A 5km PB in Penguin, Tas

Well I decided to back off a bit after Wednesday last week. I met my training group on Thursday but did the bare minimum. I had been training lots since my 98.5km run on the 5th March and needed to back off some. Still managed 93km.

I did nothing on Friday and Saturday. We flew to Tassie on Saturday for a weekend without the kids and to attend a wedding in an extremely beautiful coastal town called Penguin on the North Coast of the Tassie isle.

I spent the whole evening trying not to think about running but I was getting itchy seeing I hadn’t run in two days. So I decided that I’d get in the car and go to Cradle Mountain and do a run down there. That is until my wife (Juliet) found out and set me straight about why that would be a poor decision on a “romantic” weekend thus averting an argument at a wedding reception table (never a good idea to argue about my running plans in front of her mates).

Did a bit more research by asking the skinny people at the wedding reception and found out about the Dial Ranges. Fast forward to the next morning. Driving to the Dial ranges and stopped to ask some walkers if I was going in the right direction and was told about a 5km race that was to be held that morning nearby and that I would be very welcome to join in if I wished.

So I entered and ran. It was a 5km handicapped race and I was off 11:20 (ie. I start running 11min and 20sec after the gun goes off) it was a professional race being staged by the PCCCT (Professional Cross Country Club of Tasmania). And I even ran a 5km PB of 20min 24 sec on a relatively easy course after a very late night.

Juliet even came along to cheer me and the locals were really really friendly. Turns out Vlastik runs with them, but he wasn’t there today.

So I didn’t get to see the Dial Ranges but something tells me I’ll be back there soon beacuse our friends have a holiday place there.

Decided to drive the long way back to Launceston and went to Michael Wilson’s vineyard called Velo in the Tamar Valley (Michael is Tassie’s only ever tour de france rider). He is making some really nice wine but especially the Pinot Gris 2006 it's a wonderful light wine that seems to love being grown down there in the Tamar. So we grabbed six bottles of his product and met his wife Mary and saw him working very hard out the back. What an idyllic life. Pro cycling followed by wine making in tasmania.

Got back to Sydney about 6pm and was feeling a little guilty about only doing 7km this morning so I went out and chugged off to Nth Bondi on the coast run to add another 11km today's total. That makes 18km for today.

A great weekend.

It’s possible that I’ll run the 55km Frankston to Portsea next weekend, we'll see.