Brisbane 2024, June 01

I set my watch alarm for an early 6:30am start since the parkrun state wide starts at 7:00am instead of the usual 8:00am in most other locations.

For once I had a quiet hotel fridge that didn't need a loud power cycle every half hour. I also managed to turn off the split system heating so it wasn't running all night, despite never having instructions how to operate these mysterious devices in any hotel room ever. I thought it was still running because I kept hearing a rumbling that sounded like the heating, but it was actually the faint vibration from the nearby elevators going up and down.

I got up on time at 6:30am and had a short 1.5 kilometre jog across the bridge to South Bank in time for parkrun. There was quite a big crowd of nearly 600 people, and not a particularly wide course in some parts either. Lots of other runners, cyclists and scooter riders were out early too, before it got too hot I suppose - although the daily maximum was only about 25 it was already quite humid.

I started up near the front then found a good gap without people getting in the way, and not having to race anyone. I counted about 30 people in front at the turn around inside the Botanical Gardens, then we headed back to the start and west along the river - I liked this section of the course better.

I didn't change position much after the start, except one guy still had to sprint past me at the end for no reason to finish about 30th. The time of about 21:30 which was a bit quicker than I planned, but not too bad. I also got the add the "south" event to my parkrun compass achievement, so just need a "north" now. I ran back to hotel for some breakfast and to rest for a bit.

The expo in the Botanical Gardens was open so I walked across to pick up my race bib and anniversary t-shirt which looked ok - sometimes the free shirts aren't worth wearing. I dropped off those items back at the hotel then continued into the city centre. I found out again it takes forever to cross intersections since all directions walk at once, so if you just miss out it's a very long wait. I got some fresh food for lunch and then back to the hotel to eat and rest some more, discovered a pink marshmallow flavoured milk this time.

I walked around the city centre again after lunch but didn't find anything interesting to do, so went back to the hotel to go to the swimming pool for a while, it was nearly empty. It was soon time for dinner already so took a quick trip to the local KFC for the classic large chips and mountain dew freeze combo. My legs were still feeling a bit tired from the previous two days but I was hoping they'd be back to normal by the morning.

Brisbane 2024, May 31

An early 7:00am walk to the station to begin the trip to Brisbane. My mobile phone had just started a poorly timed major update as I was leaving and was still only at 40% when I needed to use it to unlock the security gate.

It was taking too long to increase even one percent so I gave up waiting and walked back the longer way around, taking about twice as long. I didn't know at the time but the security gate wasn't even working anyway because the phone number to unlock it was out of service - somebody must have forgotten to pay the bill...

Despite the delay I still got to the city around 8:00am but just missed the sky bus and had to wait ten minutes for the next one. It was a pretty quiet trip to the airport on Friday morning, then off to the crappy terminal two that has nothing besides a Boost Juice kiosk. The flight was delayed by about fifteen minutes due to fog at the other end in Brisbane and was also quite slow to leave the gate and actually take off. Still with all that accounted for we landed within thirty minutes of the expected arrival time, but I was in no hurry at all.

Instead of going straight to the city I got the free bus over to the airport DFO. Unfortunately I walked the entire long way around the centre to reach the Nike store since there wasn't a map around. I found a pair of Vomero 17 for half price at $85, but no good shorts or shirts like always. I only had room for one pair of shoes in my luggage at most, so I didn't continue with all the other stores afterwards. I wore a pair of running shoes that have almost reached their end of life and the rare one thousand kilometres milestone (975 kilometres so far) so that I could throw them out before heading home if I found a new pair to wear.

The local bus was due to leave for Toombul shopping centre, so I got on that instead of going back to the airport and getting the sky train. I thought this would also be a good chance to stop for lunch however the entire shopping centre was being knocked down for redevelopment. Instead I got an empty lunch time train to Brisbane Central and a sad quick lunch from Woolworths metro to sit down and eat.

I noticed a lot of signage for two new train lines through the city and into the suburbs which looks useful - definitely better than the Melbourne suburban rail loop, as well as the new metro tunnel that doesn't actually achieve much of anything. I also noticed an Officeworks nearby so went in to get some passport photos taken to start the renewal process before my password expires in a few months - and before the price goes up dramatically too. The USA are a rare exception but most countries won't let you travel with a passport expiring in less than six months, which is pretty stupid if you have proof of a return flight already booked and paid for.

Since it was almost 3pm I could walk across to the hotel for check-in. I got changed and went for a run through the Botanic Gardens and alongside the river on the opposite side, but a bit further than I originally planned. I saw people picking up bibs for the marathon festival on the way back but decided to hold off and come back tomorrow with my email confirmation.

For the day a total of 9km running, plus 1.5km running to the station in the morning, plus lots of walking was not a good start to race preparation for Sunday. Besides a slow parkrun tomorrow morning I planned to have an easy Saturday to make up for it.

Back at the hotel to get changed I found they had a nice small indoor pool and a 24 hour sauna and steam room. Headed out to the closest Coles supermarket for some snacks and drinks for the weekend. I found a banana and cookies & cream flavoured milk for something other than the same old stuff in every other aisle, nothing else is different across the country really.

There was also a Subway store across the road from the hotel so I picked up a sandwich on the way back too and just watched some TV shows on my computer while having dinner. Annoyingly the 7mate channel was broken on the TV so I couldn't watch the Friday night AFL match afterwards.

2023 Running Review

Another year of similar running activities, with some minor improvements.

The total was just a bit down, due to a month of holiday. I did still manage to run every day, except when travelling against time zones from London to Melbourne and getting delayed in Dubai for over twelve hours.

• 2023 - 5050 kilometres and 381 hours
• 2022 - 5119 kilometres and 390 hours
• 2021 - 5128 kilometres and 392 hours

Happy to record a new PB in each distance, but a little disappointing to only have six races for the year.

• May - XCR Albert Park 10km
• 36:34
• June - Launceston 10km new
• 35:39 PB
• July - Gold Coast Marathon 21km
• 1:18:02 PB
• August - XCR Ballarat 15km
• 54:17 PB
• September - Run Prix 10km new
• 36:21
• December - 2XU Wellness Run 21km new
• 1:20:01

I went to a record 52 parkruns for the year, only missing an event on the same Saturday as the Gold Coast half marathon. Another PB in the 5 kilometre distance as well with 17:24 at Dandenong and two more under 17:30.

The rest of the parkrun stats are.

• 52 events - 45 in 2022
• 12 new events - 12 in 2022
• January
• Kerang Regional
• Queens Domain
• March
• Eastern Gardens
• April
• Louis Hamon Park
• June
• Launceston
• July
• Kilmore Racecourse Walking Track
• August
• Old Deer Park
• Bushy
• Karpendonkse Plas
• September
• Upton Court
• Dixon Field
• December
• Tallangatta Station

The goals from 2023 and new goals (some unlikely) for 2024 are:

• 2023
• 5km 17:30 - 17:24
• 10km 36:00 - 35:39
• 21km 1:18:00 - 1:18:02
• 4500 to 5000 kilometres - 5050
• Parkrun
• 10 new events - 12
• Races
• 2 new events - 3
• 3 interstate events - 2
• 1 or 2 international events - 0
• 2024
• 5km 17:00
• 10km 35:00
• 21km 1:17:00
• 4500 to 5000 kilometres
• Parkrun
• 10 new events
• Races
• 3 new events
• 3 interstate events
• 1 international event

Albury 2024, January 01

Only a 10 minute drive to Willow parkrun in Wodonga was good for a change. I had the usual five kilometre warm up to inspect the first half of the course.

There was a much bigger crowd this time since it was the only one nearby, a bit under two hundred people.

This time there was two younger kids who were quick, but they made multiple wrong turns including running up to the street footpath instead of going through the underpass. They seemed to be confused by the cones being placed on either side of the paths to be avoided, where at other events they often put them right in the middle to be more obvious.

I took the lead due to their mistake, but one ran fast to catch up before fading after two kilometres due to the extra effort.

I wasn't checking behind but felt like I had a good lead and managed to work out the rest of the course, the half that I hadn't seen yet. There wasn't always clear markings but I knew the general shape and direction of the course, so used common sense when required.

Just as I was coming on to the final straight I got a surprise as second through fourth were running towards me in the opposite direction. They'd taken another wrong turn, this time a significant short cut, and then just turned around at a random point shortly after I passed them.

I finished with a good time of about 18 minutes.

Went back to the hotel to pack up and left at 9:30am. The estimate on the GPS was to return just after 1pm but I planned to stop whenever my legs were feeling sore or uncomfortable.

I managed to make it until after 12pm before taking a quick rest stop. The traffic was quite light again but still had people sitting in the overtaking lane. I took the usual detour to the Uni Hill outlets but couldn't find anything at all to buy. It seems like all Nike sell now are boring plain black models of outdated shoes. Finished up back home before 2pm.

Albury 2023, December 31

I woke in the morning with a sore right foot, like most days a new minor problem.

I drove in to Wodonga to park near the beginning on the High Country rail trail. It was a good quiet track heading towards Talangatta again, I didn't want to run too long so only did about 16 kilometres in total.

I got some lunch before heading back to the hotel to watch BBC Match Of The Day from overnight.

Back to Albury again in the afternoon, a quick visit to the Murray Art Museum Albury. It was alright but there wasn't that much too see, and no magnets for sale in the shop.

I walked around the rest of city I hadn't been to the day before, dealing with some very tired legs and still a bit of foot soreness, and ended up back at the hotel by late afternoon.

I tried to find out online if there was any new years eve celebrations or fireworks, but all I came up with was that it was cancelled in Wodonga this year due to costs, and nothing about Albury. Even staying in Kerang last year they had fireworks, and that was a much smaller town.

At midnight I could heard some fireworks going for a few minutes, but couldn't see anything from the hotel window.

Albury 2023, December 29-30

Drove to Albury on Friday afternoon from 1pm to 5pm with a quick stop at about 4pm.

The Hume Freeway was good with the 110 km/h speed limit almost all the way, except so many cars just stay forever in the overtaking lane, many times I would get blocked in the slow lane because someone is driving about one kilometre faster in the other lane.

Went straight to the hotel to check-in, had an incredibly slow lift that only goes up two floors, was faster to take the stairs.

One of the benefits to a smaller town is it's so much easier to drive around without heaps of traffic, I was able to do a quick lap to Coles and Mad Mex for dinner in just a few minutes.

Watched some TV episodes and BBL cricket while planning for the early morning drive.

Had to get up at 6:30am to drive to Talangatta Station for the morning parkrun. I could have just done two events in the nearby Albury-Wodonga area but I thought I'd drive to one a bit further away - in case I might ever manage to visit every parkrun in Victoria.

It was about 40 minutes to Talangatta, empty roads but lots of hills and turns so usually couldn't go at the 100km/h speed limit.

I went for a five kilometre warm up on the rail trail in the opposite direction to parkrun for some variety, no idea how long the trail runs in total but definitely over fifty kilometres since it starts back in Wodonga. The surface was alright, loose stones on top of a fairly flat bitumen layer.

At the briefing there was about 40 people turn up, a bit more than the usual 20 to 30. I started a bit slow in third but realised the others weren't going any faster than 3:50/km so went ahead. I didn't want to run at max effort with another parkrun on Monday and all of the extra leg fatigue from driving and walking around during the weekend.

I finished around 18:30 which was good enough, the next finisher was close to four minutes behind. I had another short run afterwards to finish, then drove back to hotel.

I walked a bit over a kilometre each way to the farmers market, but it was very small and didn't find anything to buy. I drove a short distance into the city centre instead to reduce the amount of walking for the day.

Spent a bit of time exploring a couple of the main city streets then ended up at the Myer centre to buy some lunch. I completed a lap and got back to the hotel to have lunch and rest my legs for a while.

After feeling a bit more refreshed I drive over to Monument Hill, a small war memorial with a view of city. The monument looks better upwards from the city, as much of the view is blocked by trees.

It was very hot and dry outside, which seems to be common for regional towns in summer. I got back in the car to go a bit further west to Yindyamarra scultpure walk. There was a few good pieces along the path but it was just too far in between each, over five kilometres for the complete loop, I didn't go all the way around the last lake so it was closer to four kilometres.

I had some tired legs by the end of that visit, the car was extremely hot from being parked in the sun so I had another stop on the way back at the small city botanical gardens.

I decided to visit Wodonga instead for some more food and dinner, since it's only about five kilometres to the companion city centre.

Europe 2023

August 9 - 10

August 11

August 12

August 13

August 14

August 15

August 16

August 17

August 18

August 19

August 20

August 21

August 22

August 23

August 24

August 25

August 26

August 27

August 28

August 29

August 30

August 31

September 1

September 2

September 3

Europe 2023, September 03

Had one last run at Hyde Park in the morning, then did my final packing and got a train at 11am to Heathrow. It only took 10 minutes more on the standard Elizabeth Line than the Heathrow Express, and much cheaper.

I dropped off my bags and had lunch while waiting for the gate announcement. I still had the front row of premium economy which was good. I'm not sure if the extra leg room is any better though because there's a solid wall in front, whereas you can extend your legs a fair way under the seat in front by comparison - maybe not so much in regular economy.

My preference for vegan meals didn't seem to make it across to the return flights, all the remaining edible items on both meat meal options weren't very good. Otherwise the first flight wasn't too bad, from about 2:30pm departure to 9:30pm arrival, or 12:30am local time in UAE.

Only had a two hour connection so pretty quickly was through to the final departure gate. That was followed by:

• A 15 minute delay announced shortly before boarding
• An additional delay with no time estimate now
• A final "small" delay of 7.5 hours

All we were told then was to go up to the gate to get a meal voucher. People were very confused and dispersed in various directions - waiting around in the middle of the night when you need to sleep is very different to during the day.

I walked around to see if there was any good sleeping options but every area was identical. The reclined seats were the best option but I couldn't find a relaxing position, also there was too much noise and too many people around. I got up and went walking again, ended up doing a whole lap and got back to the original abandoned departure gate. It was about 30 minutes later by this point and some customers and staff were still standing around.

By luck I turned up just as one manager finally took charge and walked all of the remaining people up to the business lounge. Once I got inside it appeared that lots of other people had been there for some time already and set up camp in the best spots, no idea why they didn't tell everyone immediately to go straight there - this cannot be the first time it's ever happened.

I found a couple of good spots to join two leather lounge chairs together, but there was lots of noise coming from some machine I couldn't locate. So I ended up walking all the way to the other end which was quieter but more occupied. I tried to combine two more chairs but they were a bit smaller, so couldn't stretch out fully. So just went down on the carpet instead since it was soft enough, with a jumper for a pillow. Unfortunately it was freezing cold in the terminal - while it was still 35 degrees outside at midnight. I got a small amount of sleep but mostly interrupted by being so cold.

Regular business customers starting coming in around 6am and probably wondered what was going on, plus there was hardly any seats left for them. I also think I saw most the Japanese men's soccer team hanging around, makes sense since international qualifiers were about to start. I finally gave up on more sleep and checked the buffet areas, they were similar to those in the hotels.

We got to board the plane roughly on time but took forever to get everyone in and seated, so many people with the biggest possible carry-on suitcases. I still have no idea what those people possibly need to pack with them on the plane, they never even open them during the flight.

This was the one flight that got downgraded to regular economy, but was comfortable enough once the seat back was reclined. At best I got a couple of 45 minute sleep windows, but usually just resting and trying not to get too tired from watching movies and keeping my eyes open. So I didn't end up watch anything on the entertainment system again.

Had lots of screaming babies this time, and also older kids like 4-5 years doing the same in the front section of economy which was quite annoying. The 13 hours feels like it took forever but eventually got there.

Before landing we still had to fill out the stupid arrival card with way too much information. When you're totally exhausted the last thing you want to be dealing with is pen and paper work. Even worse, on the way through arrivals the entire e-security system broke down just as we landed and had to be rebooted. By they time this was discovered it had already swallowed my card in the second stage of the process, so I had to go back and line up again for another ticket.

The baggage carousel took forever as usual, then another long line waiting for people to hand in their declaration forms with nothing to declare. Somehow while collecting my bag I found my repaired wheel was completely smashed apart again, no idea how this could happen when the other wheel was still fine. The broken off parts of the wheel were stopping it from rolling so just carried it a short distance to the bus and train instead.

And that was it for the longest travel day ever, probably about 36 hours with at best a few one hour sleep sessions. To make things worse I started to develop a bit of a cold and fever towards the end of the final flight, no idea where I picked that up from.

London

• 9 out of 10

Good

• Free museums
• Frequent trains for the underground and many overlapping lines

Bad

• Didn't find any good comedy or music shows, but maybe don't know all the websites to search
• Loud train noise reverberating while travelling on the underground between stations
• Some long walks for connecting lines in the underground
• Train strikes

TV

• Celebrity Catch Phrase
• Pointless Celebrities
• Strike It Lucky - weird old show
• The Chase
• The Finish Line

Missed Out

• Churchill War Rooms
• Escape rooms - needs multiple people
• London Transport Museum
• Natural History Museum
• Saw escape experience - needs multiple people
• Shows
• Muse in October
• Ricky Gervais in September
• The Chemical Brothers in November

Europe

• 8 out of 10

Good

• Travel between countries - quick and easy

Bad

• The initial travel distance

Missed Out

• Austria - Vienna
• Czech Republic - Prague
• England - Portsmouth and Southampton
• Germany - Dresden and Leipzig
• Iceland
• Spain - Valencia

Europe 2023, September 02

Had to deal with more advertised train strikes over the weekend of course. The Elizabeth line trains to Slough weren't running until 7am which luckily just fit in with my plans, otherwise I had a backup to a closer event at Gladstone parkrun.

When I got to Paddington station there was severe delays on the Elizabeth line due to train issues further down the line. The GWR over ground line had some strikes too, but were still running every half hour direct train from Paddington to Slough, which was perfect for me. It was fairly easy to find the parkrun course from the station, about two kilometres away but just needed to take a few main roads.

I did a usual warmup to check out the course, the grass was a little bit long and damp in a few places but otherwise looked in good condition. Once again I had my usual slow start, and also started running in slightly the wrong direction to the marked cones which were actually meant for coming around on the second lap. I quickly corrected as everyone else was running at a totally different angle, so was about 20 spots from the lead.

I worked up into the top four towards the end of the first lap and finally got into the lead soon after. Like usual it took a long time to take the lead but then I finished over 30 seconds ahead by the end as other people slowed down. Overall it was a good course and I managed to get the U letter parkrun, now just need an I letter parkrun - since there are no X locations so far.

I brushed against some thorny bushes on the way back to the train and got several small cuts, but it was still stinging hours later too.

Back at the hotel I made a booking for The National Gallery after lunch. Again it turned out be pointless to have a booking, there was two divided lines at the entrance but no queue in either one so you could just walk straight in.

I went to the gift shop first which is conveniently near the entrance, bought a couple of small items and avoided anything fragile. Then moved on to viewing the paintings, a mixture of portraits and other stuff, although I still prefer the more modern stuff. They had quite an impressive collection, some of the better ones were:

• Monet - The Water Lily Pond and other similar ones
• Picasso - Fruit Dish, Bottle and Violin
• Rousseau - Surprised
• Van Gogh - Sunflowers

Then I did a bit of shopping in the afternoon, went to the Forbidden Planet megastore but was definitely out of my depth. I though I might find some interesting stuff in either the horror, movie, TV, or video game categories but basically didn't recognise anything. I also had a look at another CEX used video game store but they had hardly any retro consoles and games.

So that was it already for a quick final couple of days in London.

Europe 2023, September 01

Into September so officially out of summer in the northern hemisphere. Had to get up even earlier to run and have breakfast to get to the airport by 8:30. There wasn't many options for flights except some British Airways ones that were about four times the price, so I picked the next best option that was Easy Jet.

The overnight rain has cleared so I was able to do a short run along the river, but it wasn't much fun running on stone and uneven bricks. Had a rushed breakfast and got to the airport in about 30 minutes with two trains again, really easy. A benefit of buying a daily train ticket yesterday was it lasts for an actual 24 hours from time of purchase, so it was still valid the next morning.

I checked the flight status on the boards and it was delayed by 20 minutes already. Often one delay is just the start of more bad news, but it only got extended out by an additional 5 minutes before leaving.

We landed at Gatwick not too far behind schedule then had to get the shuttle across from the north to south terminal for the London trains. Of course there was London train strikes so only one train every 30 minutes was going direct to London Victoria with no other stops. I might have arrived shortly after the previous train had left so I was close to the front of the queue at least.

The best connecting train on arrival was the Circle line, so of course that was down too - due to not enough staff apparently. Instead I had to get two other short connections, but the great thing about London train is there's so many alternative routes (the opposite of Melbourne).

I got the hotel about an hour early but was able to check-in right away, except I had a crappy room in the lower ground / basement level. I was hearing this really loud rumbling sound every half hour or so, but had no idea if it was a pipes, a bus, or something else. I didn't think the underground trains could possibly be close enough to cause that much noise.

I was quite tired from the travel and didn't have much planned for the afternoon so just went up to Camden Markets. This was much better than Portobello Road markets since it's got dedicated stores away from the main street. There was lots of food stalls, vintage clothing, and other stuff like that.

I got an early dinner and went back to the hotel to make some quick plans for the last day. Soon I came to the conclusion the rumbling sound was in fact coming from the underground train as there's a close station to both the east and west of the hotel on the same line. The vibration was ridiculously loud and regular, but seemed to stop a bit later in the evening, or I was too tired to realise any longer.

The good news was this train line only seems to run on week days, so I didn't have to deal with it again.