City2Sea 2014

This year's race was looking like being the first wet race with an unprecedented amount of rain throughout the night. Lucky for us, Dave had organised a designated driver for the day so we were able to stay dry on the way to the race, and the MCG had good cover close to the start line as well.

About five minutes before the race we headed off to the start line, Dave jumped in to the Red group queue and Jason and I went up to the "preferred" group with about one hundred other runners - most better than me. Nobody actually checked if we were meant to be there, so anyone could have managed to sneak in probably.

For a change the race began on time, and without a pack of runners to navigate through it was clear running from the start - first down a big hill and then back up it on the way to Federation Square. The rain was still quite heavy so it wasn't a lot of fun, but if the weather radar was to be believed it wouldn't stick around for the whole race.

After turning on to St. Kilda Road we did a loop through the Burnley Tunnel and came out behind the Arts Centre before rejoining St. Kilda Road. At the entrance to the tunnel was a big speaker stack playing a song that sounded very familiar but I was sure it couldn't be...but it was, the Pokemon theme! That was pretty good for motivation, as I was already starting to fall behind Jason a little bit but managed to catch up after the tunnel.

So back on to St. Kilda Road after the first drink station, we were already through to the four kilometre mark and the rain was just starting to clear up. I was already feeling like I'd been pushing too hard so had to back off just a little - the road is a gentle slope down to Albert Park but we also had a strong wind coming in the opposite direction which negated all of that.

I was feeling pretty dead as we turned into Albert Park and passed the next drinks station after seven kilometres, but then had a bit of a recovery which didn't last long. Albert Park is used in a lot of these races and I always find it mentally tough because of the wind and the long straights that feel like they go on forever. By the time we'd made it half way around the lake I was struggling again as we reached the ten kilometre mark, I was a good ten seconds behind Jason now and looking unlikely to catch up - a couple of people had overtaken me for the first time in the race as well. There was a small high school band set up just after the drinks station who were starting to play Spiderbait's F**ken Awesome which was also a great choice, maybe not as good as Pokemon though.

I just tried to zone out on the way back to Fitzroy Street, and attempted to maintain a pace under four minutes per kilometre. There was finally some relief as we got another downhill section to head for the home stretch along Beaconsfield Parade, but once again a strong wind had picked up at the worst time - Dave was back on Albert Park at this point and got caught in the rain, somehow we managed to just avoid it's path. Finally turning the last corner I was surprised how close the finish line was, since the end of the race was dramatically different to previous years. I did as much of a "sprint" as I could manage, I didn't catch anyone but I wasn't overtaken either, so consider that a success.

At the finish line everyone is a winner (gets a medal) along with free Gatorade drinks, Chobani yoghurts and bananas - almost worth their weight in gold at the moment, so not a bad selection. While waiting for Dave we went for a cool down jog further down Beaconsfield Parade which was freezing cold with the wind coming off the bay - half of the road was flooded from the rains too.

We just missed Dave coming across the finish line, but found him a few minutes later at the drink station - they don't call him Drink-Station Dave for nothing! Final results:

Jason 57:18 (74th)
Brad 57:57 (88th)
Dave 1:22:22 (2948th)

Baking Brad Episode 59

This is episode fifty nine - custard yoghurt cakes, actually just one loaf.

Recipe

• Link

Good

• Good taste
• Worked perfect the second time

Bad

• Didn't fit in the loaf pan - I guessed with one large pan instead of six small

Ratings

• The Cook - 3/10
• The Taste - 10/10

Ingredients.

Custard yoghurt cake - fail.

Custard yoghurt cake - success.

Bendigo 2014

November 1, 2014
November 2, 2014

October Review

This is the October review, I think I'm wearing down as the year ends. It felt like a pretty slow and tiring month, so this will probably be a shorter review than the previous few.

I only got two new recipes baked for the whole month, which is a bit disappointing, but I think it's a combination of buying too many snacks and ice cream when doing the grocery shopping, trying to diet and just not having the time or energy after work - maybe the three are related... I did get to try out my new donut pan though, so that was good.

The month in running was a bit off and on - mostly off, due to an accumulation of injuries including hamstring, hip and shin of the left leg. I did just manage to come up in time for the Melbourne Marathon, which went alright, but I just hadn't done the training to last the full distance. I didn't write a separate article for the race, but I did send an email summary which I will reuse instead:

We were close to the front so didn't get held up at the start, beginning with a lap around Federation Square and then heading all the way down St Kilda Road. Jason was just a few seconds until we reached Albert Park, about one-third of the race distance was completed by this point. Going around the lake I managed to catch up, my shin started hurting but then went away again, while my hip had been hurting since the start but I was able to ignore it. At the 10 kilometre timing mat Jason was back ahead by seven seconds, soon after I started to fall further behind as my split times started to go above 4:00/km. By the time we got back onto St Kilda Road at two-thirds race distance the field had really spread out, generally you don't do any more overtaking as everyone is too exhausted to change speed. I started to put together a couple of better kilometres but a blister started to develop under my right big toe at about the 15 kilometre mark, which became more painful than the other injuries. I just managed to hang on until the end, but lost quite a bit of time over the big bridge to get back to the MCG and wasn't able to sprint the last kilometre as I hoped. My final time was 1h 24m 47s for 104th overall.

After the race I needed another week and a half off to recover, then had to get back into rehab mode to start preparing for the shorter 10 kilometre race in Bendigo at the start of November. In addition to booking that race I also booked the accommodation for the Great Ocean Road half marathon. That race isn't until May 2015 but the options are limited and fill quickly, so that's all taken care of now.

I got to use a couple of different technologies at work this month. The first was an API security product which might sound good on a resume but the product is commercial rather than open-source and doesn't seem to be very well known. I've spent hours and hours dealing with raising support calls and product limitations too, which has been quite annoying. The second was the introduction of a message broker into our existing server, which was more of a refresher as I'd used it a few years ago, but it's a useful and more common skill. I also realised that I'm now the only person on the team which any functional product knowledge, but I think this is more of a bad thing than good because it just means I'll have to deal with all of the problems and responsibility, but won't get any more money, recognition or anything like that.

I've started thinking about options for a short Easter holiday of something like ten days, since we get so many public holidays over a two week period. I'm still at the stage of finding out what flights are possible, without being stuck in airports for days, and it is proving a little difficult with a modest budget in mind. Since Easter is of course a popular time to travel I think I need to get it sorted out some time this year at least.

The NBA started again near the end of the month. I only found time to do two fantasy drafts, even though that is the most fun part of the fantasy sports season. I wasn't really happy with either team by the end, but at least it gives me something to look at in the box scores each day, and it's far less frustrating than the random luck association with one game per week in the NFL.

To finish off the month Amir hosted a small birthday party in his honor, any excuse to eat pizza (and cake) is a good idea to me, plus a chance to catch up with people on a regular basis.

So that's it for this month, quite uneventful as I suspected. Here's the usual closing remarks:

• Books
• The Dead Zone by Stephen King
• An interesting idea, the story seemed a little disjointed though
• There were a lot of detours before reaching the main point of the book
• 7 out of 10
• Movies
• The Stand mini-series
• I finally got around to watching parts 2-4
• A very slow grind, but wasn't changed too much from the book
• 6 out of 10
• The Dead Zone
• I found the old 1983 movie, not going to bother to try and get the TV series
• A significant amount of the book was skipped entirely or quickly passed over
• 4 out of 10
• A Walk Among The Tombstones
• Just a typical Liam Neeson movie now, a bit like stereotypical Jason Statham movies
• There wasn't much point to it
• 5 out of 10
• TV
• Broad City
• Quite cool, edgy and different
• A few stories don't work, but others are great
• Lots of nice film locations in New York
• 8 out of 10
• Under The Dome
• Slow, then interesting, then just dragging on to the end with no conclusions
• Now it's going to be stretched to at least a third season
• 4 out of 10
• South Park
• I caught up with the last two seasons
• Almost every episode was a miss, especially the three-parter
• The Wacky Races was a classic though, one of the best ever
• 3 out of 10
• Video Games
• PlayStation 3
• Still nothing yet
•  XBox 360
• Saints Row 4
• Basically no storyline, just doing activities over and over again
• The few storyline missions were great though, especially the clones of:
• Metal Gear Solid
• Streets Of Rage
• I'm up to 95% completion, might be able to make it to 100%
• 6 out of 10

Bendigo 2014, November 2 (Return On Investment)

The race preparation didn't go so well as some other motel guests arrived at about midnight, followed by loud talking and general fucking around as they moved in to their room, luckily it didn't go on forever.

We left the motel at about 7:45am and found a parking spot in a random, empty side street about 750 metres from the city centre - since some streets were going to be closed off for the race. It was quite a chilly morning, but the race was starting at 8:30am, so with a bit of a warmup run there wasn't too much time left to stand around in the cold.

Our race started on time, and we immediately merged in with the slower runners doing the 15 kilometre event - they started half an hour earlier and had run a different 5 kilometre course before doing the same 10 kilometre course as us. With runners from two events on the same course it was therefore impossible to know what position you were in.

The 10km course.

I was feeling fantastic for about one kilometre, then came back to normal pretty suddenly. Jason was just ahead of me, and we continued to overtake some people for the first three kilometres until it just seemed to be slow runners up ahead. I guessed we were around about the top twenty.

The beginning stages of.

After three kilometres there was a strong wind to run against, then a short steep hill and the longer flatter hill I was worried about - all one after the other. By the end of the final hill I was pretty exhausted, but was over half way through the race now. I got a bit of energy back as the route around the park had some downhill sections, and I was just managing to keep up with Jason still.

On the final trip back-and-forth through the park there was a surprise mega steep hill. It was less than 100 metres but it completely killed me because of the incline. Getting over the top of it I was about ready to collapse, but still had more than two kilometres to go. The final stretch home was pretty painful then, I finally managed to push ahead of Jason in the final kilometre and just hold him off at the finish line. I finished 11th in 38 minutes 54 seconds, with a three second margin.

The post-race gifts were quite good - a small medal, and a self-serve breakfast of apples, bananas, fruit drinks, single serve boxes of cereal and milk. Much better than the much more expensive Melbourne Marathon.

Walking back to the car I got a  surprise to find that the street I was parked in had been closed off at both ends! It didn't really make sense because it wasn't close to the race and there was several streets closer that weren't closed. After moving the barriers to one side it was back to the motel to pack and check out.

I never had to deal with this in GTA.

Before leaving Bendigo we visited the weekly Bendigo Showgrounds Market, consisting of fresh produce, arts and crafts and miscellaneous junk. The market was a good size, nothing like the Queen Vic Market, but not bad.

So that was the final stop and it was back to Melbourne again. My left leg was killing even more than on the drive up, I kept trying to move it around to find a comfortable spot while staying on the road, but it didn't prove to be successful - the comfortable part, that is. We made one final stop in Gisborne for a break and kebabs for lunch (supposedly you can't get much healthier), where there was yet another, smaller market as well.

So that was the end of the trip then, Jason managed to remind me somewhere on the Eastern Freeway that I'd forgotten to get a magnet - just a little bit late. Maybe next year...

• Summary
• 7 out of 10
• Good
• A bigger town
• Closer than previous trips
• Bad
• Cold weather in November
• Missed Out
• Lake Weeroona
• Rosalind Park

Bendigo 2014, November 1 (Everything's Happy Underground)

The Bendigo Bank Fun Run was scheduled for the Melbourne Cup long weekend, and I've never been to Bendigo before, so it sounded like a good a plan as any.

We set off at about 10am on Saturday, going via the Calder Freeway instead of the Hume Highway for previous races in Echuca and Wangaratta. After being stuck at 80 km/h on the way out of Melbourne the rest of the drive was 110 km/h, so it was definitely the better route to take. About 60 kilometres out of Bendigo, at Kyneton, we had a quick driver swap as my leg was killing from the ongoing shin pain I've been dealing with. There wasn't much in Kyneton except for an awesome fishing shop called It's A Trap, the only downside was that they didn't have Admiral Ackbar on the sign.

It took a little over two hours to get to Bendigo, just in time for lunch at the Beechworth Bakery. The menu was the same as the other store, so there wasn't many vegetarian options and I just went with the cheese and spinach roll again. I also tried the bee sting pastry this time which was pretty good, like a custard donut with a bit of honey.

What the sign says.

Lunch.

Just down the road was the Central Deborah Gold Mine which has a few underground mine tours. The shortest one was seventy five minutes so we went with that. Before the tour starts you can look around at some buildings outside - I'd only decided to bring shorts for the trip and it was freezing cold and windy, so it wasn't much fun leaving the indoors. One of the buildings was an information centre which had this incredibly annoying audio recording playing at the entrance, it ran for about twenty seconds on an endless loop - "Gold! Gold! Gold!", I was about to go crazy after about five minutes of listening to that. There was a few magnets in the gift shop, but I thought I'd wait and see what I found around town instead.

Gold Mine buildings.

Gold Mine tower..

The tour kicked off then, I thought we might be the only people on the tour but there was actually about fifteen so it was alright. After being given the required hard hats and lights we were taken down to the "second" level which was something like twenty floors beneath the surface. I thought it might be damp, humid or something else interesting, but it was just normal. The tour guide walked us through the tunnels, showing off various equipment and stopping for other fun facts and stuff. She did a pretty good job overall, although I can't imagine anyone doing that job for long before you'd start to go mad, particularly since you'd be spending all day underground - can we be happy?

We drove into the city centre next, which was a couple of kilometres away, passing the huge Sacred Heart Cathedral along the way. I thought it would just be one main street but it was a lot bigger than that. A bit of rain started up to add to the poor conditions, so I didn't get to do as much exploring as I would have liked. I walked past the Golden Dragon Museum, the first Myer store - which is now just a regular Myer store like any other, and down to the corner of Pall Mall and Charing Cross - if those names sound familiar it's because they are both stolen from London.

Charing Cross.

On the way to Hargreaves Mall I passed the big Bendigo Bank HQ building, which was pretty modern and artistic looking. In the mall I found a froyo store! Even though it was wintery weather I stopped in for a snack, the banana flavour was pretty good.

We drove back to the motel next, which was actually in Kangaroo Flat, about 6-8 kilometres south of Bendigo - since very few accommodation options were listed online. The motel was nothing special but it was pretty cheap and had Foxtel sports channels, which is all you need for one night.

After dropping everything off we drove back to Bendigo to check out the race route around town. After completing this I was a little worried about one section - it was about a kilometre of medium difficulty incline without a break. It was close enough to dinner time by now, so we went to Jag's Grill which was an American style restaurant with a vegetable burger and nachos on the menu - an impossible decision. I went with nachos and a side order of chips since I thought it might be a little more carb friendly for the race, and Jason got some chicken burger, the meals were pretty good.

Nachos with chipotle beans.

After overloading on food we went back to the hotel to catch the double feature of NBA on replay and got ready for the race in the morning.