ANSW 8km short-course Mud-Bath Massacre

2.10 pm, 8km, The Crest Bankstown

First the good news, the dodgy ankle that gave me 5 days off last week and last weekend held up well and retirement is officially called off. Catching up on the missed training this week, there was no taper for the 8km today and the race was a good workout as planned.

Secondly, however, this was a tough way to do a workout. I don't own spikes, there had been a lot of rain, and everyone was saying wear spikes. It looked to me like the race-officials had been watering the course as well. The course was muddy and slippery, especially up and down the hills, and a lot of energy was spent trying not to fall over, run off the path into trees, run into other runners, and pick a course along the path offering some traction. The legs felt heavy and dead, and a hamstring twinge I picked up on Tuesday came on again after 400 metres. I eased off a touch and thought about a DNF, but it was good enough to plug away at the time.
This was the longest ultra-8km I've done. I must have slid around another 1 km. It was painful but a good race to put down to experience.

After the race I was feeling tired, sorry for myself, and walking around in runners, shorts and long-sleeve top around the empty windswept Bankstown Plaza looking for a place to buy a drink. Then this skinny old man in a bright red windcheater came up to me with a contorted face and said in an aggro manner "Hey,.........you're odd". The perceptive readers of this blog will know how true this is, but I just ignored him as a likely Bulldog's supporter.