Lady Carrington Drive - Royal National Park

Wow! I had heard people talking about the National Park but hadn't managed to get there myself so I was really pleased to be heading down there this morning with Sara and the Owl to meet up with blkbx, beki, gronk and georgie. I had 2 hours on the program but wasn't particularly committed to a time/distance.

The National Park is just gorgeous. I think I might have to get a year pass and go down every weekend! The weather today was particularly gorgeous and it was reasonably cool and on a shady track there was no issues in that regards. Not to imply of course that I didn't get a good sweat up!

But the run wasn't all peace and tranquility and good company. oh no... firstly poor owly stacked it mottram style when a rogue stick caught her foot from behind bringing her crashing down. Fortunately she didn't take any of the rest of the pack down and was able to keep on running - but not without an impressive bloody wound on her knee.

Then it was my turn to bring the crew to a halt at about 6km. My right knee was starting to hurt and I stopped and stretched and kept going but it got beyond a niggle into actual pain and i couldn't keep running. BUGGER!!!! I was quite worried and owly kindly started walking with me. The temptation was to try running every minute or so to see if the pain had gone but she made me give it a good shot. After about 10 mins of walking we were mucking around and i was trying a funny running style as a joke and it didn't hurt so I suggested we keep going. Then I seemed to be right as rain and we ran back to the start. That was about 12 or so km, 1 hr 23ish (I forgot my garmin!) and I was actually doing OK and the Owl was looking very fit and strong so I suggested we head up the path again to re-meet up with the guys doing the whole length. About a k in we hit Beki and Sara so turned back with them. All up I think we did 14ish km in 1hr 43.

Another highlight of the run was a bit of a celeb spotting! When Lorna and I were walking a massive pack of triathlon-y looking boys zoomed past and at the front - no less than Chris McCormack - Maccccaaaaaa!!!! Cool!!! Lorna didn't quite understand my adulation and I think was a bit embarassed when we saw him coming the other way and he said to her 'how you doing?' and as soon as he passed i was like "oh my god chris mccormack asked how you were!!!!!!!"

Anyway so the scenery was good, and so was the view :) We even saw a lyre bird - I've never seen one of them before!

Finished up with breakfast in kirawee (? i think) and no shit, my meal cost $2.50. noice.

EDIT - an action photo and a close up of Owly's bleeding knee on gronk's blog:
http://gronkblog.blogspot.com

also check out beki's blog:
http://dailywafflings.wordpress.com/2007/01/14/a-gaggle-of-cool-runners/