Postcards from Feral holidays
Welcome to our newest initiative.
Jennifer has waxed lyrical about a trip to Sydney!!
To Fellow Feral Joggers,
Well, what an awesome experience!
If you were thinking that maybe you should have done the City to Surf and didn’t get around to it: make it a priority for next year. The trip was relaxed, fun and the run itself was an uplifting experience.
Saturday 7am: Arrived at Bob Barker's house for a 7.15am departure. 7.25am finally just about everyone arrives when Stuart Wood has a brain explosion and a realisation that he forgot to pick up Ed. So everyone gets onto the bus and we make a little detour to pick up Ed.
OK everyone’s on the bus so let’s go… OH hang on, we hear “I forgot my wallet” says Ed so the bus turns around to head back to fetch his wallet when we get a “never mind I found it”. Once again the bus turns around and off we go with Graham Lyons at the wheel and an extra 20km’s on the speedo.
The trip was very relaxed with everyone keen to keep hydrated for tomorrow's big run especially Tony Del Gigante trying to dull the pain of his calf injury. Many pit stops were made along the way.
Once in the city David Alpen (who has been driving for a while now) was extremely pleased with the help of many navigators to assist him with directions and everyone made sure that all instructions were given well in advance. One pedestrian nearly became part of the paint work but all up a very enjoyable trip.
We arrived at our backpackers accommodation and Tracey sees management for keys and sends everyone off to their rooms with the guys going up instead of down (had to be there).
That night we decided to have a quiet dinner and when we finally got to eat (about an hour and a half later) everyone was ready for bed.
A restless night was had by most with a combination of excitement, a different bed and party goers outside making plenty of noise just added to the whole experience.
5.30am: Sunday morning. Today’s the day. How exciting. And I can’t wait to experience everything. Armed with a few supplies and my camera off I went to the City to Surf.
We scored front row (yahhhh). The two hour wait seemed to fly by as there was lots going on and a bit of live entertainment from a sexy Borat impersonator who was in need of some waxing, he was strutting his stuff and doing plenty of stretching for the big race; he was obviously was taking things seriously.
9am: Countdown has just started and the crowd is getting jumpy now, clear instructions are given to everyone and finally the horn goes off and the preferred runners are on their way. I look down at my heart rate monitor it’s jumped up to 160 bpm and David Alpen who is wearing a heart rate monitor watch picks up my heart rate and comments accordingly. Now that’s just getting into my space a little more than I am comfortable with but after a minute or two access is denied and my privacy is returned.
The second horn has just gone off for the red runners, now I am excited and there’s pushing and shoving and the blue group are getting edgy, next thing I know people from behind start running and we are off. Oh no, false alarm, security jumps in and stop us just in the nick of time… Phew that was close, now there is more pushing and shoving and people getting even more edgy. The excitement is too much when finally it’s our turn, off we go and the journey begins.
I get to the top of the first rise before descending into the tunnel and remembered to turn around and have a look at the sea of people following. WOW how amazing, I stop and take a photo. I am off again, dodging and weaving trying to get past those who were walking or just running slower than I was and, surprisingly, there were quite a few of those.
Oh good! Port-a-loos. Better make a pit stop now. Looks like I wasn’t the only one with the idea as I had a three and a half minute wait. That took longer than I had planned. Oh hang on, better stop and take another photo.
I couldn’t believe how much there was to look at, people on the sidelines waving and cheering, bands playing on the sidewalk or on roof tops. Some of the locals were on their front lawns offering lollies, scones and alcoholic refreshments and the scenery was absolutely beautiful.
As a virgin feral and it being a hot day I decided that I had better stop at every drink stop. OH for those of you who have not been to the city to surf you should go just to hear the sound of thousands of feet stomping on plastic cups on the ground (it still makes me smile) it was like music and was surprisingly beautiful.
I spotted my first sign for the day, 10km – good only 4km’s to go. Hang on I am not sure if I have done heart break hill yet or not so at the 11km mark it got the better of me and I turned to the guy running next to me and asked. He laughed and said “Yah, about 5km’s ago” a big yahoo and off I went.
Finally the home straight OK legs lets sprint to the finish line, Yahhh I made it in 87.5 minutes what a champ!!! The legs are a little shaky now but who cares. I have never enjoyed running so much. I yelled, sang, laughed, cheered and waved plus I ran a PB.
I have to say when I booked my spot for the trip it was a one off thing to try before I die. Well, let me tell you I am hooked. Tracey book me in for next year.
Jennifer Gale
    |
   |
   |
Stephen has joined the initiative and sent this postcard from Harbin.
No, I have not been away at secret training camp to get in readiness for the upcoming City to Surf and Lakesview Classic, that is unless running in smog filled streets will help my performance, I was actually lucky enough
(again) to be part of a Sister City delegation to Harbin in Northern China in which we attended one of the largest trade shows in Asia. The delegation also included two other Ferals in Donovan and Anthony, although I don't know how much running was done after their late nights and sleepy days.......
This was my second trip to Harbin, with the first being taken in the middle of their winter and temperatures of below - 30 degrees Celsius, so it was pleasant to be able to enjoy the warmer climate and see this beautiful city in all its splendour with magnificent gardens and trees shaped like animals. Harbin has had many architectural influences including Chinese, Russian, European and more recently Canadian, with all of this adding to the beauty of a growing city.
While the joggers and running clothes were packed with every intent of running on a daily basis the amount of smog that hangs around, especially in Beijing and Shanghai, meant that all running was confined to the hotel gyms and there is only so much of that I could take. There were still many challenges out there including walking, jogging and climbing along the rabbit proof fence (The Great Wall) and in the humidity it is a challenge, especially with some of the steep climbs and descents as well as having to negotiate the street sellers along the way,
The food that we were treated to in China is absolutely magnificent, none of this deep fried honey chicken or sweet and sour pork, they are vegetable and meat based dishes with emphasis on pork and seafood and nearly every meal was either a banquet style or smorgasbord. The good food accompanied with cheap beer ($0.35 per can at some places) makes for a very cheap meal at about $9 for two people and to make thing even better was a great exchange rate of $1.00 = 6.44 Yuan.
While China might not be high on some peoples list of tourist destinations it is a highly recommended spot for something different and there are plenty of things to see and do. Shopping is very cheap with running gear a fraction of the cost that we pay here and there is plenty to choose from. A definite highlight was the visit to Shanghai which is one of the most progressive cities I have seen.
Well we will see whether the smog training works in Sydney.
   |
   |
   |
 |
Tony sent this postcard and these photos from his recent trip to France.
Hi Feral joggers.
You would have missed my blistering speed and punishing finish recently [punishing on me that is ]. That is because Christine and I recently packed our bags and headed for a holiday to France for 3 weeks. Of course the first things I packed were my runners, shorts and top and iPod shuffle.
The trip was going to be 7 hours to Singapore and 13 hours to Paris. I thought I had it all worked out- I would watch a movie, drink 6-10 beers and 4 or so Singapore Slings and go to sleep. Well it didn’t work- I did not fall asleep and the poor guy I had to keep climbing over to get to the toilet did not appreciate the good time I was having. I was a bit slow the next morning.
Paris is a beautiful city- no high rise in the central old part of the city- they are mostly 4-5 storey lovely sandstone residential buildings and 2-3 storey sandstone and marble shops.
The buildings have beautiful wrought iron balconies and are finished off with statuettes , lion heads etc.
We spent a week in lovely Paris. Our hotel was about 100 metres from the Eiffel Tower and I went for a run every second day. The runs were exhilarating- there was virtually a historic building, landmark or bridge at every turn and it was just so full of history. A 6km run would take me to the Arc de Triomphe and back, whilst an 8km run would take me to the Louvre and back and it was interesting running along the Champs Elysees past all the Designer shops such as Cartier, Hugo Boss, Versace etc. Luckily the shopping was too expensive even for Christine.
The city has lots of lovely little cafés and the cost would not have been too bad except for the exchange rate which was $A1.00 to .60 cents Euro. We certainly enjoyed the food particularly the fresh bread rolls, camembert and red wine, onion soup, snails, fish and seafood
A French joke:
An American was visiting Paris and decided to tour the city by taxi. He hailed a cab and said “Take me around the sights of Paris”. The Cabbie took him to see the Arc de Triomphe and told the American what it was and that it was built by Napoleon Bonaparte and that it took two years to build. The American “Really, we would have built that in 6 months”. The cabbie then took him to see Notre Dame Cathedral and told him about it and said that it took 8 years to build such a magnificent Cathedral. The American said rather impolitely “ You French are so slow . We would have built that church in 1 year.” The cabbie was getting annoyed with the American’s attitude and so took him around to see the Eiffel Tower. “What is this?” said the American. “ Oh, I do not know monsieur.” said the Cabbie “ It was not here yesterday.”
After Paris we picked up our hire car and spent about 12 days touring around France. We visited the Loire Valley near Tours and stayed in several lovely Chateaus. I did a couple of runs there around a little village called Mont Batton. It was beautiful scenery. We then drove to Bordeaux where we had a great wine tour of three of the Grand Crue wineries and also a look around Bordeaux. We then drove to Toulouse and on to Carcassonne which has a large medieval walled city with moat and turrets. We spent a day in Montpellier where the Australian Rugby team will be training and playing at the world cup later this year. I had a great run in Carcassonne through the walled city and along the river there. A lot of towns in France have rivers running through them. It really adds to the beauty of the place.
Our last 4-5 days was spent on the Riviera at a lovely seaside town called Sete and then at Nice. They had the most plentiful and the best seafood in France. I did some very enjoyable and scenic runs along the boat canals, hillsides and ocean followed by a dip in the sea. The only down side was that the beaches were all large stones and pebbles.
Now I reckon that all that French food, wine, women {Christine} and song coupled with the running has made me super fit and ready to break a record in the City to Surf. I am not sure whether it will be at running or drinking but definitely one or the other, so watch this space!!
|
|
|
|
|
|
Thanks, Tony. The Form Guide has been warned
You can send your holiday running postcard to us by clicking on the link below.
