Hobart 2023

January 27

January 28

January 29

January 30

Hobart 2023, January 30

Had sore legs in the morning so decided not to do another early run around the city on cement footpaths. Got the bus to the airport about 8:00am, there was very little traffic going in that direction so it was a quick trip - again I couldn't understand why the airport needs to be about 20 kilometres away.

The flight was leaving on a little late in the morning, so overall a success with the transport.

Good

• Airport bus
• Donut shops
• Good scenery with the bay and river
• Not crowded
• Summer weather was good, winter probably not so much

Bad

• Food and drink no different to Melbourne
• Hills in all directions around the city
• Limited tourist attractions in city centre - would be better with a car
• No convenience stores
• Too far to walk to most places - basketball, botanic gardens, cricket, etc.

Hobart 2023, January 29

Started the day with a 16 kilometre run on intercity cycleway. It was a good route passing the cenotaph, botanic gardens and along the river, but it was rock hard cement the whole way so my shins were getting very sore like usual so I ran a bit less than usual.

After the run I went to the morning Farmgate Market, the highlight was the donut table. Got some other food for lunch then watched the BBC FA Cup highlights back at the hotel.

Walked to Battery Point after lunch, an area near the city with lots of historic cottages and other heritage buildings. The Battery Point Sculpture Trail was disappointing, each piece of artwork was just a number.

Battery Point

Just some numbers

Came back to the city through Salamanca again and the waterfront docks. The city cruise wasn't running because on of the wharfs being upgraded for several months.

One metre bridge.

Finally found a magnet, it wasn't the best but said Hobart at least. Walked back to hotel having tired legs again from so much running and walking, needed more pool recovery.

Had enough energy to walk back to the city one more time for dinner, then watched some more TV shows and another BBL finals match. Had no interest in the men's final at the Australian Open.

Hobart 2023, January 28

I planned poorly so didn't have any drinks left for the morning, so was really thirsty before heading off to the morning parkrun, which start at 9am in Tasmania instead of 8am in most other states. It was only a 3 kilometre jog to Queens Domain parkrun but it was pretty much all uphill to get there. I also ran a bit of the course which didn't appear too challenging, but overheard there was a difficult single track dirt section later on.

During the run I was in second most of the way, the course was narrow with some sharp hills as I heard, so barely managed 4:00/km during that phase. Being at the top of a hill also meant there was a lot of wind, so only just managed to finish under 19 minutes. I got to add a Q parkrun to the collection, so only I, O, and U remaining.

I ran back to the hotel which was all downhill at least, then walked over to the morning Salamanca markets. It was a busy market where you can't even move at walking pace due to the crowds. There was a significant number of stalls but mostly that arts and crafts junk, quite a lot of food too but nothing too interesting. While in the area I also went to Salamanca Square and Salamanca Arts Centre.

Next went back to the main city centre to Elizabeth Street mall, a bit smaller and quieter than Bourke Street mall. Finally got something to drink then back to supermarket for some lunch supplies and more importantly a box of donuts from the donut shop.

Elizabeth Street mall

I decided to walk over to Tasmania Botanical Gardens before having lunch but was soon regretting it, it was a slow and tiring 2.5 kilometre walk on a dusty uphill track - carrying lunch and a box of donuts didn't help the situation.

Tasman Bridge

After eating lunch I had a look around the gardens, there was an Antarctic house that sound interesting but it was closed! The rest was a mixture of local and foreign plants - the usual cactus, Japanese Garden etc. Had another 2.5 kilometre walk back the other way, but stopped at the Hobart Cenotaph on the way - a big monument that was really windy since it was right next to the bay.

Got back to the hotel around 4pm, really tired from walking for about 4 hours on top of the running. Like usual my left shin is always quite painful. I went to the pool for about 45 minutes to recover before having dinner which helped a bit, then watched the BBL and Australian Open women's final - better than nothing.

Hobart 2023, January 27

A short trip to Hobart after the Australia Day public holiday. For the first time ever the train, bus and flight all ran on time, even had a bus waiting to go after landing. Got off the bus in Hobart by 12:30pm, ahead of schedule but unfortunately that mean the hotel check-in wasn't open for another hour and a half.

Had lunch in the city and walked around for a while to kill some time, but had to carry a backpack and laptop bag everywhere so that wasn't so good. After check-in walked back to the supermarket to get some food for the weekend, but there's only one supermarket in the city and a long way from the hotel, not very convenient.

Had an early dinner back at the hotel, watched some tennis and videos off a USB drive, which actually worked straight through the TV so didn't really need to bring a laptop, although it's still a better alternative than spending the whole weekend on a mobile phone web browser.

Back into the city again to wait at the bus interchange for one of three special buses to the NBL game Tasmania vs. Sydney Kings, bonus that it was free but you can apparently pay for tickets on board with cash still on other services. The stadium is about ten kilometres north-west of the city along a main highway so a bus was the best option - I don't know why it's so far away.

Since I got the first bus I was at my seat with about 45 minutes until the game started, but had a bit of pre-game entertainment and warm-ups to pass the time. Sadly they were handing out stupid plastic clappers at the entrance, and was I sitting next to some old people using them for the entire game, even when their team was losing.

The Kings played really bad in the first quarter with lots of turnovers and were down by more than 10 points, everything changed from the second quarter and they were ahead by 20 by the third quarter and had an easy win. The crowd was surprisingly good for a new team in the competition and the match was sold out.

They also had buses waiting to go back to the city once the match ended, it was organised well.

2022 Running Review

Getting in early with the first review, one thing that went well for the year.

Just missed beating the totals from 2021 with a minor injury in the last week of the year.

• 2022 - 5119 kilometres and 390 hours
• 2021 - 5128 kilometres and 392 hours

The running totals were not a major goal for the year and was impacted by running a few more races, although still would have liked to do more - only one in the first five months.

• March - River Run Geelong 10km
• 37:03
• June - Sri Chinmoy Albert Park 10km
• 37:23
• July - Gold Coast Marathon 21km
• 1:19:28 PB
• July - Run Melbourne 10km
• 36:30 PB
• August - XCR Albert Park 10km
• 36:23 PB
• August - XCR Ballarat 15km
• 55:07 PB
• October - Melbourne Marathon 21km
• 1:19:14 PB
• December - Lara Fun Run 10km
• 37:21

I was surprised to be able to set one or more personal bests in each of the 5, 10, 15, and 21 kilometre distances, and in particular finally getting under the 80 minute barrier. The only disappointment was the Melbourne Marathon course seemed longer than previous years adding at least 30 seconds to the result.

I reached the 250 parkrun milestone around the middle of the year, now it will be a very long time to reach 500 - a minimum of 5 years at current pace.

The PB streak from 2021 carried into 2022 and finished at 25 events in April, also the tourism streak ended at 52 in August. I also managed to break the 18 minute parkrun barrier a few times, although none were during that PB streak actually.

• Dandenong 17:58
• Dorset Recreation Reserve 17:59
• Lilydale Lake 17:49
• Warringal Parklands 17:48 and 17:49

The other parkrun stats are:

• 45 events - 24 in 2021
• 12 new events - 9 in 2021
• April
• Dorset Recreation Reserve
• Frankston Nature Conservation Reserve
• May
• Toolern Creak
• Cyril Curtain Reserve
• June
• Werribee Park Mansion
• Lewis Park Reserve
• July
• Kirkdale Reserve
• Peppertree
• August
• Warrandyte River Reserve
• Phillip Island
• December
• Bendigo Botanic Gardens
• Lake Boga Foreshore

The goals from 2022 and new goals for 2023 are:

• 2022
• 5km 18:00 - 17:48
• 10km 36:30 - 36:23
• 21km 1:20:30 - 1:19:14
• 4500 to 5000 kilometres - 5119
• Parkrun
• 10 new events - 12
• PB streak 25 - 25
• Tourist streak 50 - 52
• Races
• 2 new events - 0
• 2 interstate events - 1
• 0 international events - 0
• 2023
• 5km 17:30
• 10km 36:00
• 21km 1:18:00
• 4500 to 5000 kilometres
• Parkrun
• 10 new events
• Races
• 2 new events
• 3 interstate events
• 1 or 2 international events

December Review

That's it for 2022.

Not much for the miscellaneous section.

• Summer finally arrived in mid December - heating had been running in the morning until then
• Next virus wave in China - another reason for the economy to fail in the coming year

Back to a normal month of running almost. One small race at the Lara Fun Run, actually finished first although it was a very hot morning so the time wasn't very impressive, really struggled on the second lap.

A busy month for parkrun also with the extra events for Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Another two results under 18 minutes at Warringal Parklands, a low 18 minutes at Bendigo Botanic Gardens, followed by a slower Warringal Parklands on Christmas Day. I'm not sure if it was driving 2 hours each way to Bendigo or running 18 minutes and 19 minutes on consecutive parkrun days, but my right foot was really sore the next day and still hasn't fully recovered, although it is about 75% better at least. Finished the year at Lake Boga Foreshore and ran slow again to avoid making the injury worse.

The shares recovery didn't last long, down about 5% for the month to reverse November gains, and more than 20% down for the year, will check that later. I sold down my investment loan a bit more as the interest rate is now up around 8% which is pointless when the whole sharemarket goes down nearly 10% for the year.

The World Cup tournament completed with another disappointing loss for England in the quarter finals. The final was a great match still, but most of the finals were on at 2am which made them unwatchable.

The same things again for the to do list.

• Christmas and New Year
• Bendigo trip before Christmas
• Kerang trip for new year
• Holiday
• Booked one short trip to Tasmania for the end of January
• Haven't found any good running events in Australia or international nearby for travel
• Possibly some boring New Zealand or Singapore trips but need to get date commitments from work first
• Review
• 2022 running
• 2022 yearly
• 2023 yearly

Had a few weeks off work which was good, although back to the same again for the first half of the year it looks like. We participated in the daily Advent Of Code challenge again, it was good for about the first ten days, then the difficulty ramps up and it often takes multiple hours to solve each daily puzzle.

That's it for this month and year.

• Books
• None
• Movies
• Glass Onion
• Didn't really require a sequel, too much dialogue that wasn't that interesting
• 5 out of 10
• Music
• The Killers
• Finally a live music event
• Just The Killers again but their live show is always good
• 9 out of 10
• TV
• The Traitors
• Started good, but too much pointless talking
• Went downhill when more traitors were enlisted late in the show
• 3 out of 10
• Video Games
• Rage 2
• Too many repetitive side tasks
• The main story was short otherwise and not interesting
• 6 out of 10
• Wolfenstein 2 - The New Colossus
• Didn't like the main story
• Didn't like the requirement for stealth in almost every situation
• The side tasks were alright, not too much to collect
• 6 out of 10

Kerang Region 2022

A quick recap of my Kerang trip before the monthly review, although I wouldn't call it a holiday. I organised two days of travel to also include some new parkrun locations, since I don't plan on travelling three or four hours to these places on a normal weekend - and benefiting from an extra event on Sunday for new year's day.

Friday afternoon was just spent travelling, getting fuel after about an hour then going the rest of the way without stopping. A few sections of the highway had 60 kilometre speed limit, but overall not too bad. I passed a few take-away food places in the main street of town as I was driving through - right next to each other - and also a couple of supermarkets nearby. If you lived in town you'd be a bit limited for choice, but that would be the same or worse for a lot of towns. The motel had most of the Foxtel sport channels, the best option was a BBL match where I got to watch a Melbourne team lose as per usual.

I seem to wake up every hour when I have an alarm set for the morning, so this was no different. Had a 7am alarm to drive to Lake Boga Foreshore for the usual Saturday parkrun - 45 kilometres but at 100 km/h with no traffic is a quick trip. I did a four kilometre warm up before the start - on a mixture of bitumen and concrete (the worst) - then almost missed the start as I didn't realise it was a couple of minutes walk from the finish.

Due to having consecutive parkrun days I was hoping to only run around 20 minutes, but like usual had someone running just behind me for the first two kilometres. Still can't understand why people start at 4:00/km then finish closer to 5:00/km and never learn. I finished the course under 19:30, it's just a small section of the lake as I'd guess the whole way around would be 25 kilometres or more.

Completed a short two kilometre warm down afterwards and at the end of all that my right foot was still a bit sore - from the previous week of double parkrun and driving to Bendigo - but hadn't gotten any worse, and still better than earlier in the week.

Swan Hill was only about 15 minutes further away, so went for a quick visit. It's a bit bigger than Kerang and other towns in the area - you can tell since it has it's own KFC, McDonald's, Subway, etc. I hadn't been paying much attention to the map so didn't realise the town was right on the Murray River border - I knew it was close - but didn't notice any particular damage caused by the floods from earlier in the year.

The town has a contribution to the Big Things Of Australia - the Giant Murray Cod. Stopped for a quick photo and also to have a walk around the town, but some shops were closed for the holiday so no magnet. Also walked along the river bank and across the bridge to New South Wales.

Drove back to Kerang, stopped at the bakery for lunch then back to the hotel. Went back out walking again in the afternoon but it does seem to get really hot out in the regional areas and there wasn't much shade around. Checked out a few of the landmarks in town like Atkinson Park, some clock tower in the main street, some lookout tower across from the park, not much activity here either due to new year's eve.

Back to the motel after dinner had some more BBL to watch, I didn't realise Kerang had their own fireworks when they went off in the park at 9:30pm, it was so close I thought it was someone outside the motel at first. They didn't last too long so didn't get time to walk over for a closer look. They had another session at midnight though which were much louder and went for around 10 minutes.

Had another parkrun for Sunday but this one was within walking distance for the Kerang Regional event. I hadn't scrolled down four months on their facebook page to see they had changed the course because of floods and again nearly missed the start. It was even warmer than the previous morning but with a very small attendance I was able to run at my own pace just under 20 minutes.

So that was it, back to the hotel to get ready for the long drive back to Melbourne. Managed to go the whole way without stopping but had the usual soreness in my left leg in particular, made worse by driving shortly after exercising I think but got through a bit better having just done the two hour trip to Bendigo the previous weekend to get used to it.