterday and were able to get a good night’s sleep despite our Motel being virtually on the Freeway itself. We were excited because today was the Stanford Invitational. The track season is officially underway when it comes round to Stanford and the start lists for the distance races looked great.

The day got off to a great start when the car rental company in San Francisco saw sense and agreed to let us renew our rental agreement in the city rather than making a special six hour one way trip to Los Angeles. It means that we can stay a bit longer and explore. The day got even better when we stumbled upon a Nike Store in the city centre and the long searched for snazzy racing vest was purchased. We had an hour or so wandering around down town San Francisco killing some time. The centre seems quite nice. There are some high rise buildings (Chris’s favourite) and we also went to the Union Square which is busy and has lots of trams, shops and café’s. We’re looking forward to exploring later in the week when I am not sick with nerves at the prospect of running 12.5 laps of the track.

We arrived at Stanford University mid afternoon and had quite a long wait until my race which was scheduled for 8:23pm. This would be my first 5000m in nearly two years and we were hoping to inflict some serious damage on my personal best time. Conditions were perfect and despite my training being a little up and down over the past month, we were fairly confident that we would be able to achieve our target time. The result? 10th place in 16:08.

It is strange how when the gun fires, everything you have learnt over the last few races can be instantaneously forgotten. The best way to run is by going off steady and picking it up as the race goes on. That is what we had planned. That is what has worked so well for me over the last few races. ‘Whatever you do, you shouldn’t lead it’ Chris had warned me before the race. Ahem, yes well, I wanted to run my target lap times, I wanted to run a consistent pace the whole way, I wanted to make my target happen rather than rely on other people to pace me, what other excuses can I think off? I was so focused on running my times, I forgot about working my way into it, picking it up as the race went on. It seems crazy that I lead the race for over a mile as a group of seriously fast people (much faster than me) all bunched up behind me. The pace I was running was only slightly quicker than what we were planning so it wasn’t a disastrous plan, however the effect of some interrupted training showed and I became really tired on the last few laps and my hopes of breaking 16 minutes were gone. A more conservative effort earlier on and it may have been different. I thought I had been teleported back two or three years when I used to do this sort of thing quite often. I haven’t done it for ages, and I hope it’s ages before I race that way again. I have never been so disappointed about running a 31 second personal best before (it‘s strange how after the race all sense of perspective is instantaneously forgotten too)!

We hung around for the next couple of races and watched the women’s NCAA 10,000m record being broken in an amazing solo run by Lisa Koll. It was great to watch but slightly sickening to know that I was running a slower pace in my 5K than she was for double the distance. I have a lot of work to do. Let’s get on with the training!

Watch the Stanford Invite live on Flotrack

2010-03-26T04:27:00.002Z

Follow the link. Coverage starts at 12:30am GMT on Saturday morning and finishes at 6:30am. Andrea's race is at approximately 3:25am.

Flotrack LIVE coverage of Stanford Invitational

See you then...

Leaving Eugene

2010-03-24T19:44:00.001Z

After just over seven weeks, we are finally leaving Eugene. We have grown quite attached to our one bedroom apartment and the running and cycling routes we do every day. But everything has to come to an end. This was always meant to be a recuperative section of our trip and now we feel ready to hit the road again and do some more traveling like we did in Australia but this time in California.

So we are both excited and a little bit sad. We have some fantastic things to look forward to over the next month. On Friday this week Andrea is racing a 5000m in Palo Alto (just south of San Francisco), before doing some more races around Los Angeles and Carlsbad. These are races that we have wanted to do for some time, so to finally be going to them is very very exciting.

Inbetween the races we hope to do a load of sightseeing and see some of California’s National Parks and famous sights. We are still unsure of our overall plans as a lot depends on our rental car (we may have to drive 6 hours south to Los Angeles for no good reason this weekend and we won‘t know until Friday). After that we have organised staying with some runners in Flagstaff Arizona for just over a week before heading to Las Vegas for a few days of glitz and glamour before flying home. It certainly looks like it is going to be an action packed month and we can’t wait!!

When we first arrived in the US, Andrea wrote about some of the differences we noticed between the US and UK. I think it is now time to add to that list. So some more things that we have learnt whilst in Eugene:

1, Very very few people ever walk anywhere. The car reins supreme.

2, Customer service is great here. Capitalism reins supreme.

3, There are hundreds of homeless people in Eugene. A big downside of the version of free market capitalism that the US thrives on.

4, IHop pancakes are amazing.

5, Denny’s burgers are amazing.

6, The national anthem is played a lot. Before all sports events and even before we get to ride a mechanical bull in a cowboy bar.

7, National and local pride is woven into the fabric of American society. Everyone supports the ducks (the University of Oregon) and wears the gear. When I say everyone, I mean everyone!! (well maybe 50%).

8, Eugene lives up to the title of “Track Town USA”.

See you in San Francisco!!!

Oregon Preview

2010-03-21T18:42:00.002Z

So today was the long awaited outdoor track season opener. We had both been looking forward to this meet for weeks. Having been to watch the Ducks compete in a range of sports, we would finally get the opportunity to see them compete at home in what is of course the best sport. We were interested to see how much interest this early season meeting evoked in the general public and if Eugene lives up to it’s name of ‘Track Town USA’ in terms of public interest, not just by the number and quality of athletes.

I was also making my 2010 outdoor season debut, and as preparation for future races in the season over longer distances, we had entered the I500m. This is an event that I have not competed over in many years and a near sprint for someone whose best prospects lies in distances more than 26 times longer. We were excited though for what might be my one and only chance to compete at the historic Hayward Field track – where Steve Prefontaine ran many of his legendary races.

A few laptop associated problems and $200 dollars aside, the day got off to a good start. It was probably the best day yet that we have experienced in Eugene with the sun shining and with it being pretty warm. Chris was also pretty pleased to get a ‘coaches pass’ which not only gave him free entry into the stadium, but also gave him access to the spectator restricted areas such as the warm up track and call up room. He wore that bright pink wristband with pride!!

Fortunately for me, the 1500m was one of the earlier events in the programme, and considering I was very nervous, it was good as we would be able to enjoy watching the later events in the programme stress-free. I was fortunate enough to be placed in the top seeded heat so we were hopeful for a personal best time. The race was not my best by any means – the first lap was swift and, probably having not raced over 1500m for such a long time, I was worried and backed off quite a bit over the next lap and a half. It was only when I got to 400m to go that I realised that I was actually feeling comfortable and had a lot more to give. I picked it up and managed to pull out my quickest ever last lap in any track race and finish in 4:23.49 – a personal best by 7 seconds. I’m happy, I’ve got to be. This time last year I was struggling to string together any training, let alone run PB’s, however I’m still frustrated that I ran a bit of wimpy race and I’m determined to do better next time!!

After a bit of a post race tempo run (always thinking of the bigger picture!) we spent the afternoon basking in the sun and watching the rest of the races. It was such a great atmosphere and the announcer reported an attendance of almost 6000 people. It reminded us a little of the UK National Championships in terms of atmosphere, as they had the big screen working, kit carriers and victory laps – all of which contributed to making it a bit of an occasion (and went down in Chris’s notebook as to how to host a good meeting!). We really enjoyed it, but went away feeling a little gutted that we will miss the big one – the NCAA outdoor Championships which are being held at Hayward Field in June. Now that would be really worth seeing!!

Footage of my race can be found here. Skip to 43 minutes to find my race!

Portland Part 2 and the Worlds Best Running Track

2010-03-18T19:26:00.004Z

Amazingly another of my friends had a conference in Portland during the time that we are staying in Eugene. So we decided to go up and meet Daphne for the evening, hopefully give her some respite from all the Physics geeks. It is strange to see our friends from back home when we are over here. You almost feel like you are back in the UK again. Just for a few hours anyway!

On our last trip to Portland (when we visited Lui around a month ago) we missed out on going to the Nike Campus in Beaverton. We had heard good things about it, apparently it has a wood-chipped trail around the perimeter and also a running track we had heard was worth visiting. We weren’t disappointed, Andrea just had to do an easy run in the afternoon and made the most of the trails and then had some drills and strides to do, which we did on the track. The track was fantastic and totally worthy of the hype. It is set to the edge of the campus and is surrounded by tall redwood trees which cross over into the centre of the track so as you are running around it you are unable to see the other side. We both reckon it is now our favourite running track in the whole world!!

Michael Johnson statue overlooking track

Nike Campus running track

In the evening we met up with Daphne at the convention centre in Portland and walked back to where she was staying to grab some food. We ended up eating below where Daphne was staying, which turned out to be a British style pub with traditional pub food options. They had live music and St Patricks Day celebrations going on. It was a pity that none of us were drinking! We stayed until around 9:30pm before taking the now boring interstate number 5 south to Eugene. That will likely be the last we see of that section of the road on this trip!

Hendrick’s Park

2010-03-16T18:10:00.000Z

It is always the way. You spend hours driving around the countryside seeing nice scenery and parks and wildlife, often going for long day trips to get as far a field as possible in the hope of seeing something really spectacular. You’re not often disappointed (although yesterday’s readers will know we came pretty close!).

But then, right near the end of your stay, or after you have been in a place for ages, you realise that there are some really nice places just on the doorstep. In fact, ten minutes drive away in this case (or rather twenty minutes if you allow time for my directionally challenged map reading).

Hendrick’s Park is right next to the University of Oregon but we just don’t seem to have found the time so far to go there. Despite the recommendations of a couple of people I suppose we weren’t so enthralled at the prospect of going to a small town centre park and time has just passed us by.

However, today was the day, and with the weather forecasters predicting a 20 degree high we set off in high spirits. The weather forecasters got it wrong but we weren’t complaining at the 15-16 degree temperature, and we also have to say that Hendrick’s Park lived up to the hype.

Set on top of a hill, there is forest and a whole load of trails - despite the relatively small area that the park covers, each trail was secluded from other trails by the high trees. We had quite a pleasant walk. Only one complaint though was that it was pretty hilly so perhaps I will avoid going on any running excursions there! Unfortunately I didn’t have control over the camera so no decent photos were taken!

Orienteering

2010-03-15T18:23:00.003Z

We liked the look of Detroit Lake State Park, so thought that the two hour drive taking us 100 miles north east of Eugene would be worthwhile. After all the park had miles of walking trails, a wildlife viewing area, two play areas (for Andrea not me!) and even two giftshops. It looked great. We charged up our batteries with an Ihop lunch of omelette and pancakes (we didn’t finish it) and then hit the road. We didn’t think of checking whether it would be open or not and unfortunately when we got there it was closed for restoration works!! Gutting.

Determined not to waste a two hour drive and intent on getting out of the car for at least half an hour, so that we could loosen up, we set about finding another park to explore. We had a map of where some of the other state parks in the area were and headed for the nearest one only to find it was closed! We’ve not seen a park closed since being in the states and then we see two in the space of 30min! All was not lost though as we soon found a park that was open. It wasn’t as spectacular looking as Detroit lakes, but we still enjoyed a walk there. Andrea went snap happy with the camera again and took a lot of bad photos (as well as a few good ones of which I’ve posted a few below).

Perhaps Andrea's best shot of the day

North Santium State Park

Tomorrow is supposed to be a scorcher. Well not quite, but it is meant to hit 20C. Who said March was still pretty much winter!!

The Return of the Blog

2010-03-14T19:07:00.001Z

This has to be a near record - over three days have past and no blogs have been written. The reason? After four and a half months of metronome like daily blogging we finally ran out of steam, we blogged ourselves out, ran out of things to say.

Well, not exactly.

It was more of a case of our fun being severely hindered by factors beyond our control. That is to say the weather. When one is on such a strict, low budget, most our activities have to take the form of the outdoor and free variety. These activities, as you can imagine, are less appealing when it is truly lashing it down with rain and your only item resembling a waterproof lets the rain in within about five minutes.

So as a result we’ve had to have a more indoorsy few days, and we didn’t want to loose any of our faithful readership by describing how many pages Chris read of his ‘Options, Futures and Derivatives’ book or how long I spent looking on the internet for potential hen do related activities.

The weather finally brightened up a little yesterday and so we headed down to Autzen Stadium to experience yet another new sport, women’s lacrosse. It was great to get out after a relatively dull couple of days and we enjoyed the game which was quite fast paced - despite not fully understanding the rules (again). Chris reckoned he might be quite a good lacrosse player due to his speed and fitness. However, people used to say that about me playing hockey, until they saw me play, so I’ll reserve judgement for the time being. It was a shame that my good friend, the Duck Mascot, had obviously gone on holiday for the weekend but I was still sufficiently amused by the women a few seats down from us with a Duck sounding whistle. Simple things eh!

The ducks taking a hard fought victory over Iona

We’ve also taken the opportunity to see a couple of films these last few days, especially after discovering another cinema where it is a bargain price of $1.50 per person. We both preferred ’Invictus’ to ’Up in the Air’ although neither film scored major points with us and we still await the ’wow’ factor. This weekend was also the weekend of the World Indoor Athletics Championships and the NCAA Indoor Athletics Championships, both of which were being streamed live over the internet. These both had some pretty exciting races to watch and filled our evenings quite nicely…especially when washed down with a good old glass of root beer.

The weather forecast is meant to be better this week so hopefully we’ll be able to get out and enjoy our last week and half of Eugene without catching pneumonia.

Dexter Park

2010-03-11T14:56:00.002Z

Another day, another state park. This time it was Dexter State Park, around a 30min drive from our apartment. The weather has turned quite a bit colder over the last day or so and neither of us have a massive amount of warm clothes, which meant that today’s walk had potential for being the shortest yet! We ended crawling down the side of the reservoir damn and found some nice paths through the forest. Andrea was on photo duty again and got some decent ones.

The reservoir at Dexter Park

What a nice rock. Definitely worth a photo Andrea ;)

Apart from that there isn’t so much to write about. After you have trained twice, done a core stability session and been shopping as well as talking to friends and family online there isn’t so much time to do much else. It is nice to be able to relax and not have any worries though. We’re still not missing our old lives of work just yet!

Rainbow Spikes

2010-03-10T18:14:00.002Z

So as the altitude question rumbles on and on (and maybe looks more unlikely), other race preparations are now in full swing as the ‘Big Four’ races that comprise my track season approaches. Actually of the four there are really only two that I’m really bothered about but it is still pretty nerve wracking all the same. Preparations are beginning to near completion as today I purchased some rainbow coloured spikes from Downtown Eugene. I am sure the big crowds will now be uber-impressed with the colour of the undersides of my feet so surely I can’t fail??!

In the evening we again took advantage of four dollar Tuesday at the cinema and went to see ‘The Last Station’. Probably the best film we have seen so far on our trip, this film told the story of Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist and author of ‘War and Peace’. The story followed the last few months of Tolstoy’s life and his relationships with people around him. Definitely worth the four dollars anyway although we really need to be more disciplined on the sweet front - this time we excelled by even our own standards having polished off the whole lot before the film even started. Oops a daisy.

It has to be said that yesterday was a fairly low key day with no real excitement to report. We seem to have spent quite a while trying to work out what we are going to do in the next (and final) portion of our trip. There seems like so much we want to see and do around California that we just can’t decide what to do when! With only seven weeks now until we come home and back to reality, time suddenly seems really precious, funny really when you spend all day deciding what you are going to do with it!

To Altitude or not to Altitude

2010-03-09T18:24:00.000Z

For the last few days we have been debating as to how we will spend the last 7 weeks of our trip. We have several things in concrete, i.e. the races that Andrea would like to do in California, but apart from those few days not much else has been planned.

As things stand we have another 16 days in Eugene before we head south to Palo Alto (just outside San Fransisco) where Andrea will do her first 5000m on the track of the season in the Stanford Invitational Track Meet. A couple of weeks later we want to be in Carlsbad, CA, a few hours south of Los Angeles, where Andrea wants to run in the Worlds Fastest 5km Road Race. We are hoping that Andrea can get into the elite race (just for the experience), but we will have to see how things go. Then a week later we will be heading back up to Walnut, CA where Andrea will likely do her second and last track 5000m of the season in the Mt Sac Relays. This is actually a four day festival of running, so we are intrigued about what goes on there. After Andrea’s second race we only have 12 days before we fly back, with the last three of those spent in Las Vegas. No doubt we’ll be partying and spending the remainder of our money. We’ll still be in bed by 9pm though so don’t worry! This means that we have around 3 weeks in California with few plans of where to stay and what to do and we also have a 7 or 8 day window after Andrea’s last race before we head to Vegas. It is in this window when we are thinking of driving to Flagstaff Arizona to do some altitude training before driving to Vegas for the end of our trip.

For those that don’t know, altitude training is a big thing in the world of distance running. The idea is that because of the reduced oxygen in the air at higher elevations the body is forced to work harder with the oxygen that is available. On returning to sea-level you are then able to utilise the higher levels of oxygen better and essentially run faster.

Some of the theories around training at altitude are that you need to be up there for longer than a week to start realising the benefits of the higher elevations, although some people are able to get great results from even just a few days. It seems to be a very individual thing. It also has the possibility of just tiring Andrea out a great deal (with the significant risk that it may even wreck the remainder of Andrea’s season - it should be noted though that the main races of Andrea‘s season are over here in the US, the ones in the UK won‘t be anywhere near the standard and will be more for fun really). It is something we need to weigh up. On one side we think going to altitude would be a good experience and if it is something we want to take advantage of in future then even going for a week would be a good experience. However, there is the real possibility that we may not get it right and Andrea may not race well when we get back to the UK. It is something we are considering and we will try to work out what our overall plans are in the next few days so that we may begin to sort out our accommodation.

So there you go. Those are our plans. We are unsure of whether to go to altitude in the middle of April and we are also not sure of how we should divide our time around California. If anyone has any ideas on either then let us know, we would be grateful for any input. Thanks…

Another sunny day in Eugene...

2010-03-08T18:47:00.004Z

There was a slight change to normal proceedings this week as Session Saturday became session Sunday, which meant that there wasn’t a whole lot of time to get anywhere between the two big training sessions I had to do. However, all was not lost as a quick visit to the Ducks website told us that there was a new sport we could nip and watch down at MacArthur stadium - women’s stunts and gymnastics.

Although we were unable to stay for the whole competition due to the impending track session, it was pretty interesting to watch the team compete for points in a type of people-pyramid building competition. It looked pretty risky too as people were thrown up into the air and caught. Chris asked me if I would like to do something like that - I wasn’t so keen…it would probably resemble a plank of wood being thrown skywards and crashing down in an awkward heap. Either that or my legs would snap off or something equally painful.

Portland State's Stunts and Gymnastics team doing a pyramid routine

We were both worn out in the evening after all the training so we decided to have a quiet one and take the opportunity to watch the Oscars for the first time. This was probably the biggest waste of four hours since we have been on the trip, and we were glad when it finally finished. It’s something to tick off the list but we certainly won’t be tuning in for future ceremonies.

American Snake

2010-03-07T19:52:00.002Z

After our early morning run we took a ride down to IHop to have breakfast. A few weeks ago we had pancakes there which were amazing. Today we went for breakfast again, but this time we had a breakfast combo which included a plate of delicious fluffy French toast and another plate of traditional cooked breakfast. All for the equivalent of £5 per person. Bargain!

After breakfast we drove to our second state park of the week - Jessie M. Honeyman State Park. The park is situated a few miles from the Oregon Coast and is characterised by its crystal clear lakes. In fact, when on our walk around part of the lake perimeter, we saw around 30 people taking diving lessons as it was possible to peer quite deep into the lake waters. As we wandered around Andrea took hold of the camera again and demonstrated how far her photography has come on the trip by taking lots of good photos. Unfortunately Andrea wasn’t holding the camera when she spotted her first American snake. By the time I got there it had already slithered deep into the bushes. We spent the remainder of the walk banging our feet along the ground to warn anything dangerous of our approach. No snake kisses for us please!

Looking across the lakes

Andrea taking a stroll

One of Andrea's arty shots

In the evening we watched Forest Gump and then spent the next half an hour wondering what the point of the movie was before we headed into Eugene for a late night hot chocolate. The topic of conversation recently has turned to planning Helen (Andrea’s sister) and Matthew’s joint hen and stag do. We can’t give anything away, but all I’m going to say is it’s going to be a good one guys ;).

More University Sport

2010-03-06T18:24:00.001Z

Our quest to watch as much college sport as possible whilst here in Eugene continued today as we headed down to the University of Oregon campus to watch a spot of women’s tennis. This was a sport in which we were particularly interested. Many college sports stars go on to become professionals upon completion of University, however we weren’t sure if this would be the case with the tennis players - many of the players on the ATP tour have been so since they were 15 or 16 years old, and hence it is perhaps unlikely that 22 year old players from university go on to play professionally. We were interested to see the standard of the players and how the competition worked.

The ten strong women’s team were taking on the University of Southern California and the competition involved three 8 game doubles matches followed by six three- set singles matches. We missed the start of the matches after a bit of hunt around to find the tennis courts, and when we got there the matches were in full flow. We were amazed by just how good the players seemed. It was certainly a very high standard - fast paced with some great shots being played. Unfortunately our jinx of the Ducks continued as they lost every match. Chris was also disappointed to be out-shouted in a half time quiz to win a tube of tennis balls.

We stayed around a couple of hours but then had to leave before we froze to the spot. In my case it wasn’t helped by the fact I had been forced to put on a wet pair of tracksuit bottoms after mistakenly putting every single pair of my trousers in the wash that morning. Schoolgirl. We weren’t so cold though that we didn’t have time to stop by the campus track on the way back to the car to spy on some of the athletics team doing a reps session.

We may take a short break from College sport over the weekend now, before looking for some more competitions to go to next week. Hopefully our losing streak will not continue much longer!

Track Thursday

2010-03-05T14:53:00.003Z

After the roaring success of the video I made last weekend (54 views so far and counting…), I was inspired to make another video today, but this time of one of Andrea’s track workouts. About 5 minutes before we left for the track in the morning I thought that I may as well take the camera along and give it a go. It isn’t an easy job trying to film and then also read times and give Andrea feedback while she is running around at some speed. I often have to get my skates on to run across the bog in the middle of the track to give splits which whilst filming can be a bit tricky. Taking on the role of coach and film crew is not an easy task! I’m reasonably happy with the outcome, although I could have done with more footage of Andrea running and the footage I did get being less jumpy. Next time I could do with an assistant. Any volunteers?

Anyway below is the video. I certainly enjoyed making it and I hope you enjoy watching it.

Apart from that we drove around 30min out of Eugene to another of Oregons state parks. This one was Alderwood state park, and again it was really quiet - something which we both like. It seems that a lot of the forests around Oregon are redwood and a lot of them get this moss covering virtually everything so that some parts are really pretty.

Spooky forest.

Andrea admiring the scenery.

In the evening we watched a couple of episodes of south park and the American office on TV, whilst I edited the video. We then headed out to a local bar to rekindle Thirsty Thursday, which has been on hold the last few weeks. Not any more though!!

A Game of Rounders

2010-03-04T19:10:00.002Z

A trip to America would never be complete without watching a game of baseball. Baseball is one of those games that is not really appealing to us, but we did have some slight curiosity about what the fuss is all about, and if it is indeed any different or more challenging than a game of good old rounders.

We were also keen to take up the opportunity to visit the brand new PK Park, which has been springing up day by day since we have been here. Unfortunately the weather was ghastly - pretty cold and wet, but that didn’t stop us. After all how long can a game of baseball last? We would be home and able to warm up after an hour or two.

The impressive PK Park

Today ‘The Ducks’ were facing ’The Huskies’ (Aka the University of Washington) and quite a few older people and students (it is a weekday) had turned out to give their support. One of the first things we noticed about the game was that yes, it is basically rounders, however, it is actually a really tactical game with each team always trying to spring a surprise on the other, using different bizarre signals to converse with team mates over the game plan for each ball. It took us a while to understand the rules and scoring, not being able to work out when exactly the teams swapped over and how many throws the bowler got to send at each batsman and it was all a little confusing at first. I think we kind of grasped it after the first hour or so and we could then sit back and get into the game.

We quite enjoyed the closely matched game, however there were two main problems. Firstly, there was a lot (and I mean a lot) of faffing about. Before each throw the batsman and bowler seemed to have a bit of a pre-bowl routine - swinging the arms around or going through certain motions. Then the bowler changed quite often and on each occasion they had to do an on-pitch warm up..stopping the game for a few minutes. You could go to the toilet and come back and they would still be on the same batsman. It meant that the pace was just a bit too slow for us.

Secondly, the actual rate of scoring was so low. Obviously my knowledge of baseball isn’t good or even average so it may just have been that the teams were very closely matched, however the end score was something like 5-3 and that’s after a whopping four hours of play (and yes we got very cold and wet). It seemed almost impossible to score, when the ball was hit, it was either caught or the batsman was stumped out before reaching the first post.

So it maybe wasn’t a sport we would go and watch again, but it was definitely a good experience. It was really worth going anyway as we got to see our favourite duck mascot playing about in the rain, and I also enjoyed watching the ‘Duck Derby’ in one of the breaks (basically cardboard ducks on sticks racing along one side of the stadium wall). It has answered quite a few questions we had about baseball and we were happy we went.

The Oregon Ducks being introduced

The baseball in action

No day would be complete without seeing the duck

Tuesdays in Tracktown

2010-03-03T15:39:00.002Z

The highlight of the day was going to “Tuesdays in Tracktown” in the evening. This was a public meeting where coaches from the University of Oregon and Oregon Track Club get to talk to members of the public about the latest news from the running scene within Eugene. The University of Oregon director of athletics - Vin Lananna - hosts the evening and invites some of the Oregon based athletes to give talks on their experiences. Tonight’s special guests were Oregon Track Club Elite athletes Sally Kipyego and Will Leer and the head coach of the elite section, Mark Rowland. They were all fresh back from a trip to altitude in new Mexico where some of the athletes had also run in the USA national championships. In fact Will Leer had just qualified for the World Indoors in Doha, Qatar next month in the 1500m. Both athletes gave talks of their recent experiences as full-time athletes and then took questions from the floor. We also heard from the mens and womens sprint coach at the University of Oregon - Robert Johnson. The sprints section of the team has been getting stronger and stronger over the last few years and that is down primarily to Robert’s hard work. It was interesting to hear about his experiences recruiting athletes to a north-western based college. Most sprinters like to go to the southern states where it is warmer, but he has been able to build a program over the last few years that is now moving towards the top-tier of collegiate sprinting programs. It is all part of Vin Lanana’s plan to make the University of Oregon a more rounded team, with a good sprints section to add to the incredibly strong middle and long distance section.

Afterwards we managed to speak to some of the coaches and athletes, who were all really nice. We really enjoyed the evening and wondered if something like this would work in the UK. We didn’t think so, partly because there are few places with such a strong contingent of athletes based in one place and secondly because the general public wouldn’t be interested. This is testament to Oregon’s drive to maintain athletics in the publics consciousness, from daily updates in the local press, to regularly updating websites with videos and interviews. It allows people to get to know the personalities behind the athlete results and also get to know the coaches that are a part of that. There is a massive athletics fan base in the area, as evidenced by last night, but it should be reminded that these things don’t happen on their own. It takes work and perseverance to build relationships with the community and to build a knowledgeable fanbase. This is certainly one thing I think that athletics clubs and centres in the UK could learn from and maybe something I would try myself to one day implement. Watch this space…

Our host for the evening - Vin Lananna

The big question

2010-03-02T20:56:00.000Z

Throughout our time here in Eugene, there has been a tricky question bothering us. Everyday we go running on Pre’s trail and drive past the huge Autzen stadium which would rival a premiership football ground. Right next door, we see day by day developments to the building of a $20 million dollar baseball ground. Having seen all the other wonderful sport facilities for the Ducks across Eugene from running tracks to astro turf pitches, we’ve been asking ourselves the same question….where the hell does all the money come from?

My theory was that pretty much everyone within a 20 mile radius of Eugene owns a ‘Ducks’ sweatshirt. 75% of people own a Ducks Car sticker, and possibly 50% of people own either a Ducks baseball cap or some other accessory like a Ducks umbrella or Ducks pair of slippers. When you combine this with the ticket sales to Ducks events - you get yourself a Ducks athletics fund.

Well, today we found out that my theory was very wrong. At least I have the consolation of breaking the world record for the number of times a duck is mentioned in one paragraph. Anyway this is the story…

I have been feeling quite unwell over the last few weeks and as an unfortunate consequence I have felt the rather disturbing desire to race over 1500m at the ‘Oregon Preview’ meeting here in Eugene in three weeks time. Having not had a response to my pleading email to the organiser and having received some insider information that the organiser’s office was inside the Autzen Stadium we decided to head down there…before I come to my senses and change my mind.

Whilst waiting in the organisers office we took the opportunity to distract some poor guy working at another desk and ask him endless questions about the university. The opportunity to find out about how it is all funded was too big to miss.

It turns out that the millions of dollars that are spent every year on University of Oregon sports comes from…wait for it….donations!!! The university does not receive any government funding and the proceeds from sales of merchandise and tickets is minimal. University alumni and other members of the public give money to the university sports union which is then divvied up amongst the sports. We were both totally amazed. We’re talking about around $50million dollars per year here not $500.

Chris was immediately excited that maybe there is hope for British University sports after all….all you need to do is find enough people to donate enough money. Ahem. Perhaps I’ll leave the recruitment drive to him.

We didn’t actually get to see the meet organiser in the end but I’ve since been accepted into the meeting… and at least we now finally have the answer to our funding questions!!

Beavers and Turtles

2010-03-01T17:43:00.003Z

Andrea was pretty sore from training yesterday and today was just doing an easy 90 minutes. It probably helped getting out as Andrea would have US rising athletic star Jordan Hasay for company. Meanwhile I would go for an easy bike ride along some of the extensive bike routes across Eugene.

In the afternoon we went for a walk around Elijah Bristow State Park. The park is part hiking routes, part nature reserve. We went for an hours walk and then ended up spending quite a bit of time around a wildlife lookout point. Amazingly the lake was home to river turtles as well as beavers and ducks. We managed to spot several turtles sunbathing on logs which were part submerged in the lake. However, whenever I tried to get close to take a photo, the turtles jumped into the water! They weren’t stupid. I did manage a few photos, but all were from a distance.

Sunbathing river turtle

Beaver!

In the evening we watched Twilight and Twister on tv whilst making plans for the rest of the week. Baseball season starts on Tuesday so we may get to see one of the games if tickets haven’t sold out.

Fall Creek State Park

2010-02-28T17:26:00.003Z

Session Saturday was again upon us and today we decided to combine one of the training sessions with a visit to another of Oregon’s scenic parks. The ‘Fall Creek Run-Around’ race started at one end of the Fall Creek Reservoir and ran to the other end. That was for us 15km participants. For the lucky souls doing the 20miler, one whole lap of the reservoir was to be completed.

We had decided that I would run in the 15km as a training run - so a hard but not flat out effort, whilst Chris would bring the bike and have a bit of a bike-around. The state park was very scenic and very quiet. The route followed the road around the lake and it was a bit of shame that there were high trees at either side of the road which prevented you from getting a good view of the reservoir whilst you were running. On closer inspection following the race, it was interesting to see that despite it seeming to have rained a lot of the time that we have been here, the reservoir was very very low. Apparently much lower than it has been at this time of year previously.

Anyway, back to the race, it was pretty enjoyable despite being quite undulating with a one mile of pure uphill right at the end. It wasn’t a really big race so I ran most of it alone with only some random cyclist with a camera who kept speeding past me, taking a photo and then speeding off again, for company. It turned out to be quite a bit longer that 15km but we weren’t really that bothered it wasn’t accurate as it was a good workout anyway and a fun morning. I finished 2nd overall so came home with a jumper and a medal - I would have been pretty happy except I am already going to have to wear multiple layers on the flight home to avoid paying the heavy luggage fee!

I had quite a restful afternoon recuperating whilst Chris spent a long time making a video of the race. Then it was off to the track for another reps session. As Saturday evenings are when everybody goes out and does fun things we felt obliged to join in the excitement so headed to Wal-mart for our weekly grocery shop and then sat watching TV in our apartment until about 9:30pm…bedtime…

Below is the video that Chrissy spent half the afternoon editing. I personally like the camerawork after mile 5. Hope you enjoy it ;)

Stress Tests and the Crazies

2010-02-27T15:34:00.001Z

We had plans to go to some of the state parks in the vicinity of Portland this morning, however the rubbish weather put those plans to rest. Instead we hit a local shopping mall. Lui was looking for some shoes and we just fancied a general browse before heading to the cinema to watch a new horror film - the Crazies.

As we were wandering around the mall we stumbled across a stall for ‘free stress tests’! Obviously there was more to this than a free stress test and the game was given away by the tower of ‘Dianetics’ books by author L. Ron Hubbard - a science fiction writer who started the cult of Scientology in the 1950’s. Lui didn’t want to pass up an opportunity like this so immediately gave it a go. They got him to hold onto a little contraption called an ‘E-meter’, which scientologists claim measures stress, and then asked him a series of questions about stressful periods of his life. Lui enjoyed the experience but was annoyed that he didn’t ask them any probing questions about their beliefs. A missed opportunity perhaps.

Fully converted to Scientology Lui rejoined us and we went to the cinema to watch the newly released Crazies. Set in Iowa the film follows events in a remote farming town over the course of three days as things get drastically worse for its crazy inhabitants. We all enjoyed it. The mark of a good horror movie is whether any of the characters did anything stupid in it. The crazies wasn’t too bad for that apart from a few times the lead characters saying to one-another ‘wait here’. Why would you separate from each other when there are all these crazy things going on! No rational person would do that!! Suitably scared we got ourselves some lunch in the mall and a milkshake in a 50’s style diner before dropping Lui off at his hotel and heading back to Eugene. A fun few days in Portland.

The Raging Bull

2010-02-27T03:52:00.004Z

The day started early for Chris and myself as we headed out first thing to explore Forest Park in Portland - America’s largest in-city park. It was reported to have over 70 miles of hiking trails so we were looking forward to an enjoyable early morning run before Lui surfaced. We got lucky with the weather, it wasn’t raining for a change, but we were in for an unwelcome surprise with the trails. They were long and pretty, but very hilly and after a tough few days training I did wonder if it would be quicker to walk up some of them. After an hour of shuffling/waddling/crawling we decided enough was enough and made our way back to our airport motel where Lui was waiting.

Forest Park

Yesterday, despite visiting Nike Town, we hadn’t quite satisfied our need for Nike so as a matter of priority we first went to the Nike Factory Outlet which was near where we were staying. My quest to find a snazzy racing singlet to make me run faster is still ongoing and we were again out of luck here, despite almost hitting gold with a bright orange top which we discovered (fortunately prior to purchasing) it was actually a tennis top. It was fortunate that we went though as despite not finding the vest, we suddenly realised that we actually urgently needed other stuff…in this case a new watch for me and a mini basketball for Lui.

With our wallets feeling lighter we left the shop quickly before we ended up buying other stuff we desperately needed like a pair of shin pads or tennis skirt. The weather was still nice-ish so we headed down to Portland’s Japanese Garden which is situated just West of Downtown Portland. Although the garden’s weren’t particularly big, they were pretty and I enjoyed being chief photographer - a rare event due to my amazing ability to take a terrible photo. Below are some of my best attempts!

Pretty tower thingy in the Japanese garden

My first arty shot!

Chris totally unaware i snapped him!

Finally in the evening we made our long awaited trip to Duke’s Country Bar and Grill, a local establishment found on the internet and an extremely exciting prospect for boys because of the presence of a mechanical bull. It turned out to be a great place and despite being three hours (!) too early to ride on the bull, we entertained ourselves with a few games of pool, dinner, and a free line dancing lesson (Maybe I’ll stick to photography after all). At 9pm, it was the main event. At the front of the queue to ride the bull were Lui and Chris. Chris went first and made a reasonable attempt at staying on the bull, but Lui stole the show. Despite looking like a cross between a raggy doll and a sack of potatoes, Lui stayed on the bucking bull absolutely ages before finally being dumped on the landing mat. To make it even more entertaining he had a massive grin on his face the whole time!

Lui owning the bull-ride

Portland

2010-02-25T17:50:00.003Z

Today we went to Portland to meet Lui, a friend of ours from Nottingham. He had been at a conference in San Diego and then had flown to Portland University where he had had a meeting with some people he is collaborating with. We decided to meet up in Portland for a couple of days before Lui flies back on Saturday.

In the morning Andrea did another track session. In yesterdays scheduled session Andrea had felt bad and so we pulled her out after a couple of reps. With this time of year being pretty important for transferring base fitness to more specific racing fitness we thought it would be a good idea to give the session another go. Thankfully it went a lot better. However, doing the session meant we were a bit late for meeting Lui and so we had to rush to get our stuff together before hitting the road for Portland.

We then picked Lui up from his hotel on Portland campus and dropped off all of our stuff at where we would be staying for the next couple of nights. We then drove into downtown Portland where we visited the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It was really interactive and a lot of fun. We later found out from the Lonely Planet that it was highly recommended for kids! Maybe that was why we liked it so much. We then went on a walk around the shopping district in search of the worlds largest independent bookstore - Powell’s. Of course we stopped at the Nike store on the way - after all Portland is the home of Nike!! We eventually found the bookstore and spent some time looking around and then a lot more time looking for each other! It really was that massive!

Lui playing with the water rockets

Andrea and Lui playing with boats

Me as a South Park character

In the evening we found a Hawaiian restaurant near to the hotel for dinner. The food was great and the staff really friendly. The only thing that spoilt it for me was that even though my food tasted great it was insanely hot! I ended up drinking 3 glasses of water with my meal and was still suffering. I think tomorrow we’ll find a proper American diner for Lui - he has to have a proper greasy American burger before he leaves doesn’t he!! Burgers aren’t going to be as hot as well surely?

Two for the Price of One

2010-02-24T14:25:00.001Z

The last two days have been fairly uninteresting, so rather than risk my fingers in the thick treacle covering the keyboard, for one day only you will be treated to two blogs in one. I suppose it’s not really a treat, as there is still not very much to say, but maybe it is. A day off from Racing Around the World. Haha don’t get used to it!

We have had a couple of low key days. After our adventures last week we have kind of run ourselves into a bit of stop, not going outside Eugene, not even going in search of new kinds of weird and wonderful wildlife. No particular reason. Perhaps the prospect of our trip to Portland tomorrow for a couple of nights has meant we wanted to save a little money, or maybe we just wanted a break from seeing stuff.

The time has been spent…can you guess? Yep training. Lots and lots of it as per usual. Combine that with getting either very cold or drenched every time you step out of the door to train, and hence long periods of time sat directly in front of the heater in the apartment, and suddenly you find time passing you by.

One thing we have done which was quite interesting was go to the cinema to see ‘Crude’, a documentary about an ongoing lawsuit between the indigenous people of Ecuador against Chevron -Texaco for the mess left by the company and the resultant effect on the health of the people living in those areas. It was quite interesting to see how the lawyers on both side went about proving their respective points, and the case rumbles on. It wasn’t my usual animated film (my favourite) but was pretty thought provoking all the same. The fact that we got in for $4 total for two of us made it all the better. Tuesdays is buy two for the price of one, and may mean our Tuesday evening for the rest of the trip are taken care of!

Below are a couple of videos you may be interested in. The first is a KiwiRun promotional video but together by the KiwiRun team. We think it’s great but we were there afterall.

The second video is of my 10000m. I think the camera is primarily focusing on the men, but I was in the race so you may see me. Unfortunately I haven’t had time to moderate the video and check if I am actually in it. If you do get to watch it let me know! Enjoy!!

Buddy's Diner

2010-02-22T18:56:00.003Z

We had been deliberating all week where we would go for our Sunday lunch this week. We wanted to go somewhere different to back home, somewhere typically American if possible. In the end, we stumbled across Buddy’s Diner, a 50’s styled diner serving your typical burgers, breakfasts, omelettes and steaks. We went for lunch after we had done our long runs/cycles in the morning and had to fight past all the other guests to find ourselves a table (it was a bit of a free-for-all). We both ordered milkshakes and burgers - what else!. Both of the burgers were a little disappointing, but the milkshakes were awesome, definitely some of the best we have had. I went for a standard chocolate option while Andrea went all adventurous (not like her at all) and went for peanut butter! Both were amazing and despite the awful sounding combination, Andrea’s was definitely the better of the two. We needn’t have bothered ordering food as the milkshakes were huge. In the end neither of us finished our meals but we both made a point of finishing the milkshakes. See we are proper athletes!!

Andrea posing with both our milkshakes - she wasn't being greedy - promise!!

We then headed straight to the Cascadia state park around 50miles away from Eugene. There are so many beautiful parks around Oregon, we are trying to see as many as possible. Cascadia was by no means an exception to that rule. The park was really quiet as we only saw two other people on our walk. We followed the trail which took us up to the Soda (Water) Falls. It was a fantastic forest with lots of rock outcrops and fallen trees. It would have been great for bouldering or if I was a bit younger - hide and seek.

Andrea enjoying the forest

Me looking for inspiration from above

In the evening we watched American Wedding (American Pie 3), both of us were bored after about 30minutes of the brain dead humour. It was then that I decided that it was about time Andrea watched all of the (nearly) 200 episodes of South Park starting tonight. We managed one episode before falling asleep. Maybe we will get through two tomorrow…

Cinnamon Roll Saturday

2010-02-21T18:40:00.000Z

Okay, Okay so it’s not perfect alliteration and neither does it rhyme. But that’s what the University of Oregon running club call it. It basically means that today is the day the running club meeting for a run which is then followed by cinnamon rolls and other tasty treats round at Tom, the club coach’s house.

I had my own session to do this morning but that didn’t stop us from partaking in the festivities, so after my workout and a quick shower back home we dashed round, luckily arriving before everything was eaten. We had a good couple of hours getting to know a few of the athletes, who were also able to advise us on the best eateries in the area - our list of fast food restaurants to visit before we leave is getting longer by the day.

It was also interesting to chat about some of the differences between UK and US university sports clubs and we learnt that there are actually two different National university running championships….the NCAA’s (for the athletes on ‘the team’) and then the NIRCA’s (for athletes belonging to university running clubs). The NIRCA’s sound much more like the BUSA’s we have in the UK where every and any student can compete whereas the NCAA’s are more elite. I wasn’t so sure I liked the idea of having such a divide between the elite and not so elite athletes - we all experience the same pain after all! However, I suppose that having the NIRCA’s may encourage more athletes to compete in races as it takes away the pressure and fear of racing all the serious super speedy people. Also at Oregon, whilst the team and the running club do not train or compete together it was still good hear that they do seem to all know each other and socialise together….so it’s not as though their paths never cross.

The afternoon was spent at the track (in an attempt to become super speedy myself) and then plotting which restaurant would have the pleasure of feeding two hungry post long Sunday run/cycle athletes tomorrow. I also wrote a pleading email to a meet organiser asking to be let into a 1500m(!) race. Must be something in those cinnamon rolls….

Silver Falls State Park

2010-02-20T14:46:00.002Z

After our successful trip to Coos Bay on Wednesday we wanted to visit some more of the state parks around Oregon. We planned a trip up the interstate to the Silver Falls State Park around 80miles away where we would walk/hike part of the 10 falls trail at the silver falls state park.

Running low on petrol we stopped just before we left Eugene to fill up. For some reason Oregon has a state law that prohibits people filling up their own cars, maybe because there has been a history of people driving off without paying. As a result you have to wait for an attendant to fill your car up and in a busy time, like it was today, it took ages. Added to that we were waiting for a pump that some old people, who considered a trip to the petrol station as a day out, were using. Annoyed and slightly stressed by our 30 minutes at the petrol station we headed north.

We eventually got to the state park which was awesome. The Silver Falls State Park is famous for its redwood forest and many waterfalls. We took a walk along one of the well marked tracks which weaved over rivers and under waterfalls. It was great. Hopefully all the state parks are like this.

South Falls - one of 10 natural waterfalls in the park - which stands around 60m high.

Our trail

DuckTales Part 2

2010-02-19T18:35:00.000Z

Making the most of the University sport scene over here we got our Ducks jersey’s on and headed down to MacArthur court to see the basketball for the 2nd time in the last few weeks. This time the men’s team were facing Stanford, and we knew straight away that there was considerably more interest in this game than there had been for the women’s due to the fact that campus was heaving. So much so that we missed the start of the game whilst hunting for a car parking space.

Whilst there were still a few empty seats on the courtside, unlike previously the whole upper tier was open and almost filled and the atmosphere was even better than last time. Despite missing the first six minutes of the game the two teams were pretty close when we found our seats, and the game was fast. Much faster than the women’s and with a bit of slam dunking to boot.

I didn’t have to wait too long before I saw what I’d really come for though. Eyes searching the crowd, whilst some people played basketball, I eventually managed to pick out the Duck. He was watching the game intently with some of the fans and appeared to be really enjoying himself. Meanwhile Oregon had begun to falter in the game and Stanford were starting to pull ahead quickly. We began to wonder if it was all over as Oregon began to fall apart quite dramatically. However a well timed time out and the team seemed to get it together to, still lose the match, however only by a few points rather than the landslide that could have been with ten minutes of the game remaining.

My highlight has got to be halftime though. The cheerleaders were entertaining the crowd with some back flips and other gymnastic type stuff, and the Duck started to get involved. The mascot’s attempt at a back flip was simply hilarious and actually not half bad…for a large fat cuddly duck anyway!

Athletics Weekly

2010-02-18T21:00:00.002Z

Check out page 24 of this weeks athletics weekly for Andrea's first ever article in print. Enjoy!!

Athletics Weekly

Coos Bay

2010-02-18T18:40:00.006Z

Today we went on a day trip out of Eugene and Springfield to the Southern Oregon coastline to a little town called Coos Bay. In the world of distance running Coos Bay is pretty famous as it is where the legendary American distance runner, Steve Prefontaine, was born and began racing in his early years. Prefontaine was a middle and long distance runner during the early 70’s and in his short career broke 14 American distance records before tragically dying in a car accident at the age of 24. During his running career Prefontaine gained national recognition for his aggressive front running style, never happy to sit in second place he would always force himself on the lead and make sure that everyone in the field had to run hard to beat him. He was quite a character, brash and popular amongst his peers. There are photos of Pre during his time at the University of Oregon where the whole stadium was packed with many people wearing “Go Pre” T-Shirts - while his rivals fans wore "Stop Pre" T-Shirts! We certainly don’t get enthusiastic fans like that at track meets nowadays! Pre’s legacy now is as much about his quotes as it is about his running style. The one which me and Andrea like the most is

To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift

We find it very inspiring and something which we both try to live our lives by. Not just in sport but in the many other aspects of our lives. There are many memorials all over Oregon dedicated to Steve, with the majority of them in Coos Bay. Not to forget mentioning the Prefontaine Classic, named after Steve, which becomes a part of the inaugural diamond league this year. Today we wanted to see a few of the memorials as well as see some of the national parks surrounding Coos Bay which we had heard were very nice.

We were lucky as we got a great day for it. The weather has been a bit miserable for a few days but today it was around 17C and really sunny (almost shorts weather in fact). On the way to Coos Bay we stopped at ‘Eel Lake’ at the Willliam Tugman state park. We had our lunch and then took a walk down a track which winded through a beautiful redwood forest around the edge of the lake. It was very peaceful and was being enjoyed by fishermen and walkers alike. One of the most beautiful places we have seen so far in the US!

Eel Lake

It was then onto Coos Bay. We headed straight to some of the memorials and the art museum where they have a permanent exhibition dedicated to Steve. They had a lot of memorabilia from his running days as well as photographs and artwork by local and national artists who had been inspired by him. We then took a visit to the track where we stumbled across the high-school coach of the school that Steve had been to in his teens. It so happened that the coach had trained with Steve when he was younger and so he enthusiastically told us some stories before we headed back towards Eugene.

One of the many plaques dotted around Coos Bay

Steve Prefontaine memoribilia

On the way back we wanted to check out the Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area, which boasts the tallest sand dunes in North America. The park was right on the coast so we got our first views of the ocean since landing in the US. We took a short walk around the park which took us up one of the more tame sand dunes before driving three hours back to our apartment.

Oregon Dunes National Recreation Area

Owls and eagles

2010-02-17T17:31:00.002Z

If you take off the racoon we spotted whilst running over a week ago, we haven’t seen any interesting wildlife since we have been in the US. So today we decided to rectify the situation and go in search of some kind of unusual creatures to brag about in this blog.

We decided to go up towards Spencer Butte park - the scene of our tough hill climb a couple of weeks ago. We had only walked a few paces from the car before we made our first discovery…an American red kestrel! He was quite small, but seemed also quite tame. I wasn’t going to risk getting my eyes pecked out though so kept my distance. We walked a little further and strangely enough a couple of bald eagles were sitting on a branch dozing. They looked pretty mean. Further along the track we couldn’t believe our luck as there were a bunch of owls (in the middle of the day!) long eared, snowy, barn…all different varieties.

Ok ok so maybe you had already guessed, we didn’t by chance stumble randomly upon a whole load of these birds. Last week whilst at the visitor information centre, I noticed a leaflet for a local Raptor Centre, and we had decided to give it a try. All the birds that we saw were all rescue birds, birds that had been injured by cars, wires or windows for example and were not able to fly or hunt properly so had been placed in this sanctuary. The centre relies on donations and where possible they release the birds back into the wild where they have recovered sufficiently to fend for themselves. Last year they helped over 250 such Raptors.

In addition to the above we also saw Gold Eagles, crows, and falcons but Chris’s favourite spot was….yep you guessed it… a tiny lizard we randomly saw on the path on the way to one of the enclosures. Unfortunately it looked a bit dopey, possibly not a very healthy lizard. It was a strange sort of brown colour, very unlike any of the lizards we saw in Oz.

The Raptor centre was pretty good. It was a bit strange that one of the meals we saw being given to some of the birds were small Quails. It seemed a bit bizarre to save one bird to feed it a different bird. I guess these quails were bred specially for eating at the sanctuary, but it did pose quite an interesting question!

Bald Eagle

Sick little lizard

Ihop Monday

2010-02-16T20:25:00.001Z

How could we come to America and not go out and have pancakes for breakfast at least once? We have been asking ourselves that question until today when we finally fulfilled a lifelong dream and went down to Ihop at around 9am after training. The pancake options were good; banana and strawberry, chocolate chip, original buttermilk and harvest grain options were all available amongst others. Me and Andrea went for the double blueberry and cheesecake choices instead - the others looked good, but hopefully there will be other opportunities. We weren’t disappointed as both tasted great, although as you have probably guessed, as we are in the land of the fatties, they were also pretty huge portions. Full and fulfilled we headed back to the apartment.

Mmmmmmm pancakes

In the afternoon, Andrea met up with one of the Oregon University running groups. We had been in contact with the coach of the group, Tom Heinonen, who recommended we go down and join in with them on the steady run his group was doing. Everyone was very welcoming and Andrea managed to explore some new routes around Eugene - this one was nicknamed the finger (because it’s shaped that way!) - while I went to the bike shop to get some gear for a newly flat tyre.

In the evening we went down to the coffee shop at borders where we met up with pro-coach Brad Hudson, who we had met previously when out and about in Eugene a couple of weeks previously. Being a geek I didn’t want to pass up an opportunity so found him on facebook and bombarded him with messages until he agreed to meet up! A slight misunderstanding meant that we were waiting for each other at other ends of Borders for around 20 minutes, but when we finally saw each other we ended up chatting for around three hours. Brad was really encouraging of the setup we currently have and gave us lots of good advice and things to think about and incorporate into Andrea’s future training program. We will probably end up incorporate some of the stuff he suggested straight away! At around 10:30pm we got back to the apartment, with our heads still buzzing. Both of us have felt a bit sleep-deprived lately and with so much stuff going round our heads I’m not sure that tonight will be any different…

A Scintillating Sunday

2010-02-15T18:56:00.000Z

After the weekend’s excitement, today was a fairly quiet day. We were both pretty tired after the long drive back from Seattle after the race last night, and I felt like my legs may fall off at any moment so we didn’t feel up to anything very energetic.

We did a long run down at Pre’s trail (of course with obligatory famous runner spotting - we saw two other girls who raced in Seattle) after which we did grocery shopping and gave our little apartment a right good clean. Exciting stuff I tell you!

We have decided to go and watch ‘the Ducks’ in another basketball game this week, this time a men’s match. So to get into the swing of things we watched the NBA match on the tv whilst supping ’Root beer’. or should I say we had it on in the background whilst we did other stuff, hence I still have little clue what the rules are or how the scoring works. I am looking forward to seeing my favourite Duck mascot again this week at the game though.

At the moment we are thinking about staying in Eugene until mid-march. It is just so good for training, we like our apartment and this week I am also going to join in with the university running club for some training so hopefully we will get to know a few people too. We have a fairly busy week ahead planned so it was good to recuperate today and we are now back and raring to go again.

Husky Classic

2010-02-14T21:57:00.005Z

Today was one of those days that doesn’t come round very often. Opportunities that are unlikely to arise more than once in a lifetime. For those that haven’t seen some of the latest blogs I’m talking about the Husky Classic indoor track and field meeting in Seattle, Washington. Arguably the biggest and best quality indoor meeting in the USA, and a far higher standard and depth than any races available to sub-elite athletes in the UK. So it was very disappointing when last Sunday Andrea had to pull out of training due to an Achilles injury. Tears ensued and we were both concerned about the severity of the injury. Fortunately it only required a couple of days rest before it felt recovered. Under normal circumstances we wouldn’t have risked Andrea to race if she wasn’t 100%, however as I mentioned previously opportunities like this do not arise very often. They are the sort of meetings that you want to be able to look back on at the end of your athletic career and be really pleased that you were a part of. We had been in two minds about what to do for a couple of days but as the weekend approached we both knew that Andrea would race.

So we arrived at the Dempsey Indoor facility on the University of Washington campus around 5 hours before Andrea was due to compete. We were both much more nervous than normal as the race was a lot more high profile and intense than anything we have done so far this winter. Our preparation hadn’t done much to calm the nerves either.

The field was strong, Andrea was about mid-pack on seed times so we expected a competitive race. The race started pretty steady - none of the athletes went with the quick initial pace of the rabbit - which meant that the race had turned from a time trial into a much more competitive affair. In the early stages Andrea was in a bit of trouble with all the shoving and barging about, but as the race progressed she made progress through the field until with around 3 laps remaining she sat in second place, in isolation and a fair way behind Jordan Hasay, one of the US’s biggest rising stars - she even has her own wikipedia page, click here! By this point Andrea was driving hard and managed to hold her position through to the line to finish in a big personal best of 9:17.82min (nearly 11 seconds off her previous best). It was a big relief to both of us that things had gone well. The race wasn’t as fast as we had expected but it probably played to our advantage as a fast early pace may have come as too much of a shock considering the week we had had.

I have embedded a video of the race - filmed by the enthusiastic guys at flotrack (Andrea is in the bright pink singlet). You can see how busy it was at the meeting and for the fastest sections of each event it was a fantastic atmosphere to be a part of. You will actually get a better view than I did (even though I was there). I was located on the straight near the start but could hardly see anything when the athletes were on the other side.

Hope you enjoy the video, it is a record of what was a fantastic experience for us and one that I’m sure we’ll never forget.

The Space Needle

2010-02-13T18:24:00.003Z

Today was our only real opportunity to get into Seattle (in the daylight) and explore the city, so despite the rain we braved the buses and headed in. We decided to walk from downtown Seattle to the city’s viewing tower - called ‘The Space Needle’. This would be our third visit to such a tower in as many cities, however this one was the smallest so we were both a little pessimistic that it would be as good as the others we have done.

We were absolutely drenched when we arrived, however we were actually pleasantly surprised with the good views we got from the top of the needle. Chris particularly like high rise buildings and we were able to get a good view of those, as well as the harbour and the mountains in the background. We saw a bit of everything really. Despite not being so tall, the space needle had a walk way outside which you could go onto and walk right round the circumference of the needle. It was well enclosed with ‘fencing’ but still a little scary nonetheless, and had a fairly big impact on Chris’s photo taking ability!

View from the Space Needle

After a bit more of a stroll around downtown Seattle, and after purchasing some Rocky Road and Strawberry popcorn (highly recommended) we squelched our way back to dry out.

This evening was the first set of races at the Husky Classic, and when the 5000m was being run, which we both wanted to see. We were both amazed that there were seven 5000m races with over 20 people in them (at home you maybe would get one women’s and two men’s at most, all with smaller fields). The races were all pretty close and exciting to watch. It has made me feel a little nervous about my race tomorrow but hopefully it will be ok. Bring it on!

Seattle

2010-02-12T17:42:00.000Z

First thing in the morning Andrea did a short tester session to see if the Achilles and calf would be fine for the race at the weekend. It involved a short tempo run and then a few repetitions on a school track nearby. We found an awesome place in South Eugene to do the session as Andrea was able to do a couple of loops on a European style trail and then immediately jump on a running track. Perfect!! It all went well and we are now both looking forward to Andrea’s race in Seattle on Saturday.

Soon after finishing we hit the road to Seattle. It is a five hour drive so we wanted to get going early so we could at least have some daylight when we got there. The journey was pretty uneventful as we were mainly driving through farmland - the interstates aren’t concerned with taking you the scenic way!

When we arrived in Seattle we found ourselves a cheap motel by the airport - to the south of the city. We got ourselves sorted and then Andrea did another short easy run. This meant that by the time we headed into downtown Seattle it was already dark.

Driving on the freeway and emerging over the hill the first image we saw of Seattle was amazing. The high-rises office blocks in the middle of all the low-rise apartments near the waters edge was spectacular. Unfortunately we couldn’t take photos because we were driving, but even if we had managed the camera makes every night-time image blurry. The traffic around Seattle was really busy and very disorientating, however we eventually managed to find a way down to the harbour and have a walk around there and up through a part of the city. Along the way we amused ourselves in an arcade where Andrea played her first game of air-hockey - needless to say that I won.

Tomorrow we are having a full day of sightseeing around Seattle (in the light) before heading to the Husky Classic in the evening to watch the first part of the meet. There are a few Brits there that we know, so it should be a fun evening.

Umming and Arrhing

2010-02-12T17:39:00.003Z

Today was spent deliberating. Deliberating about many things, or shall I say deliberating about many things which are all really the same thing.

Having spent the last couple of days drinking half the water at the swimming pool next door, my Achilles has felt much better. However, with only four days until the race on Saturday, we had a bit of a decision to make as to whether or not it was recovered enough. There were many things going through our minds - was it completely recovered? Would it come back once I tried to run hard? Would racing this weekend mean I would have to take more time off and be detrimental to my preparation for more important races in April? If I didn’t race would it turn out to be fine and then I have wasted probably my one and only opportunity to do this particular race?

Ah decisions! Being one of the great decision makers of all time, I spent a lot of time thinking about all these things today. I did a couple of easy runs which both went well and I had no pain, and I was leaning towards thinking it would be fine. But I always say that, and I just couldn’t get the April races out of my head. Coach Chris tends to err on the side of caution so we had a bit of a dilemma on our hands, but towards the end of the day even he was thinking that racing was a definite possibility.

To cut a long story short we decided this evening, having seen that I had felt no adverse effects from the runs I had done, that we will go to Seattle with the intention of racing. Of course, we will take each day as it comes but hopefully it will be fine. We hope to do a mini reps session tomorrow as another tester and if it is ok, then I’d say the race is definitely back on. Fingers crossed!

The races will all be shown live online on the following link. If anyone is burning the candle at both ends or suffering from insomnia, my race will be between 12:30am and 1am on Saturday night/Sunday morning.

Watch the Husky Classic 2010 HERE!!

How will we ever compete?

2010-02-11T02:23:00.002Z

Monday was a really quiet day as Andrea had some Achilles pain so we wanted to rest up and make sure that we gave her the best possible chance of the injury passing quickly. It meant that we ended up lounging around the apartment and only ventured outside when Andrea went to the gym next door and when I went cycling. Exciting stuff. It did mean we were able to watch some a fair amount of rubbish American television, which seems to be mainly repeats. We did manage to watch a lot of the American Office though, which despite not being as good as the British version is still a great show.

Yesterday we took a tour around some of the University of Oregon sports facilities. They really are absurdly good and from what I have seen put almost every university in the UK (bar Loughborough) to shame. From indoor American Football pitches to the 54,000 seater Autzen stadium to the 10,000 seater MacArthur Basketball Court to the historic Hayward Athletics Field. It is simply fantastic facility after fantastic facility here. We walked around mouths dropped and totally in awe! When we asked some of the grounds people around the indoor football pitch they said that these sort of facilities were pretty normal for the large American division I institutions! From what we have seen they are very well used as well. Every time we have been onto the University Campus there have always been people training or competing. While having great facilities doesn’t mean you will have great athletes - just look at Kenyan and Ethiopian domination of endurance running events - it certainly does enable you to do so.

As I have mentioned previously college sports over here are treated very seriously. Many of the sports teams have professional college coaches who organise practices and racing schedules for their top guys and girls. This systems helps make it a smooth transition for the kids that are used to training at home with a local club to training with a team at college. As most of you will know it is massively different to how things work in the UK. At most universities there is little structure within the majority of university sports clubs. This is mainly because they are run by students, who move on every few years, providing little continuation and no incentive to set up a program which will gain results a few years down the line. It is tough for any sports club to recruit and retain first-years who have been used to a more professional environment at home. With the large proportions of kids going to university now, not having a structured university sports system will do little to cultivate a set of world beating athletes. Instead of providing a platform for success within universities the governing bodies in the UK focus their limited funds on a select few ‘elites’ with money from the lottery. What is needed are structures and platforms that motivate all levels of sporting ability - from your beginners to your Olympians. UK Sport doesn’t have the resources and power to do implement what would be needed to have such a broad college system. However just focusing on the beginners and Olympians misses out a huge section in the middle and is where we in the UK generally goes wrong and is where in the US they generally get it right.

The indoor (American) Football pitch

Superbowl Sunday

2010-02-09T05:36:00.001Z

Before this week, I had absolutely no idea what the super bowl was. Infact I didn’t even know it was anything to do with American Football. I would have guessed it was something to do with bowling or the like and didn’t realise it was one of the biggest sporting events in the US all year.

To further our experience of the USA we decided to watch the game. This would be pretty easy as it was luckily being shown on one the channels which we can access at our flat. It also handily followed the highlights from the Boston Indoor Athletics meeting so we would be suitably warmed up ready. In order to do it properly we bought the mandatory Root Beer and crisps in and then we were ready.

About half an hour from the start we realised our error that, unless the superbowl was actually a college basketball game, we didn’t have the channel we thought we had. By chance however, I had joined the gym next door on a week’s temporary membership deal (aggravated Achilles=no running), which by chance had the channel, and a few smiles at the reception meant that we could both go in for free and see it in the lounge area which had a wide screen tv and really comfy sofa’s.

So comfy that within minutes I was sound asleep. I didn’t miss any crucial points of the game (I don’t think) but it was a little unfortunate that I missed the guy sat on the sofa behind explaining the rules to Chris. I spent the rest of the game trying to work out what was happening. Not sure I totally get it even now, but it seemed good and I have perfected, the ‘looking interested whilst baffled‘ look! Apparently there are a lot of tactics involved, but I couldn’t explain any of it.

It was quite good fun though, and we saw some funny adverts in the breaks. Apparently the adverts are a major part of the event and the one where some guy gets stabbed by a Dorito was probably my favourite.

Ducktails Woohoo!

2010-02-07T18:43:00.003Z

Being in the USA and around one of the biggest colleges in the country - the University of Oregon - we wanted to check out some of the college sport. As we are big followers of athletics in both the UK and US we were already well aware of some of the differences within our own sport, but didn‘t know too much about some of the American based sports. We got the feeling though that university sport was taken much more seriously in the US, especially as there seems to be college basketball and American football on TV most of the time.

Even so, we were slightly surprised when we went to a women’s college basketball game at the MacArthur Court at Oregon University and there were over 4000 people there! It wasn’t even as if it was just other students supporting or families of the players, there seemed to be actual members of the public there! No-one gives a monkeys about university sport in the UK so why do people care here? Well when things got going we saw why. The whole experience was really professional, the players were all really good, both of the teams had full-time coaches and both teams even had their own cheerleading teams with them! There was even a band playing before the game, during time-outs and half-time and then after the match. To our amusement they played a bit of theme tune from ducktails because of the University of Oregon’s nickname - the ducks! Classic! It really was a great atmosphere and it meant that the whole crowd got into the spirit of the game.

When the game got going the ducks began to dominate proceedings against local rivals and fellow Division 1 side Oregon State University. The University of Oregon got off to a great start before things evened up, although in the end it was still a comfortable victory for the ducks with the final score being 82 -62. I had a rough idea what was going on throughout the match, but I’m not sure Andrea had too much clue - she was too busy being distracted by the Duck Mascot running around and hugging fans.

The distracting duck

Ducktails!!

Siuslaw National Forest

2010-02-07T06:05:00.000Z

Fridays = easy running day, so with only one nice short run to do it seemed like a perfect opportunity to get out of Eugene for a while and explore one of the national parks on the Oregon coast. It wasn’t raining either which was a bonus.

We decided to drive to Siuslaw National Forest which is about 2 hours drive north west of Eugene. We hadn’t decided on a specific place within the forest that we would go to, but it’s a forest so there is bound to be a whole load of walks and trails right?

So we got to the forest pretty easily and decided to stop off at the first likely walk. So we drove, and drove and drove some more. After another hour of driving we were starting to get a little worried that we weren’t going to find anywhere. Other than an odd car park between the road and river for fishermen (and with no walks leading off from them) there was absolutely no where to stop. We eventually decided to call it a day and begin to head back as it was soon going to get dark. We did see a lot of the forest and had a couple of stops for photos but we were pretty disappointed not to find anywhere to park up and explore. The national park did look pretty though with it’s very tall leafless tress and roaring river.

We decided to cheer ourselves up by stopping for a hot chocolate when we passed an appropriate café. It really wasn’t our day though and other than a McDonald’s (and we’ve seen enough of them recently thanks to the free wi-fi) there was nothing tempting. So it was back to Eugene empty handed with a plan to visit the tourist information in the next few days to see where we went wrong!

One for the geeks

2010-02-05T17:46:00.005Z

Our initial plan was that today was going to be a quiet day. We would go out for a couple of training sessions and then plan some of the activities that we would do over the next few weeks. Unfortunately these things never seem to work out that way and we ended up doing zero planning! Skype and catching up with friends seems to get in the way!

By the time we had got back from our first training session of the day and wasted time talking to family back home (just kidding), it was time for lunch. After that we took a drive down to the Nike store in Eugene to get ourselves kitted out in some Oregon gear. For those that don’t know, Nike was born in Portland Oregon, just a few miles up the road from Eugene. Nike still has a strong affiliation to Eugene and Oregon University because the founder, Phil Knight, used to be an athlete training under legendary running coach Bill Bowerman. We have been told that Nike pretty much bankrolls athletics in the US, and particularly athletics in Eugene (the Oregon Track Club and Oregon University see the fruits of this) and is part of the reason for their recent upturn in success. Its nice to know that every dollar you spend on running shoes is helping out US distance running ;)! Some of the stuff in the Nike store is awesome and you could easily spend a load more, but we stayed restrained and got a hoodie and hat each. My bro has put in a request for some college gear so I’m going to have to see what I can do (especially as, at this rate, our luggage allowance is going to be about 3kg over on the way back home!).

Andrea outside the Nike Store

Whilst out at the mall (I’m learning the American lingo) we saw a sign for the Eugene Running Company. Being geeks anything with the word running in it draws our attention, so we decided to investigate. It turned out to be a dedicated running store with loads of memorabilia from some of the top US distance runners based in the area. It was whilst looking that I got chatting to one of the store attendants about this stuff. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about distance running in general and his knowledge of UK distance running was also really impressive (although he hadn’t heard of me or Andrea so couldn’t have been that good ;) ). It turned out to be top professional US coach Brad Hudson, author of the bestselling book ‘Run Faster’ and who until recently coached Dathan Ritzenheim (who set the American record for 5000m this summer and placed top 10 at the Olympic marathon). He was really nice and encouraging when we told him what we were doing and recommended a bunch of races to do. It did amuse us later on that one of the first questions I had asked him was ‘do you follow athletics?’!! How was I supposed to know who he was!

Later in the evening we donned our new Oregon gear and headed to a sports bar to resume our Thirsty Thursday tradition that was put on hold whilst we were in Australia. Beer prices in Oz were twice the price of those in the UK so we couldn‘t justify it. In the end what was going to be a quiet day turned out to be a really cool one.

Thirsty Thursday arrives in the US

P.S. Sorry for this blog being a bit running biased, but we are in ‘Track Town USA’ so meeting famous runners could be a regular occurrence. We’ll be more rounded in future ;).

Spencer Butte

2010-02-05T02:04:00.003Z

The weather in Eugene has been wet. Infact we haven’t had a day when it hasn’t rained so far. So when we got up this morning and it was fine we decided to take the opportunity to get out of the town and head to one of the many surrounding national parks for a walk.

So we got up and went out running. Just the one training session for us today so we hoped we could go out for the whole day once we got the run out of the way. However, just over half the way into the run, the rain started to pour down once again and for a moment I thought I was back in Manchester. Sodden and cold when we returned to our apartment, we decided to give it a couple of hours to see if it cleared up. To fill the time we decided instead to head to Wal-Mart to muse over the Lucky Charms, Peanut Butter Goober and Twinkies. Restraint was in force today though and we settled with the standard healthier groceries.

Fortunately, the rain cleared up in the afternoon and we were finally able to head South of Springfield to Spencer Butte Park, where we decided to climb up to the Spencer Butte Summit. This is our kind of hill, or so we thought. The summit is about 2000ft, although we were only required to climb 700ft of it from the car park, and there were well formed paths taking you to the top. It was a fairly steep climb on the dirt trail but we made it to the top fairly quickly. Just in time for it starting raining infact, and armed with non waterproof jackets (we didn’t bring any with us on the entire trip…school girl error), we didn’t linger too long before beginning the descent.

The view from the top

By this time however, the dirt track had become a mud slide and so we had plenty of unwelcome chances to perfect the art of a form of side ways ski-ing from one mud slide to another. Whoever fell on their behind would lose out on the Snicker doodle cookie (yes it is actually called that) which was waiting for us back at the apartment. Thankfully it didn’t come to that, as I am the balance queen and Chris cheated by sitting on his hands when he slipped. I must remember to be more specific with the rules next time.

Despite the rain, it was a worthwhile trip as we got some cool views of the area around Eugene and the forests are pretty amazing. The only disappointment is not having seen any blog worthy wildlife so far…oh apart from all the red squirrels..

Chris' sparkly new bike

A new set of wheels

2010-02-03T06:51:00.003Z

In the morning Andrea did her first session in Eugene. We headed to Alton Baker Park in central Eugene. A hub of bike networks and running trails. I marked out a 1km course using the garmin along the river - so at least if things weren’t going well there was some nice scenery for Andrea to look at! Andrea set out with the prospect of doing 9 if things went well. In the end it did - despite some severe jetlag when she woke up.

Running through Alton Baker Park

Since we are in America for three months I wanted to get a bike so that I may enjoy some of the trails around Oregon and California. So far I have only been walking which I find painfully slow. We expected a bit of a battle to find a reasonably priced second-hand mountain bike, but in the end it was easy. We found a good bike in the first shop we went into. It’s a specialised too and in decent condition, not bad huh! I’m looking forward to getting out on it tomorrow whilst Andrea is running - for once I’ll be able to make it out of the car park before our time is up!

In the afternoon we went for a drive around the town, it was raining on and off so we didn’t manage to get any photos. We’ll save them for another day. We headed through the University of Oregon and got a glimpse of the historic Hayward Fields Running Track - where every year they hold the Pre Classic. This year the meet is a part of the inaugural Diamond League so will likely have even more world class athletes running laps. Unfortunately we leave before it is on - which we are gutted about - maybe some other time. We’ll have to see.

We have also been looking out for a sports bar within walking distance of our apartment so that we may watch the superbowl this Sunday. Don’t ask us what the superbowl is because we haven’t got a clue, but if we find a bar then hopefully after the weekend we’d some idea. Hopefully we’ll find something in the next few days…

Let the blogging re-commence.

2010-02-02T06:16:00.005Z

We have made it. After six days of almost non stop travelling we finally arrived in Eugene, Oregon late last night. We actually arrived in the States on Saturday afternoon but then had a mammoth drive from Los Angeles to Eugene over the next couple of days. It certainly wasn’t made any less painful by our 55mph self imposed speed limit (even in the haze of tiredness, the budget bells still ring loud and clear).

Despite being a long car journey we did manage to experienced a few lifetime firsts. We were forced kicking and screaming into an American diner (twice) once for a heart attack sandwich (also known as a burger) the other for breakfast in the form of pancakes and syrup. Both were exceedingly good. Fortunately for both of our waistlines, health and sporting abilities we have now managed to get to a supermarket for ‘proper’ food.

In addition to this, Chris has taken to driving on the right hand side of the road for the first time like a duck to water (!) and I have reached the height of monotony on a run - a 40min run in the dark at a motor way service station using a 65 second loop. Speaking of running records, I also completed my latest ever Sunday run. After arriving in Eugene at 10pm, I headed out for a long run which finished at 00:14am. Though perhaps enough records have been broken for one week so hopefully normal training will resume tomorrow!

It also feels like we‘ve already learnt a good deal about the America:

1. Everything is big. We have hired an economy car and expected a three door small car like those we had in Australia. But, no, an economy car in the US is a five door normal sized family car. However it still turns out that our car hardly comes up to wheel level on almost every other monster truck that is on the road. It’s not just the cars though it’s everything. Road signs, food portions, Wal-mart and don’t get Chris started on the size of some of the people. ‘It’s monstrous’ are my most used words at the moment although I wasn’t complaining when I saw the ‘Monstrous’ sized bottles of wine in the supermarkets…mmmm.

2. Lots of stuff is open 24/7. We rocked up at our first Motel just before midnight and lots of diners are open all night (it could be heaven if you get late night munchies).

3. Drivers don’t indicate when turning off at a junction. Makes running fairly hazardous.

4. At least half of the American’s we have spoken to claim that the English Premier Football league is not popular in the US….and then said they support Arsenal or Man United.

5. Don’t believe a price tag. It only tells half the story.

6. Petrol is cheap but interestingly in Oregon it’s illegal to fill up the car yourself.

7. America is a beautiful country with some amazing scenery, and American‘s can‘t be more helpful. Lots of places to explore in the next three months and hopefully people to be met!

We love the USA!

Our 'economy' car for the next three months

A snapshot of some of the beautiful scenery on the California/Oregon border

Next stop USA!!

2010-01-29T08:25:00.000Z

Sorry for the lack of updates over the last couple of days. We’ve been travelling down to Sydney from Noosa, so pretty uneventful really. We had a 10 hour journey on Wednesday and then on Thursday me and Andrea met up with one of my relatives in the afternoon - the sprightly Noela.

So tomorrow we are leaving Australia for the land of the fatties, the big U. S. A. We’re both really excited - our flight tomorrow afternoon can’t come round soon enough. We’re flying to Los Angeles and then we have another mammoth drive up to Eugene in Oregon, where we should arrive on Sunday night. We’re hoping to get straight into the American lifestyle and have some pancakes on Sunday morning at one of those diners on the highway - hopefully they do actually exist and it isn’t just in the movies!!

Before we leave Australia we made one of those cheesy lists of our best bits. It takes the form of an alphabet. There are a few letters missing where we couldn‘t think of anything good to say, so here goes:

A- AVALANCHE PEAK. This scared the hell out of both myself and Andrea, but the more we look back, the more we are pleased that we did it. Some simply incredible views. The only time so far when I couldn’t get my camera out for the snaps.

B- BLUE MOUNTAINS. Just beautiful. A massive surprise only 3 days into our trip.

C- COFFEE PALACE. If it hadn’t been for the noise this place would have been great. Free pancakes and great location in the heart of St Kilda and moments from the beach. A few nobheads in the hostel let it down for us.

D- DUBBO ZOO. Kangaroos, turtles, monkeys, meerkats and giraffes. Although we continue to wait for our first croc sighting.

E- EMILY & PAUL. Our fantastic New Zealand hosts. I’m not missing sleeping on the floor though guys!! ;)

F- FALLS CREEK. Stands out as one of our favourite places we have been. Amazing views, great walks and a fantastic lodge. It couldn’t have been much better.

G- GO BUSH. Our New Zealand Bush experience. Remote, beautiful and lots of fun.

H- HEATWAVE. Someone put the temperature up in November when we got to Australia. It got us into the habit of 5am starts for running. We won’t miss that in the US.

I- INTERNET in McDonalds. Considering I’m sat in McDonalds with a Big Mac and surfing the web, I feel it should be given a special mention.

K- KIWIRUN. How could we not mention it!! The best two weeks of our trip. Some great people and great sights. A must for runners across the world.

L- LIZARDS. We have a soft spot for lizards after owning a bearded dragon for a year. We probably ended up spending half our time in Australia looking for them!

M- MILDURA. We had to mention Mildura for being the worst place we stayed. The crappy cabin along with the intense heat and not a massive amount to do in the town meant that our stay there wasn’t particularly enjoyable.

N- NEW ZEALAND 10000 CHAMPS. It’s not everyday you get to say that you are New Zealand 10000m Champion! A very special day.

O- OUTBACK. One of our first experiences in Australia and one of the most memorable. How will we forget the vast, open and desolate landscape.

P- PENGUIN PARADE. The sight of 30 or so little penguins sprinting up the beach was so cute. I wish we could have got some good footage of it.

Q- QUEENSLAND gold coast. A city of contrasts - the beautiful natural beaches meet the skyscrapers of ‘surfers’s paradise’. Worth a visit, but don’t stay too long.

R- ROADTRIP. Essentially the best way to describe our trip so far. Without our trusty vehicles we wouldn’t have had the flexibility to do half of the things we have done so far.

S- SYDNEY OLYMPIC PARK. We will always have a soft spot for the Olympic Park, particularly since we are such big fans of the Olympics. It was amazing to be able to see the park and how it is now being used. If London can do the same come 2012 they will be doing very well.

T- TONGARIRO CROSSING. One of the highlights of our North Island New Zealand trip. Fantastic views of Mount Doom (Lord of the Rings Reference) and the dormant volcano. Running it was slightly unconventional but what else can you do on a running tour!!

W- WILDLIFE. We would never have said that we were wildlife fans before coming to the southern hemisphere, but with the massive variety of animals native to Australia, you just can’t help but get into it.

X- XMAS DAY in batemans bay. We were both missing home on Christmas day this year. We managed to cheer ourselves up with a dip in the sea and a lunchtime bbq. No good tv though! Where’s Noel Edmonds when you need him!

Thanks to everyone for reading the first 3 months of our blog. We hope you enjoy the next 3 from the US!!

Preparing to leave Oz…

2010-01-26T18:47:00.000Z

So here we are on our last proper day in Australia. I say proper because the next three days will be mainly spent doing the 14 hour drive back to Sydney ready for our flight on Saturday, and today was the last day in which we had a full day and the opportunity to do things.

The time here in Noosa has gone very quickly. I know obviously that time doesn’t speed up or slow down but sometimes it seems crazy that time is one of the few constants in the world. No matter what happens, time keeps marching on a the same rate. I suppose that‘s kind of comforting when you think about everything you have to look forward to in the future. But on the other hand, that clock which is ticking away the days till I have to return to work needs a punch in the face.

Anyway, today we decided to make say our final farewell’s to the places in Noosa which have made our stay memorable - so we went to the beach, we went to Lake Weyba for the afternoon and we also took a trip to the school playing field where we have spent a considerable amount of time training this week (it has a grass track and plenty of shade for core exercises). It was for yet another training session though so we are not completely sad.

Now that the final few days are upon us, and those days are likely to be of the less exciting sitting in a car variety, we are now both really looking forward to going to the states. It seems very close now. I’m also looking forward to finding out which films we can watch on the plane, and the strong possibility of journey sweets….we’ll have to wait and see….

Top of the World Rankings

2010-01-26T00:26:00.000Z

One of the advantages of racing in the southern hemisphere at the beginning of Januray is that there is a good chance, if you win your races, that you may end up top of the world rankings list. Thanks to KiwiRun Andrea is currently top of the world rankings for the outdoor 3000m and 10000m! We’ll now be checking every day to see how long this streak lasts!!

Here is a link to the site that you need to check everyday… It’s interesting to note that the half-marathon time is around 90s quicker per 10k that Andrea’s world leading time, but I’m not going to let that spoil it.

Top of the World!!

Apart from that moment of excitement the day was pretty quiet. We have been enjoying our relaxing stay in the beautiful seaside town of Noosa, where we still have one more full day. It’s nice not to have to wake up and drive 5 hours to our next destination which has become a part of our lives whilst in Oz. Our main activities were a short trip to the beach for a swim and then later on sitting outside on our porch in the warm afternoon.

In the evening we rented the Disney animation ‘Up’, which we both really enjoyed. It was a bit of an emotional ride for us. One of the things that particularly struck a chord was that the main character had a book of the things that he wanted to achieve in life that he had made with his childhood sweetheart (who later became his wife). After his wife passed away he couldn‘t bring himself to look at the book as he believed that they had not done any of the things they had wanted to achieve. Late in the film he flicks through the book and sees photos that his wife had put into the book (when she had been ill) of many of the fun moments they had had together. A touching moment. Me and Andrea couldn’t look at each other at this point because we both had tears in our eyes! Definitely worth a look if you get a chance, and, don’t worry if you think it’s all sad as there was a happy ending.

The latest garden accessory…

2010-01-25T02:04:00.004Z

Today we went to explore another part of the area - Noosa Waters - called so probably because it is where there are a cluster of little lakes and waterways. It looked like it held potential for a good picnic spot and a pleasant walk.

Before going to Noosa Waters we stopped off at the huge Lake Weyba. After some difficulty in finding out how to actually get to it (poor map, definitely not poor map reading), we made it to the lakeside where it was really peaceful with only a few boats floating about and a canoeist. It was pretty relaxing and we stayed some time just chatting on the lake shore. Before the burn started we then made our way to Noosa Waters.

The view across Lake Weyba

It turns out that Noosa Waters is a housing estate and the posh part of town. I’m not sure why we didn’t guess before. The place was immaculate, hardly a leaf out of place. Each house backed onto the waterside and every house had a boat at the end of the garden, just as if having a boat is like having a tv set or a garden shed. It probably explains how some of the restaurants and shops in Noosa get away with being so expensive. Attractive as it was, it wasn’t quite the picnic spot we were hoping for. I suppose it might be slightly odd stopping for lunch on the grass verge outside someone’s front door, so we moved on.

Noosa waters

Today we also discovered a 2nd hand bookshop where we thought we may be able to sell four books which we’ve been carting around for ages. Hopefully we’d lighten our load for the USA flight and also make some money for ice-creams. It didn’t quite work out that way as the shop didn’t buy, only traded. As Chris has finally resurfaced after being lost in Homer for quite some time and is eager to start ‘Macroeconomics’ it was up to me to pick an appropriate read. A book by Bill Bryson was the answer. It looks good, however is probably bigger and heavier than the four books combined that we left at the shop. Not all carefully thought out plans come together I suppose.

One week to go!!

2010-01-24T02:56:00.001Z

We only have seven full days left in the southern hemisphere. Andrea often counts down the time in terms of the number of training runs or sessions that she has left. That meant that including today it is only 13 runs and 5 harder sessions. It still sounds like a lot doesn’t it! Today was Andrea’s double session day so we would immediately be able to knock two off each of those numbers.

Andrea’s first session of the day was a 10mile marathon paced tempo. So that she doesn’t run on an empty stomach Andrea normally gets up around an hour before to have a small bowl of cereal. As you can be out for a couple of hours on these types of sessions it stops you getting really hungry. Part of the loop that we found to do the tempo run on was on a main road without paths (although there was a cycle lane), so we decided to get up half an hour earlier so that there would be less traffic about. This meant getting up at the crazy hour of 4am! Andrea started the run at 5:30am and approximately an hour later had finished. It didn’t go so well today - it happens every now and again - so we decided to not bother with the second small speedier session later and just do an easy run.

The rest of the day was pretty relaxed. We went to the beach and then into Noosa Heads, which was pretty and expensive, to explore and get an ice-cream. When we came back we (or more accurately I) watched the penultimate stage of Australia’s premier pro road biking tour - The Tour Down Under, which is dominating sports coverage over here along with the Australian Open.

After we got back from our easy runs we had a barbeque without the carcinogenic bit, i.e. burning the hell our of the meat on an actual bbq. We enjoyed sitting outside on our porch until late in the evening (8pm), whilst enjoying a glass of wine or two… or perhaps even four.

Noosa National Park

2010-01-24T02:37:00.003Z

When the worst of the day’s sun had passed we decided to go to the Noosa National Park which is situated only a mile or so up the road from where we are staying. It was still pretty hot so we didn’t fancy doing too much walking, however we decided to do a shortish out and back walk to visit Alexandria Bay - which is only accessible by foot and so should be quite quiet we thought.

The walk was pleasant despite the never ending steps we had to tackle initially. Once at the top of the cliff, we were walking through bush land which provided welcome shade although it unfortunately ruined what were potentially great views of the coastline. We didn’t see many people though so had high hopes of a quiet and peaceful beach when we emerged from the bush line.

Chris took a cheeky photo of me walking up towards the heads

We weren’t disappointed as there was very few people scattered on the beach, however as we approached the first couple of people on the beach we noticed that they were stark naked! We had accidentally (I promise) stumbled on a nudist beach. We weren’t tempted to join in despite the prospect of an all-over tan, so after a few minutes sit down, made our way back over the cliffs and made our way back to the apartment to enjoy the warm evening with a glass of wine.

Looking back at sunshine and sunrise beaches

Arse over feet

2010-01-21T23:54:00.003Z

The apartments we are staying in have some body boards (or shark biscuits as the apartment owner likes to call them) which are available for patrons to use. For those that don’t know, body boards are half-length surf boards which you never get to stand up on. You just ride the waves lying on your front. I used to do a reasonable amount of it around 10 years ago, and even went on a holiday to the south of France with family and friends where we managed to surf most days. Andrea on the other hand has never had a go. Being a bit of a country bumpkin and growing up out in the sticks she hadn’t even seen the sea or heard of surfing until she got to Australia. So this was a totally new experience for her.

First we had to find a section of beach that we could use. It didn’t take long, near our apartment there is a patrolled section where at least if anything bad does happen there are some lifeguards nearby to save you. We read today that 48 people have already drowned in Australia since January 1st - double last years amount. This is largely because many families and groups overestimate their swimming ability and end up getting caught in dangerous rips which drag you out to sea. Even if you are a strong swimmer you have to be very careful with rips forming all over the Australian coastline. Obviously as Andrea hasn’t done any surfing before we wanted to be safe and stay with our feet always on firm ground and so we stayed in the patrolled section.

The waves weren’t the best though and were crashing down very close to the shore. This presented another problem for Andrea - staying on her feet long enough to catch a wave. Eventually, Andrea did manage to surf a few waves and I think she did actually quite enjoyed it. It was just as we were going though that a massive wave came crashing down on Andrea. All I saw was feet and legs in the air and when Andrea emerged from the water, it was with a few scratches and a snapped body board!! Not quite the successful ending we were hoping for! Maybe body boarding is best left for the UK where the waves are half the size…

Andrea sticking to something she is good at ;)

Sunrise in Noosa

The furthest point....

2010-01-21T00:18:00.001Z

Now at the halfway point through our final road trip of Australia, it was time to move on today to one of the last few places we will visit. Noosa sits north of Brisbane on the Sunshine Coast and we had booked to stay in a shared apartment for a week. Following on from our seven nights in Noosa we then have three days to make our way back down to Sydney for our flight, but in the meantime there looks to be plenty to amuse ourselves in and around the area.

After another early start to fit in a long run with Ollie and an Aussie guy called Paul, we were on the road from the Gold Coast by mid morning following a rather long internet fix to sort out my entry to my first race in the US (woohoo). It seemed to take an age to get to Noosa, even though it was probably only three or four hours. Probably due to the intense temperature in the car. The apartment in right on the Sunrise Beach, where there is miles and miles of sand and not very many people (always a bonus). First activity tomorrow (ear permitting) will be to test out one of the free body boards they have at the apartments. Hopefully it will be easier than body surfing or else I’m in for a salty breakfast….

A tale of two cities

2010-01-19T23:29:00.002Z

It was non-stop action today as we aimed to make the most of our only full day on the Gold Coast. Andrea had a reps session to do first thing in the morning so we were out before 5:30am local time. It went well although it was already baking hot by 7am when we finished. On the way back we went for a swim in Burleigh Creek - watching our for Bull Sharks which Ollie said are pulled out quite regularly around these parts. We got back and had our breakfast before going to the beach and relaxing for a bit. Including another obligatory swim to cool down. Ollie then picked us up from the motel and took us to a really nice place on the Currumbin waterfront where we each enjoyed a burger. In the afternoon we went for a walk along Currumbin Creek boardwalks and Andrea then went for her second easy run around another local park to us.

In the evening we went to the Q1 tower in ‘Surfers Paradise’ - the worlds tallest residential building. Surfers Paradise is what a lot of people think of when they think of the Gold Coast - high rise apartments backing onto the beaches. However, this is only a small part of the GC and most of it isn’t as built up or touristy. The Q1 tower allows you to see how all of these areas merge together and how the built-up apartment towers meet the beautiful natural coastline. The Gold Coast is certainly a city of stark contrasts.

The view from Q1

Surfers Paradise

It's oh so quiet...

2010-01-19T00:46:00.002Z

Undeterred by the experience of finding accommodation in Byron Bay, we decided to try it once again on the Gold Coast which would be our next destination.

After arriving on the Gold Coast early (we thought 9am however we found out later that Queensland is on a different time to New South Wales so it was actually 8am) we spent some time initially driving round trying to find anything that looked like a hotel or hostel but nothing could be seen. However after a few detours we struck gold with a whole host of hotels and motels along one long strip (the Gold Coast Highway). We only had to go into two Motels to find somewhere within our price range, and like in Byron Bay, we took the last room available. Despite not being able to see the bottom of the pool (and not because it was deep either), the motel was pretty good and had everything we wanted.

We had a fairly quiet afternoon, or certainly Chris did anyway. After quite a bit of swimming in the sea over the past few days, Chris seems to have developed a blocked ear (potential ear infection?) and so spent half the afternoon shaking his head and yawning whilst I spent it repeating myself and talking very loudly. We did manage to have a bit of a drive around the area, with myself driving for a change so that I could talk into Chris’s good ear. The Gold Coast is made up of a number of different towns (or area’s) and first impressions is that it’s very nice. We didn’t get as far as the ridiculously named ‘Surfers Paradise’ whose high rise buildings were looming ominously in the distance, but apparently it’s best to avoid it anyway. We may have to go at some point though just to see how tacky and trashy it actually is ;).

Looking across the bay towards 'Surfers Paradise'

In the evening we met our new Kiwi Run friend, Ollie, who is also staying on the Gold Coast for a few weeks. It had cooled down a little by now so we went for a run and then had a bit of a look at the beach before going back for an early night. We have decided to keep our watches on NSW time as I tend to do most of my hard sessions in the mornings, Hence we will be getting up at 4.30am actual time tomorrow for the session….all in the name of athletics!

Me hanging onto Ollies coattails

Beach Babes

2010-01-18T02:30:00.002Z

So, quite unintentionally, this section of our trip has turned into a bit of a beach holiday. Neither myself or Andrea would call ourselves beach types, it’s just something we’ve never been into. For myself it is not for lack of opportunity. Coming from Bournemouth where there are beaches just 5 minutes walk from my house I have just never been bothered about it. However, here the beach experience is much more enjoyable. For one thing the weather here is hot everyday (it almost goes without saying), so that the coolest place to be (if you have some shade) is by the sea. If you spend your time reading on the beach then when you get too hot you can just dive into the water and cool off - perfect. Which brings me onto the sea - it is much warmer than the English channel - you aren’t shivering the whole time you’re in the water - which makes a dip more enjoyable. And lastly Australia is a big country with a lot of coastline, so the beaches just aren’t as crowded as back home. I’m coming across like a bit of a grumpy old sod here and I apologise. The UK does many things a lot better than Australia, but beach holidays just isn’t one of them ;).

Being a Sunday Andrea had a long run to do. When Andrea returned we hit the beach for a couple of hours, doing a bit of reading and then some more swimming. Andrea is still drinking more water than she is bodysurfing on so she didn’t have much luck there. I managed to ride some good ones as the waves were possibly as big as we have seen while in Oz. We went back to the hostel for a few hours to escape the harsh sun during the middle of the day and then wandered up to ‘Cape Byron’ to have a closer look at Australia’s most eastern mainland point and Australia’s most eastern Lighthouse. On returning to the hostel we made the most of the beachside location of the hostel and went for one last dip in the water before we would be leaving Byron Bay for the Gold Coast in the morning.

One of Byron Bay's beautiful beaches

Riding a wave

Body Surfing Part 2

2010-01-17T01:24:00.003Z

After we had recovered from the trauma of our accommodation hunt (can I add that Chris did embellish slightly on some aspects in yesterdays blog in case anyone was wondering), today would be our first full day of exploring Byron Bay which would also be combined with my weekly double reps session day.

Thankfully it was a little less hot today for my sessions and they both went well, however I won’t bore you all with the gory details. In between the two we obviously had some time to kill and it seemed silly to come to Byron Bay, and stay in a beach side hostel, without spending at least some of the time on the beach. However, neither of us are sun worshipers, and I am in a period of wearing more clothes since my lobster episode in Coffs Harbour, so if we were going to go to the beach it was almost inevitable that we would end up in the sea. Chris spent some time body surfing and I spent a lot of time either trying not to drown or trying to rescue either my bikini top or shorts. The waves were pretty big (or certainly compared to anything I’ve seen before) and Chris managed to catch a few good waves. Unfortunately I didn’t see many of these as I was usually underwater having been completely taken out by the wave. Having done only minimal swimming (more paddling or splashing really) over the last few years I seem to have completely lost my ability to close my mouth or hold my breath whilst under water and hence I think I got my salt intake for the day within about 40 minutes.

When we were cold and shrivelled, we called it a day and as the weather was still relatively cool, we took the opportunity to have a wander around the town centre and in some of the shops. It seems like a good town centre with plenty of shops, restaurants, bars and café’s (if only we had a bigger budget eh!). Chris promised me an ice cream if he could barter down some of the prices but his technique still requires some fine-tuning so we went home empty handed.

We’ve another day in Byron Bay tomorrow - hopefully it will be another cool one as we plan to do a walk around the nearby national park…

Morning session stroll

The beach that we went to three times today!!

Extreme Travelling

2010-01-16T01:19:00.001Z

We did something today that we haven’t done whilst we’ve been away. We set off from Coffs Harbour without any accommodation booked at our next destination. For most people that is part of the travelling experience - rocking up at your next destination and finding somewhere to stay on your arrival. But to be honest that isn’t us. Free spirits we are not! We like to plan and know what is coming up over the next few days and more importantly how much of our budget is left. Not knowing where we are going to be next month gives me headaches so not knowing where I’m going to be spending the next night doesn’t bare thinking about! Some of you may be asking ‘why now?’ as we have been travelling for over two months. Well if you hang on a sec, I’ll tell you. The main reason is because of those damn KiwiRunners. Those guys just didn’t give us enough spare time to sort anything out. They kept us too busy!! Internet was available but because of all the planned activities we didn’t get a chance to do anything productive let alone browse the bbc news. When we did finally get a moment there wasn’t much accommodation available, mainly because it’s holiday season and the stuff that was available was just too expensive.

So we got up early, anxious after a sleepness night worrying that we’d end up spending the following night in some drug den, and hit the road before sunrise. Part of the reason why accommodation was so expensive was because we wanted to stay in Byron Bay, one of Australia’s premier seaside resorts; popular with families, surfers and backpackers alike. To imagine Byron Bay think Newquay, but with good weather and a lot more crowded.

As soon as we started driving into Byron Bay our worst fears began coming to life. Motel after hotel after hostel. All with no vacancies. Even the man in the information centre said our plight was hopeless. He even suggested a nearby dog kennels who sometimes have spare beds for struggling backpackers. Just as we were contemplating moving on from Byron Bay, we struck gold. The Backpacker Inn. Right on the beach, with its own swimming pool, free bike hire and free surfboard hire. All of this for only $70 per night (£40). One of the most expensive places we’ve stayed so far, but we’d take it and for three nights if only so we could put off going through this stressful experience for another few days!!

Body Surfing and Botanical Gardens

2010-01-15T06:11:00.003Z

Inspired by our beach trips whilst in New Zealand, we decided today to check out the beaches that Coffs Harbour has to offer. There were plenty of beaches to choose from and we didn’t have to try very hard to find one that wasn’t busy. We spent maybe a couple of hours at the beach where Chris had the unenviable job of trying to teach me to body surf. Not an easy role considering I don’t like getting my head wet and haven’t swum front crawl for years.

The beautiful beach

Having got a lot of ocean either in my mouth or in my eyes, we dismissed it as a poor effort and retired to the beach to relax. We thought we were safe considering the large volume of sun tan lotion we had put on but it seems my pasty Northern skin can’t handle the weather and I later discovered I had been transformed into a poor imitation of a lobster wearing a white bikini. So it’s full clothing for me now for a while.

Suitably fried we then headed off to look at a promising market that we had seen on our way to the beach. However, our bad luck continued as most of the stalls were clearing away for the day (at 3pm!!). Determinedly we carried on and headed to Coffs Harbour’s Botanic Gardens. It seems that everywhere in Australia has a botanic garden and we have visited a few over the past couple of months. Coffs Harbour’s version didn’t disappoint despite the fact that we had less than an hour to get around it before we would be locked in. There were a number of boardwalks (which are developing into Chris’s favourite type of walk) and a range of different plants and trees as you might expect. The most unusual was an orange electricity wire type tree, spotted right at the end. Of course, a certain amount of time was spent spotting lizards but that almost goes without saying these days.

Coffs Harbour's Botanical Gardens

Electric Plant!

So a slightly frustrating but on the whole good day spent at Coffs Harbour. You could easily spend longer here but the Sunshine Coast is calling. Our next stop on the journey is Byron Bay. It is slightly out of character for us but we will be attempting to fly by the seats of our pants and just rock up without booking any accommodation in advance. We will see what happens.

Coffs Harbour

2010-01-14T07:01:00.004Z

We were up at 5:30am so that we could get out to run before the intense heat hits later in the morning. Andrea again went into the Myall Lakes National Park (and saw a few kangaroos and wild dogs!!) while I ran around a football pitch (it reminds me of home).

Andrea running the quiet roads of Bulahdelah

We left Buhlahdelah early and arrived in Coffs Harbour at around 2pm. In the afternoon we didn’t manage much exciting stuff as we needed to shop for food and drink (something to entertain us with in the evenings!!).

In the evening we went on a walk for an hour along a cycle track which takes you past the Coffs Harbour Botanical gardens and along a river. We arrived back at the hotel at 7pm - enough time to do a core session and get dinner before watching the end of WALL.E.

Bulahdelah and Big Lizards

2010-01-13T05:19:00.003Z

The small town of Bulahdelah sits on the edge of the Myall Lakes National Park. On the map there seemed to be a number of walking trails, campsites and picnic areas, and as there are fairly limited places to run around the town itself, we decided to drive out to the National Park this morning for our run.

Unlike the Royal National Park which we drove through before New Year, Myall Lakes is much quieter and it really does feel like the road-less-travelled. We passed a few cars on the journey there, but they were quite few and far between and we didn’t get very far before I decided to hop out and start my run.

Part way through the run we spotted a sign for Koughman’s Landing and so turned off the main (ish) road. This lead to a beautiful lakeside campsite and picnic area where I finished my run. It was then time to sit on the side of the lake and eat breakfast. Just as we were beginning to pack up the car to return to the town, we made perhaps our best wildlife discovery yet.

Appearing from underneath one of the other cars, was a lizard. However, this was not like any of the other lizards we have seen, in that it was about 1.5 metres long and as wide as my leg. (well almost). Upon taking a closer look, we saw two other lizards exactly the same (one in a tree), and spent the next half an hour chasing them round the car park trying to get the perfect photo.

Myall lakes

Big lizard

The rest of the day was fairly quiet as we hung around our cabin while the suns heat was at its harshest. In the evening we did a short run before heading up Alum Mountain. Unfortunately we didn’t give ourselves enough time before sunset and so we almost got caught up the mountain in the dark with all the scary snakes and spiders out to get us.

Tomorrow we are heading north to Coffs Harbour where we are staying for a couple of days. It apparently has some nice beaches so we may end up checking them out.

Vid of said lizard in action

The Come Down

2010-01-12T04:28:00.000Z

As Andrea mentioned yesterday we had to be up at 3:30am to get ready for our flight. After getting to bed at around 11:30pm the night before it wasn’t easy and knocked us both back for the rest of the day.

Our flight was pretty good. This time we flew with Air New Zealand - a bit of a step from Jetstar - and we actually got breakfast and films included even though it was only a three hour flight. Me and Andrea managed to sync ‘The Full Monty’ so that we were at the same moment in the film even though we were watching on two screens. And before you say anything it isn’t geeky, its just practical! There’s nothing worse than knowing what the punch-line is going to be before it happens!! Hehe.

We arrived in Sydney at 8:30am and had a three hour trip up to the small town of Bulahdelah to get to our next accommodation. Over the next 19 days we will be driving up the east coast of Australia, past Brisbane, towards the sunshine coast, where we will be spending a week in the small coastal town of Noosa. We will then be whizzing back down towards Sydney where we then fly to Los Angeles on the 30th of January. So lots to look forward to.

We were both feeling a bit sad about leaving KiwiRun today. We had such a great two weeks that we were both feeling not very up for the next 19 days. A case of post tour blues!! We have both really enjoyed the travelling parts of our trip so far so I’m sure that once we will be back into the swing of seeing different places we will both be feeling a bit better. We have eyed up a few national parks and places we want to visit in the surrounding area tomorrow which we will report on later.

The Final Supper

2010-01-11T02:01:00.003Z

The last day of KiwiRun. It has come around far far too quickly. Time has gone whooshing past at a hundred miles an hour. Already today we have lost three of the group back to their respective homes and our own 3:30am wake up call tomorrow is rapidly approaching.

To celebrate our final day, or rather to help our battered legs, we did one of flatest runs of the trip so far with a lovely sunny run alongside one of the rivers in Wellington. Despite the brutal wind it was a nice way to finish our New Zealand running experience.

The afternoon saw our final supper together as a group. This took the form of a barbecue (indoors as by now it was teaming with rain) at a local farm owned by one of Steve's friends. We enjoyed delicious barbecued lamb sandwiches before the KiwiRun Awards were dished out. I won the award for lapping the most top NZ runners, whilst Chris won the 'Come on Andrea' award for the brilliant support he has given me on the tour (and in general).

Our plans for an early night failed to materialise due to having so many people to thank, swap email addresses with and say goodbye to. A sign of an absolutely fantastic two weeks...

Wellington

2010-01-10T08:37:00.004Z

For some people today was their last full day and only opportunity to look around New Zealand’s capital - Wellington. It also is where Steve and Nick Willis grew up, so local knowledge was likely to be in abundance. We wanted to make the most of it and see as much of the city as possible in the time available to us.

In the morning we went to the track and did a run from there. While me and Andrea just did an easy barefoot run around a football pitch behind the track, the majority of the KiwiRun party ran up the Wellington hills. Having initially thought they were just doing a flattish run they were a little surprised to see the severity of some of the climbs. So far it has been quite a trip for running up hills and some of the guys (and girls) were joking that they have probably run up most of them in the North Island ;). What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!!

Leaving the track we headed into Wellington CBD and got a curry for lunch in our first sit-down meal of the day. We then had 4 hours to look around the city centre. We walked down a few of the main high-streets and then towards the government building before heading to the Te Paka Museum (Wellingtons national museum). On the way we stopped for an obligatory hot chocolate to rest our weary legs. For our UK readers the Te Paka museum is as interactive as the Science Museum in London and definitely worth visiting if you are in the area. They even have a kids section which Andrea made the most of (just kidding… that was me really ).

Looking over the Wellington skyline.

Te Paka - The only museum in the world to have a giant squid exhibition.

In the evening everyone met up again and we had our last group meal together as 3 of our party are leaving tomorrow (KiwiRun is sadly coming to an end). We had a mini-awards ceremony for the departing (the extended version will be held tomorrow night at a BBQ for everyone else). After dinner a few of us went to a Karaoke bar - where I did my first ever performance….alone (maybe next time Andrea, what do you reckon??) - before we headed back to the lodge. Again we went straight to sleep as we were absolutely knackered.

Proof that me and Dylan rocked the karaoke!

Escaping the Bush!

2010-01-10T02:37:00.000Z

The highlight of the day was undoubtedly trying to leave the Go Bush accommodation. Confused? Well let me explain. As you know yesterday, we ran into the bush to the Go Bush lodge. There are no sealed roads leading to the Go Bush lodge. In fact there are no unsealed roads. There is simply only a track which has been dug out by Danny (our host) using his machinery. The only way to reach the lodge is by a 4x4 jeep.

This is all well and good. When it is dry. We were ok having had some glorious weather the last few days. However as we tucked into breakfast this morning, the rain started to pour, and it got wetter and wetter. Danny, Steve and Richard were our jeep drivers, and Danny was getting increasingly worried about the conditions so we had to pack up quickly and leave before our intended departure time. Four of the guys (including Chris) were walking the first section and picking up a fourth jeep part way up the hill.

We set off on the 10 mile drive up the side of a mountain and then across the bush in convoy, lead by experienced driver Danny. It started off ok, keeping in a low gear with the rev’s high seemed to be working on the first few steep hills, however, it wasn’t long before we ran into difficulty. On a short steep hill which went round a bend, we ended up sliding back down and worried about chewing up the clay even more by making another attempt (and making it difficult for the jeeps behind us) we had to hop out and waited for Danny to drive the car up.

This was only the first tricky section and there were many times when we were sliding around, often going sideways and I found it difficult not to hold my breath. A number of times we had to make more than one attempt at a section, and I had visions of rolling down the mountain in a jeep!

When we met the walkers with the fourth jeep, we had another problem…the 4th jeep wouldn’t start. Pouring with rain and not yet half way into the 10 mile journey, we tried desperately to shelter in the roofless and windowless jeeps, and wondered what to do. There were no jump leads in any of the jeeps. But Danny has a plan for everything, and to everyone’s amazement he managed to get all the jeeps started by lifting the battery out of a running engine (and getting a few shocks in the process) and then replacing it with the ‘dead’ battery - whilst the engine was still running. Perhaps not the safest but it worked!

We finally reached a proper road and our vans about two hours after leaving. Cold and wet and facing a long queue for the one shower, but very pleased to have reached the other side safely. Then it was on to Wellington - five or so hours drive South!

Go Bush

2010-01-08T11:06:00.004Z

As if running the 19.4km of the Tongariro Crossing wasn’t enough yesterday we had another 20km run planned for today, although this time over very different terrain… New Zealand bush!! Steve had planned for us to run deep into the Kiwi bush to reach a remote lodge 15km from any sealed roads. Once there we could relax and in the evening enjoy a Maori meal cooked in the traditional Maori way - Hangi. This is where meat, vegetables and even deserts are steam cooked underground using wet blankets and hot rocks. Sound odd? It didn’t disappoint. It was delicious ;).

The run in the morning wasn’t as early as the day before, around 9:30am. It was interesting to note as we set out that we had already finished the Tongariro crossing by that point 24 hours earlier and were on our way to the hot pools. Everyone was running, except for myself on the mountain bike and our guides - Callum and Abel (Callum’s 3 year old son) on the motorbike and Barry on the quad. We set out over the undulating course which included three river-crossings and some treacherous downhill and uphill (as evidenced by our guide Barry turning the quad bike over!!). The track we were traversing was set-up for mountain bikers (the 42 traverse) and was one of the best tracks I have ever been along (although I haven‘t done many). For around 40minutes I put the hammer down as I tried to catch Andrea (after giving her a 12 minute head-start) and had a blast storming down the track. Something I’d love to do again, but probably not great for my life-expectancy.

We reached the lodge via a flying-fox across the river before we settled down for the afternoon to relax and have a look around. For our evening meal our Maori host, Danny, had prepared our Hangi. A mix of chicken, wild boar, pork and beef along with a variety of vegetables and home-made salads. It was awesome!! We even had a traditional Maori desert which is something like a bread pudding in the UK.

As usual everyone was whacked in the evening so we were in bed at around 9:30pm. Another fun-packed day on our KiwiRun Journey.

One of the many bush views on our run

Hangi before...

and after

Our bush lodgings.

Mount Doom

2010-01-08T09:28:00.005Z

At 5:30am, just over four hours after we went to bed, we were up again, ready and raring to go for our next challenge. Well, ahem, up and ready to go anyway. There wasn’t much raring from the group at that time in the morning.

Today we would do the famous ‘Tongariro Crossing’ which up to a thousand people do every day and hence why the early start. The crossing basically involves going up a mountain, along the top and then back down again, however what makes it so special is the fantastic scenery when you reach the top.

We weren’t just ‘doing’ the crossing though. Not content with hiking the 7 or 8 hours from one side to the other, the group had decided to run it. Yes run it. Less than twelve hours after my 10,000m effort I was feeling a little sore to say the least, but was determined not to spoil the party.

The route started off fairly flat, and despite our early start we still had to overtake a number of eager beevor walkers who had beaten us to it. It wasn’t long however before we got ahead, and with most of the guys racing off, Chris, myself and one or two others took the pace fairly steady, stopping to pose for photos and look at the scenery.

The route started to really climb steeply after about 20 or minutes of running, So much so that some of the time we decided to walk to conserve energy. It was actually quicker anyway at some points.

We reached the summit after about 1 hour 15 of running. We later found out that the summit was used as the setting for the Mount Doom part of Lord of the Rings. Having not managed to get through the films without falling asleep this means little to me, however the others were suitably impressed. Maybe next time I try and watch it, I will recognise it! The view was pretty spectacular and I was glad that my calves had not swayed me to wimp out on the run. The first section of downhill was a little tricky and we got a chance to test our skills at ‘scree running’ although actually ‘scree walking’ would be a slightly more accurate description. We were so good we had to stop at the bottom to empty half the mountain out of our socks and shoes. The long gradual descent then began which was much less testing and we were able to cruise down the other side.

After just over two hours of running, Chris and myself decided to call the running a day and walked in the last few kilometres, and were met with the cheers of the guys who had finished a little ahead of us. It only took us just over 2 and a half hours and by 10am the whole group was relaxing in a hot thermal pool in the local village, much to the disbelief of the lady on reception. ‘You’ve already done the crossing this morning!?!’

Me running across the volcano basin

Chris conquoring Mount Doom

7hour walk done in under 3. Too easy ;)

33:29

2010-01-06T03:31:00.004Z

So there you have it. I’ve given the game away already. Four numbers and a semi-colon. No punch-lines, no build-up, no guess work, just straight in there. You don’t need to read any further as you’ve already seen the outcome. Confused?? Well maybe I should explain myself. I think I know what will help. Here is the title in its full form:

New Zealand 10000m Championships, 5 th January 2010, Tauranga (New Zealand)
1, Andrea Woodvine (Guest), UK 33:29.94min

A track Pb by over two minutes, an overall Pb by over a minute. 55th on the all-time UK rankings, top of the rankings for 2010 (although admittedly we are only 5 days in lol) and probably most importantly one of Andrea’s best ever races.

So I’ll start at the beginning…

The New Zealand 10000m Championships were the focus of our day today. Most of the others on the tour headed south to New Zealand national park to do some sightseeing. A select few (including myself and Andrea) were either running at or spectating at the championships in Tauranga in the evening. We headed to the north coast early at around midday, and having a few hours to kill, had some lunch in the park and watched a movie - Sherlock Holmes.

As the race approached the nerves were beginning to show and both Dylan Gant (from Canada) and Andrea prepared for their races. As with the 3000m on the Friday night at the Tauranga Twilight the conditions weren’t perfect - a little windy considering the runners were about to grind out 25 laps of the track. However, it was slightly better. Still it is something you have to consider before setting out, so we revised our aims and aimed to run low 34min. A target we thought realistic but would require everything to go well. Both the men and women were running together to we were hoping that there may be others around Andrea, but in something like a 10k you have to mentally prepare yourself to run on your own. Good job we did as when the gun went Andrea was on her own, stuck between the men and women. There was a small group ahead to gauge against and after a few laps there were some lapped runners to focus on as well.

Andrea’s first lap was 81s and amongst her slowest. After that she was like a metronome, churning out 80 and 81 second laps the whole way. There was only one lap, four from the end, where Andrea slipped to 82 seconds. On the last lap Andrea was able pick it up and finish with a 71s lap to dip under 33:30min - way better than what we had expected. An amazing surprise!

So both Andrea and myself were elated and the journey down to National Park in the early hours was one of both tiredness and happiness. This is the first race Andrea has nailed in a long time and hopefully the start of things to come…

Here is to a great 2010!!

Andrea doing her best metronome impression

You can’t fire a canon from a canoe

2010-01-06T03:24:00.000Z

After a hectic and tiring few days we decided to take it easy today and potter around rather than do the white water rafting or hot pools options. We wanted rest up before race day tomorrow and also catch up on some jobs such as washing, internet and blogs.

The highlight of the day (probably beating even the competitive team game of mini golf we played in the evening and for which white van team were severely handicapped by having me on their team) was getting an assessment done by Craig, the tour physical therapist. Craig ran through a number of musculoskeletal tests to see where we are tight, unbalanced or weak and then gave us specific individual exercises to work on the findings.

Not surprisingly I scored ‘tight’ on most of the tests, (even managed a v.v tight on the forward bend test) and weak on the core. Chris scored slightly better with ‘fair’ on the core and with a few less ‘tights’ than me. It was especially interesting to score so poorly on the core considering we have now been working on it a couple of years. Turns out we have been getting the core exercises a little bit wrong, however we now have a better idea of how to do them properly. Aided by Chris’s pages and pages of stick men diagrams from the session we can have a better attempt at developing strong core in the future.

One of my favourite quotes of the trip (and there has been many so far) was the above title of the blog. Craig, in trying to describe the importance of core, related it to firing a canon from a canoe and this tickled me no end. I’ll remember it though!

Topping up the tan!

2010-01-04T03:30:00.004Z

On the third day of our stay in Rotorua we had planned a day trip north to the Ohope Beach. This is a part of the Bay of Plenty and has miles of beautiful sandy beaches. Everyone on the group was going and we had heard that it was worth seeing so were looking forward to it.

The trip to Ohope took about an hour and we had Richard (Willis - Steves father) entertaining us with some interesting history and trivia about the area. After about an hour we reached Ohupi beach and spent our time as any people do on the beach - playing games, having a dip in the sea and most importantly working on the tan!! It was one of the hottest days we have had in New Zealand so far and later on Andrea did an uncomfortably hot run up one of the mountains into the bush running by a secluded beach with some of the other KiwiRunners.

Ohope beach

When we came back we had a group barbeque and relaxed playing some music and games. Andrea even got a massage from Craig (the tour physical therapist). It is a hard life!!

Me doing a baywatch run into the sea in slightly illegal running shorts! - watch out for me putting my arms up at the end..

Haka

2010-01-04T03:19:00.003Z

The day started fairly early with a long run in the Redwood forest. I was fortunate enough to have two Kiwi International marathon runners to link up with - it was both nice to the have to company of two runners of a similar pace (rather than trying to hang onto the guys) and also not to have to worry about getting lost in the miles and miles of trails.

For the rest of the day we were given a number of activity options to choose from. Most of the group opted for the downhill luge (a sort of toboggan) but a few of the less thrill seeking types (Chris and myself included) decided to give it a miss in favour of the less adventurous but perhaps more of a New Zealand experience of visiting a Maori Thermal Village.

To begin with we watched a performance of the Haka which was entertaining if a little intimidating. We got a chance to try out the traditional Maori greeting of rubbing noses with the person next to us -- thank fully it was only each other! We then went on a walk around the many hot pools and saw plenty of smelly bubbly mud pools. Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately!) we weren’t able to actually go in the pools though so had to be content with a number of photos. We also saw a Geyser which squirted about 30 metres up into the air and had a look in some of the little shops which sold Maori arts and crafts. It was an interesting and insightful look into Maori culture and we were pleased with our decision to visit the village - especially upon returning to the Motel and viewing the various injuries of the others on the Luge!

Scary haka

Geyser

Tauranga Twilight Meeting

2010-01-04T03:03:00.003Z

Happy New Year!!

The day was dominated by the Tauranga Twilight Meet which was in, you guessed it, Tauranga - approximately an hours drive from where we are staying in Rotorua. The meet started at 4pm, so we had the day to try to stay relaxed. Andrea was planning on doing the 3000m on the track in the evening and having not raced on the track in around 18months was a bit nervous despite my best efforts to calm her down.

In the morning Steve (Willis-KiwiRun organiser) had organised a trip to the local Agrodome so we could watch a traditional Kiwi agricultural show. It was a funny interactive spectacle involving sheep, cows, ducks and dogs. One of our group even got a certificate for milking a cow - something to show the folks back home!! We then went back to the motel to relax for an hour (Andrea slept) before driving to Tauranga for the meet.

Nick Willis

Most people from the tour were running and Andrea was one of the first up. Despite only having done one slightly speedier session beforehand we had hopes that Andrea could at least match her current Personal Best of 9:28. That time in itself is one of Andrea’s best times and a good indicator of when Andrea was in her best form. The wind was a little blustery, but undeterred Andrea went straight to the front and ran a very strong race. Picking up for a 70s second last lap to finish in 9:28:87min. Missing the Pb by a few tenths of a second but given the circumstances a very good run. We are back at the same track in 3 days time so that Andrea can run the New Zealand 10000m track championships so this was a good tune-up, hopefully it’ll be less windy. There is a video of Andrea’s race kicking around so we hope to get a link to
that online in the next few days.

Andrea on her way!

Quite a few others ran in the 3000m races with a few Pb’s and Nick Willis (Beijing 1500m Olympic Silver medallist) won the 800m and 3000m events in his first races back since surgery in April. Overall a fun day had by all.

New Year’s Eve

2009-12-31T21:25:00.003Z

This was to be our second New Year’s Eve outside of the UK after our trip to Madrid two years ago. Today we left Auckland and the comfort of the Eden hostel, for Rotorua, place of the smelly eggs and our home for the next four evenings.

The journey was fairly uneventful for me (I fell asleep) although we did stop in a pretty town called Cambridge for lunch and a ‘chocolate slice’ (along with pies there are quite a few different ‘slices’ you can buy in New Zealand). We arrived early afternoon to our accommodation - Alpin motel. This Motel is the best place we have stayed in so far on the trip and possibly the best we have ever stayed. Despite it being a Motel we have a kitchen, lounge area, two tv’s and…wait for it…our own personal hot tub!! I can’t wait to try it out after one of my races. There is also a really nice swimming pool on site and a trampoline and swings for Chris.

So we were just thinking that things couldn’t get much better when it came up to run time. We all went out together in a big group today as it was only an easy run before the race tomorrow and with the help of one of the local runners who had come to join us, we ran the short distance to Redwood Forest. Chris and myself were amazed and excited when we reached the forest and found it is an ideal place for running. Smooth tracks with only small slopes, and underfoot it was almost bouncy. There were trees all around and over the top which sheltered you from the sun and wind and it felt like you were just springing along. One of the best places I have ever run.

Finally, it was time to see in the New Year. We went into Rotorua centre for a Kiwi run group meal at one of the thai restaurants, and then to the lake front to watch some bands that were playing. However, it was actually pretty cold and most of us were freezing, so after some of the boys had run around with a rugby ball for fifteen minutes, we headed back to the motel to thaw out. We were then entertained by the more musical members of the group with a guitar and singing until about 10:30pm by which time we were all exhausted and went to bed. No-one in the whole group made it until midnight!!

Steve strumming away...

So finally we have reached the last day of 2009. The end of a year which has had some big highs and big lows for us both. 2010 promises much and we have some exciting times ahead, not only on this trip but when we get back. Perhaps life is only just beginning?

Waiaturua circuit

2009-12-30T19:55:00.003Z

Another jam packed day and probably one for the running geeks out there. The day started early. At 7am we headed to the old home of Arthur Lydiard’s. For those that didn’t see yesterdays blog post Lydiard was a legendary Kiwi running coach - who many argue has had a greater impact on distance running over the 20th century than any other person. During the 50’s, and 60’s he coached a great number of local runners to world records and Olympic titles, including Murray Halberg, Peter Snell, Barry Magee and Bill Baillie. Quite an achievement considering his athletes all lived within a few miles of his home!! Part of Lydiard’s training routine included sending his boys on a 22mile run around the Waiatarua circuit. This began at his home and headed on up into the Auckland hills (there is no flat around the city). The route is still run today and people come from all over the world to do it now. It is a savage course and definitely one for the hardcore. Only one of the group attempted to do the whole thing while the rest of us just did part of it. Most people in the group ran 17miles of it and took around 2hrs or so. It was a big effort and most people were pretty tired. It seems crazy to think that Lydiard’s boys used to do this a few times a week! No wonder they were so good.

Afterwards we were lucky enough to have a talk from two of the guys - Barry Magee and Bill Baillie. Barry had some of his medals including his bronze medal from the 1960 Rome Olympic Marathon. His stories and memories were really inspirational and left the group wanting to go back out and do another Waiatarua circuit (maybe not that inspired ;) ).

Barry Magee showing us the vest he ran the Rome Olympics in!

In the afternoon we drove out to Piha beach, which has its own TV show in New Zealand called ‘Piha search and rescue’. Despite the waves being a little dangerous the beach itself was really nice. We played some ball games and took some photos (of course).

Piha beach

In the evening we headed up the Sky Tower in Auckland. The peak is 300 meters or so high and we went up to the viewing platform which stands at a measly 220m. After my bout of vertigo we were able to enjoy the views and Andrea played around on the glass floors. I walked across them but I couldn’t look down!!

Brave Andrea!!

Tomorrow we are heading out of Auckland and down to Rotorua where we will be for the next four days. We will be seeing in the new year in traditional New Zealand style (bed at around 11pm I think) and then Andrea has her race on new years day. Exciting stuff.

Day 1 Kiwirun

2009-12-30T18:22:00.002Z

The day started fairly early considering our 2:00am bedtime the previous night, however considering the amount of stuff on the itinery for the day this was no bad thing.

The first thing we had to do was meet our fellow Kiwi-runners. There are twelve of us from the UK, US and Canada aswell as a few kiwi’s. Everyone else had met at the Welcome dinner the night before whilst we were flying over the Tasman sea, so there were a few faces and names to remember. However, we already felt we were getting to know everyone upon hearing tales from the previous nights team challenges and we soon felt part of the group.

We took a short ferry ride from the city centre to Devenport so that we could see the harbour, before meeting the vans at the other side. I had a bit of a scare after almost missing the ‘stop’ (whilst in the toilet). I hadn’t known we were docking and was very surprised to find an empty boat when I appeared out of the bathroom. When I finally realised what had happened I had to fight my way out against the flow of people getting onto the boat to find the others. A few moments of panic for me but none of the others had even noticed I was missing!

Kiwirun tour 20009/10

A few people had been in New Zealand for a number of days already in order to beat the jet lag, however a couple of days easy running had been planned. The first run of the tour (since we had been there anyway) was an approximately 10km trail from point to point starting at Okara and following the ‘walkway‘, and we made our way up there from the ferry port. The van would pick us up at the other side. I was pleased as I had a session to do later on in the day and wanted an easy run. So we set off at an easy pace, and I let the faster guys runs ahead, for once not letting my competitive nature come through. It was easy…for about two minutes, before we started the climb. We were running on a woodland trail and there were some quite steep stepped sections which almost reduced you to walking pace for much of the run. However it was really great to get off road I found the surroundings really interesting….bashing the top of my leg on a sticking out branch was an unfortunate consequence of my enjoyment. The route also included a short beach section and because it was only accessible by following the walkway it was practically deserted. Really calming and relaxing!

In the afternoon, it was then time for us to meet one of New Zealand’s running legends - Bill Baillie. Bill held numerous New Zealand and world records and competed at Olympic and commonwealth games. He is also one of Arthur Lydiard’s disciples (for those of you who haven’t heard of Lydiard he is a renowned coach who developed a popular theory for training based on quite simply doing lots of running!!)

Bill came to give us a bit of a tour of Auckland and we went up a small mountain (mainly in the van) to a great lookout of the city and then to a black sand beach. These places were really pretty and calm and peaceful, however what was probably better was listening to Bill’s endless stories about his experiences as an athlete on the mini bus as we travelled.

Unfortunately the afternoon passed really quickly and then it was session time. I had a track session to do so myself and one of the other girls went to the track whilst everyone else went for a run in the local park.

In the evening the team challenge was resumed. Chris and myself were split into opposing team - aptly named ‘white van’ and ‘red van’ after the two mini buses which have been ferrying us around. If I recall correctly my team’s New Zealand geography and Maori pronunciations were much better and White Van team hold the lead by a narrow margin. More challenges to follow!

The Grand Pacific Drive and the North Island

2009-12-29T09:20:00.002Z

Our flight was at 6:45pm in the evening and being in Kiama we were around a 2h30m drive from Sydney (along the supposedly scenic route of the Grand Pacific Drive). We got going on the road at around 11am and headed north along the coastal road. This time the drive was a lot more interesting (you may remember me complaining a couple of days ago about not actually seeing the sea on the GPD). We drove past some nice beaches and along a new swanky road/bridge (which hugs the coastline for a few miles over the water crashing into the cliffs below - very cool).

The final part of the drive went through the ‘Royal National Park’ - the oldest national park in Australia. It is primarily made up of rainforest and has miles of trails for walkers to explore. Unfortunately the weather wasn’t the best for us and Andrea had a second run to do so we drove on through. We did get a few photos hanging out the side of the car though - it was parked up so don‘t worry ;).

Royal National Park

In the evening our flight went without hitch and we were picked up at Auckland Airport, on the North Island, by Steve Willis (KiwiRun organiser and brother of Nick Willis - silver medallist at Beijing Olympics 1500m) and Craig the trip physical therapist. It was late when we arrived at the hostel (around 2am) so we headed straight to bed. A day of fun awaits us tomorrow…

Big Little Lizards

2009-12-27T22:14:00.006Z

Today was our last full day in Australia before our Kiwi Run trip and we decided to do the short drive out to the Mirramurra rainforest which sits in the Mountains, slightly inland from Kiama town. We didn’t really know what to expect from this rainforest, whether it would be very good, but had heard that there was a 2 hour walk from the visitor information centre there so thought that it would be a good day out even if the rainforest was disappointing.

We needn’t have had any worries though. The rainforest, surprisingly, was an actual rainforest and as soon as we arrived we could here the humming/buzzing/screeching of the animals in the trees. The type of noise they play at ‘Butterfly world’ in the UK, but obviously not a recording!

Beautiful rainforest

We began our walk immediately which started out on some slightly raised boardwalks. The vegetation and undergrowth was amazing and we spent quite some time walking with our heads down looking for lizards and other interesting creatures, before we realised that looking up is also pretty spectacular! Some of the trees were bizarre with roots almost above the ground, other trees looked like something out of Lord of the Rings and like they may move any minute or start talking to you!

Halfway round the walk we took the slightly longer path which then took you to the Minnamurra Falls. After almost four hours of running in the past 36 hours I was non too impressed to find that to get to the falls, you had to walk up the steepest path imaginable. It was only the sight of Children and large unfit people walking back down (and who must have made it up somehow as there were no helicopters in sight) that kept me going. The falls were pretty and definitely a welcome sight!!

The only disappointment was the lack of lizards on the path as we saw a grand total of one water dragon (impressive nonetheless) on a tree early on in the walk. To satisfy the desire to take more endless photographs of lizards (one of our favourite animals of Australia) we stopped off when we got back to Kiama, under a bridge, where Chris had spied lizards on his walk this morning. Here we saw maybe ten or fifteen lizards. We don’t know what type of lizards these are, they are little, but also big and fat at the same time. It was a pretty productive stop by the side of the road.

Water Dragon

Big Little Lizards

Finally, as you already know tomorrow we are catching a flight to Auckland from where we will be touring the North Island of New Zealand with a mini bus full of other runners.. We’re not sure how much opportunity we will get to seek out internet places so you may notice that our very regular blogging becomes less regular for a couple of weeks. We can promise you though that we will be writing one every day and will upload them (maybe in batches if necessary) as and when we can. Check back regularly!!

Boxing Day

2009-12-27T00:56:00.003Z

We left Bateman’s bay at around 10am to head back up the New South Wales Coastline towards Kiama. Part of our journey today would be along the newly setup tourist drive - the Grand Pacific Drive (GPD). Sounds impressive don’t you think?? The GPD started around 50km before we reached Kiama. I don’t think the stretch that we did was particularly impressive, mainly because we could hardly see the sea - and certainly didn’t live up to the ‘grand’ title anyway. Perhaps things will improve as we head up towards Sydney as that is where the majority of the route is - plenty of time to redeem things.

The weather had restarted where it had left off yesterday - pretty miserable. We are enjoying the slight break from the intense heat - although it would be better without the rain. On arriving in Kiama at our cheapest accommodation so far (dearest to cheapest in one day), we headed out for a short walk around town. Just across the road from us is a blowhole, where the sea spurts water 30m into the air as the waves crash into the coast. It is surprisingly popular with the tourists considering it is just a water being squirted into the air. Cheers and clapping at each successive spurt was fairly amusing.

Otherwise we kept the activity to a minimum today as Saturdays are Andrea’s double session day. It started with a 12mile tempo run along the Bateman’s Bay coastal path and then a very short speed session on the grass in the afternoon. Both went well and it is now less than a week until Andrea’s first race since leaving the UK. Exciting stuff.

Andrea cruising on her tempo

Blow-hole

Tomorrow we are heading inland to walk a bit around a rainforest. We will also investigate a bit more of the coastline around here as there appear to be quite a few nice walks.

Do they know its Christmas time at all?

2009-12-26T00:04:00.002Z

Today was Christmas Day, so we got up and marvelled at the size of our stockings, put the turkey on and opened presents and sat down to Christmas Lunch with all the trimmings at midday. In the afternoon we went for a stroll and then watched a couple of really good Christmas films whilst drinking wine.

Haha, not quite.

In fact when I first woke up it took a minute or so to realise it was Christmas day (probably the first time ever that has happened!). We had weetabix for breakfast whilst sitting on our terrace and then noticed a large black cloud looming ominously overhead so it was a bit of a mad dash to get into our swim wear and walk the 150m down to the beach before the rain started. After two ‘Baywatch style’ runs into the water (which despite the overcast weather was surprisingly cool rather than cold) we decided to call it a day before the rain started. We had in fact timed it to perfection as the heavens opened minutes after we arrived back into our hotel room.

The next thing on our list of things to do on our Aussie Christmas day was a barbecue, and despite the weather we were undettered. Luckily the barbecue was under a shelter so Chris was able to sizzle the burgers until his heart was content whilst staying dry. I sensibly waited indoors with the crisps and cheese. Despite our tight budget and practically everything on our menu being either in the reduced or ‘basics’ section (or both) at the supermarket, the barbecue was a great success and we agreed that the burgers were the best we’d had in a while. Our Tilba-bought cheese was also a great addition.

Chef Chris

Yum yum yum. A healthy alternative to turkey.

As it was still chucking it down we didn’t fancy going out so far to settled down in front of the tv, thinking that there must be a half decent film on. Even if we had seen it before. Channel after channel was hopped. Nothing. So we hopped again. Still nothing. British tv on Christmas Day may not be the best but it is a sight better than here. It was so good I can’t even remember what was on. I vaguely remember a santa climbing onto a sleigh and his trousers falling down, but the ‘off’ button was decidedly more appealing. So we just had a quiet afternoon chatting over a couple of glasses of wine. Lots of running talk and lots of ‘aims for 2010’ talk. Quite productive I feel!

Next up was our highlight of the day. Our planned phone calls home to the families. We were prepared with a 500minutes of international calls phone card and we thought we would be able to have a right good chat with our families now they had hauled themselves out of bed (fancy staying in bed the whole day…!!!). It didn’t quite go as planned…First off we were befriended by a dog on our way to the phone boxes. No owner, no collar, and it just followed us and followed us. Not sure what to do we lead it to the police station thinking that they would take him in until owner was found or whatever. What a silly idea. We were amazed that the police just said ’oh he’s been hanging around Mcdonald’s all day and the council should deal with him’. We asked what we should do and they told us to take him back outside!!! Crazy! He did eventually wander off back to McDonalds (which amazingly was bursting at the seams?!) to beg for fries so we had no choice but to let him be.

So we continued to the phone boxes and dialled away. Unfortunately what we hadn’t been told (despite us asking specifically in the shop) was that you still had to continuously put money in the phone box as well as use the card. We had been told it would only be 40c to dial the phone card number and then you could talk for 500minutes without putting any more money in. What a load of rubbish. It still charged you the same as making a call within Australia and as we had only a few coins between us we had to have super duper quick minute phone calls with each of our families.

It was very annoying and it dampened our spirit’s a little on an otherwise nice and relaxing albeit quiet day. Disappointed we headed back to our room and consoled ourselves with an ancient episode of ‘Top Gear’ the best programme that has been on all day before hitting bed quite early.

All in all, a nice day. Not the best Christmas we’ve had but certainly one we are likely to remember for years to come….

The night before Christmas

2009-12-25T07:23:00.004Z

This morning we left the Ecotel in Narooma at around 10am. There is always a tinge of sadness whenever we leave somewhere we enjoyed staying. However, there are just so many places in the world that we want to go that even though we really liked the town the chances of us returning (especially as its on the other side of the world) are just very low. You never know though. This situation reminds us of some of the lyrics from that country song that I only know a few lines of:

On the road again,
Going places that I’ve never been.
Seeing places that I’ll never see again.
On the road again.

Today we headed about 65km north up the coast to another small town called ‘Bateman’s Bay’. The destination where we will be spending Christmas. Of all the places we have stayed so far it is the most expensive! This means it should be the best right?? Well it is certainly up there. It has a swimming pool, a large outdoor seating area, barbeques and best of all each room has its own outdoor seating area. Definitely a nice feature for the hot Australian summer evenings. We decided to christen it this evening with a couple of glasses of wine. Hehe.

We have a few things planned for Christmas day which you will hear about tomorrow, nothing like what we would have done if we had been back home, but it will be something to remember and look back on.

As its Christmas Eve we wish everyone a merry Christmas. Hopefully the weather in the UK hasn’t scuppered anybodies plans.

Our Christmas day terrace

The view from our Christmas room