Gold Coast 2022

July 01

July 02

July 03

July 04

June Review

 Another quick monthly update before a Gold Coast report in a few days.

Starting with the miscellaneous intro.

• Gas prices increasing dramatically - even though we are a major world exporter
• Recommendations to change gas appliances to electricity
• So why manufacture them in the first place
• Similar to building all these new houses without solar in the past decade
• Conveniently a risk of electricity outages soon followed
• Every industry is having staff shortages due to 'covid and the flu' - air travel, education, hospitality

A bit less running to report this month due to training for the Gold Coast half marathon. Two new parkrun events at Werribee Mansion around 18:30 and Lewis Park Reserve around 19:00, although was hoping to be able to jog that one into first place. Also had a couple of volunteer roles - tried taking photos will handing out finish tokens but wasn't very practical.

A second 10km race for the year at Sri Chinmoy Albert Park, not really sure what the problem was but started out slow and only managed a 37:30 finish despite a better second lap, got second place for age group. Had the same knee issue during the race I've been encountering in half marathon training sessions going back into last month.

Sri Chinmoy Albert Park 10km lots of medals

Two more horror weeks in shares before maybe finding a bottom, hardly something to celebrate by this point.

Good to see the Golden State Warriors with the NBA finals again this year. They were my 'second team' in the 1990's after the Supersonics but I didn't care too much about them again until Durant came back (and when they beat Dallas in 2007 in the 1st vs 8th match). When the alternative was the Boston Celtics it wasn't a hard choice. There's a bit of a dry spell in sports coming up now, but hopefully get some good coverage of the athletics world championships followed by the Commonwealth Games at the end of July.

Nothing much to report from the to do list except for finishing the planning for the Gold Coast weekend.

Nothing much to report from work also, just a minor pay rise this year, would need to get a promotion to see a major change, which could be two years away.

That's it for this month.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• None
• Music
• None - something next month at least
• TV
• Better Call Saul - season 6 part 1
• Don't always enjoy how slow some episodes are
• The cartel half of the story has been going for too long
• 8 out of 10
• From - season 1
• A good idea but not sure how long it can go on for
• From some of the Lost creators, feels like it will go down the same path
• 6 out of 10
• The Wilds - season 2
• The switching between two stories wasn't as good
• Finished the season with an opening for a third season
• 6 out of 10
• Video Games
• Xbox One
• Forza Horizon 5
• Switched from Forza 7 to horizon instead
• Lots of activities but the standard races can be a bit similar
• Finished all the primary tasks - not going to attempt every accolade
• 7 out of 10

Gold Coast 2022, July 04

The last day was just the trip home, so not much happening.

Had a longer 10km race this morning at 7:15am, again very uninspiring due to running on a footpath. Got back and ready to leave by 9:15am, this time the bus was much quicker so got to the airport by 10:00am.

While standing in a massive line for security saw the flight delay had increased from 20 to 40 minutes. At a normal airport this wouldn't be too bad, but there's literally nowhere to sit at the airport. It's more like a large food court with tables, that also happens to have planes departing.

Once the plane arrived had no other issues all the way home, just got extremely squashed from a passenger in the next seat.

Gold Coast 2022, July 03

Got up at 5am again to get the tram up to watch the start of the marathon and the 10km race. The conditions were definitely better than the events for the previous day.

I tried taking some photos from the start of the marathon, but from the side they usually were a bit blurry. Soon after the 10km race started, they went in one direction and then came back again after 3 kilometres, so had a good idea who was leading the men's and women's race by then.

The 10km race at 3km.

Once all the 10km leaders went past I walked over to the finish line to watch them come through, lots of people coming in under 35 minutes and with much better running action than I have, very depressing.

Next I went back again to the main street to wait a while for the marathon leaders coming through at the 31 kilometre mark, looking a bit worse off than when they started. Had two Japanese runners in the lead for the men's and a USA woman in the middle of a pace group.

The men's marathon winner

I went back to the hotel instead of waiting for the race to finish, and watched the live stream from the start. It was very disappointing to have no coverage of the 10km race, which has a lot more action than the marathon.

I got out for a short 6 kilometre run at Broadbeach before lunch, a poor route because after 1-2 kilometres in either direction the track ends and you have to run on a narrow footpath the rest of the way. It should be a path the whole way along the beach. My legs were feeling quite sore but nothing too serious.

There wasn't too much I was interested in doing around Surfers Paradise while still resting, I went back to Pacific Fair for lunch instead. I might have gone to Harbour Town but it's a long way to travel and the main attraction (Nike store) was temporarily closed.

Got back to the hotel later in the afternoon, watched some AFL (always on the 7mate secondary channel in low definition) before getting dinner and then packing up for the morning.

Gold Coast 2022, July 02

Probably woke up about once an hour so didn't need an alarm clock, but didn't feel too tired once 4:00am finally arrived.

Tried something a bit different and just had some Gatorade and lollies before the race, usually have some breakfast biscuits or muesli bars but found they don't always sit well afterwards.

It had been raining all night and conditions still didn't look good from the window. I walked down to the tram station in a singlet at around 4:45am, it was freezing cold so I was relieved the tram (or light rail) came along soon after. The tram took 30 minutes to get to Southport but was full after about three stops - the exact reason why I booked a hotel at Broadbeach this year. I'm still not sure how those people actually make it to the race on time.

Got to the event start at about 5:30am which was good timing, there was a bit of room for a warmup but I also didn't want to miss getting a spot near the start of the race, so only did 1.5 kilometres. I was lining up where the fence was supposed to be opened up for Group A to enter, then people just broke open the fence further ahead on their own.

I still got to about the third row behind the elites and preferred runners - need to be at least 1 hour 17 minutes to make the second of those groups, which is a bit exclusive. Soon we were off but I was stuck behind people all over the course running slower than four minutes per kilometres. Since it was so dark it was a bit more difficult to navigate through, so I just waited until the gaps appeared after a couple of minutes.

For the first few kilometres my hamstrings in particular were feeling a bit sore, possibly suggesting I hadn't had enough rest before the race, which was a worry with so far to go. That problem went away then I started to have my knee problem which had been happening for the last two months during any fast runs. Somehow that came and went quickly and I was able to run through the first half with most splits around 3:45 to 3:50 per kilometre.

The best part of the race is probably seeing all the elite men and women coming back the other way at the turn around point, by this stage they were at least one kilometre ahead, if not more.

I skipped the early drink stations but then decided to get some in the second half, around about the time I started to have my first challenges at the 13 kilometre mark. I was starting to find the same speed harder to maintain but was able to fight through it and stay under 3:50 per kilometre.

Only at about 18 kilometres I really started hurting again, and just had to try and make it through one kilometre at a time. Somehow again I managed to maintain the same speed, each kilometre trying to calculate if I was under 1 hour 20 minutes pace - which is my long term goal, but I didn't expect to reach it today. The Garmin watch was about 100 metres ahead of the course markers which also made things a bit uncertain.

After I got to 20 kilometres I was confident I could make the finish and also get under my target time - even the gun time. I crossed the finish line with 1:19:37 on the clock, but official time was 1:92:28.

Picked up the finished medal and a free Asics t-shirt at the finish line, and some brand of electrolyte drink. I didn't hang around too long and then got back on the tram to the hotel.

I was considering doing a short run when I got back but my left achilles was feeling a bit sore and tight so skipped that - apparently it can be a small side effect of these high stack 'super shoes' which I don't wear often.

Back to Pacific Fair before lunch to the Doughnut Boss shop for some great donuts, and got some different varieties of flavoured milk drinks - not that much different to Melbourne. Dropped that stuff off at the hotel and then back on the tram to Surfers Paradise to walk around for a bit and get some lunch. Bumped into Trent near the Cavill Avenue sign while he was preparing for the marathon the next day.

The usual Surfers Paradise sign.

Two remaining donuts - custard beats jam any day.

Picked up a gingerbread Mountain Dew on the way, which was really disappointing, far too much cinnamon taste. Finished the day a bit early since my legs were complaining from doing too much walking after the race - a good lesson for next time.

Staying hydrated.

Watched the live stream replay of the half marathon while eating dinner, the coverage was good, not sure if I was on the other side of the road when they were filming the leaders on the men's and women's race, but at the finish they were on a commercial break when I would have been crossing the line.

Gold Coast 2022, July 01

Started the trip to Gold Coast on Friday morning, travelling the day before the race.

• 7:15 train to city
• 7:50 bus to airport - hardly any traffic
• 8:20 airport

Decided to go with a carry-on backpack so I didn't have to deal with luggage. Just had enough room for clothes and a pair of shoes for the race, had to wear a pair of shoes to be used for walking and jogging.

Saw all the Collingwood AFL players going to Gold Coast as well, but departing an hour earlier.

Got to Gold Coast airport around 12:30pm but missed the first bus to Broadbeach South because there was too many people, got the second one but took forever, nearly 2:00pm before getting off the bus.

Walked over to Pacific Fair to find some lunch, massive lines everywhere, even at the supermarket.  Had to walk all the way to the other end and back, but finally got some food and then across the road to the hotel to check-in.

Had to go up to the expo in the convention centre at Broadbeach North to get the race number for tomorrow. Just got handed a race number and some strange clips I'd never used before, usually you get safety pins. Did a quick tour of the expo but didn't find anything to buy, no new flavours of Clif bars.

Stopped at another supermarket on the way back to the hotel, got some regular safety pins and more Gatorade.

I decided to got for a short run in the rain during the afternoon - mostly to keep the running streak going and to check for any minor injuries - only went 2.5 kilometres but my feet were already soaked from all the puddles.

Had an early dinner - bread rolls, energy bars and sports drink - and watched a bit of the AFL, but was pretty tired to set the alarm for 4:15am and missed out on seeing Carlton lose like usual.