well, as is often the case postcards arrive after you get back from holidays.

I'm back from a 5 1/2 week trip to the Karakoram mountains in Northern Pakistan. I trekked the Deosai Plains and the Biafo and Hispar Glaciers. The Hispar La (5100m) is the glaciated pass that links the Biafo and Hispar glaciers, the Karakoram's second and fifth longest glaciers. Together they form the longest continuous stretch of glacier (114km). At the base of Hispar La is Lukpe Lawo, commonly called Snow Lake, one of the world's largest glacial basins. More than a dozen 7000m peaks tower above these glaciers.

The photo is of the Latok group - 7145 meters.

Matt

Remember the call (some time ago) for old feral running shoes? This came to us this week.

Dear Tracey,

Thanks to you and all the Ferals for the abundant supply of old running shoes. Rest assured, they were put to good use! (see attached photo). The Environmental club members at Griffith North PS took home an interesting herb garden to share with their families.  Your help was much appreciated.

Keep running ... and keep wearing out those shoes!

Many thanks

Robyn

I lay awake Saturday night listening to the rain pouring down.  Didn't look too good yesterday morning either but there was only a smattering of rain on the way across and I don't think it rained at all during the event.  The ground was muddy and the pool was like a warm bath full of wet grass but the cool weather was good to run/ride in.

We ferals made up 10% of the 82 strong field and you will notice that without conferring beforehand most of us wore feral shirts.  I kicked myself for not wearing mine.

We didn't take out any prizes - the Leeton competitors were strong but we enjoyed ourselves and didn't do too badly.  Times will be up on the website shortly.

We stopped at two pubs on the way back - Grong Grong and Narrandera.  Got home around 3.30 so it was a full day.

Hope I'm not making you feel too nostalgic for your triathlon days.  There's always Hillston if you feel like getting back on the bike.... 

One from Janet about her Portland Marathon

Well, you may have already checked the results and found that I was way off the mark with a projected finish time of 4 hours - 5:13:45.  But, it was a miserable day, rain, rain, rain. I started with the 4 hour pace group, but along the way, people were commenting on how fast we were going. There were pace bands that had times for 1 mile, 5 miles, etc, and at some of these checkpoints we were ahead of schedule.  I forgot to bring my watch so I didn't know myself how fast we were going. My mom and sisters were following my progress on line and even they thought I was going too fast. 

Well, I kept up until mile 12, then fell behind at a potty break. I blame it on a gel I took at about mile 10 and because I didn’t’ drink enough water, disagreed with me in the most disagreeable way! I became focused on each mile, where there were porta-potties and just had a sort of stomach ache, cramps, and all I wanted to do was lie down somewhere. (And not die, but just lose consciousness!)   By mile 14, I was in crisis mode and had to have a serious talk with myself to keep going, it was a very special time we spent together. (Sure, I can laugh now!)

I ended up aiming for the next two miles, then the next, and so on, and I have to say, miles 25 to 26 were absolutely the hardest, longest, unbelievably painful 2 miles I've ever done! (You're all registering for marathons right after reading this, right?!)  It was cold, wet, but the bands along the way were good. I did bring my i-Pod, but it stopped working after 2 songs because of the rain, and God, I missed it!!  By the time I got to 16 miles, I just wanted to finish, and who doesn't want to run 10.2 miles in the pouring rain in soaking wet running clothes? 

My mom and sisters were waiting for me just before the finish line, so I managed to look happy for the camera. And they were happy for me that I'd done it, and honestly, I couldn't have done any better. I tried to go faster, to maybe break 5 hours, but my quads were shot.

I saw lots of people in worse shape than I was, with 6 miles to go. It's incredibly hard to make yourself keep putting one foot in front of the other, but one thing keeps you going, you have to finish. I saw someone's t-shirt that said "Pain is temporary, but finishing is forever." It may sound trite now, but it kept me going.

So that's my story, in a nutshell, what can you expect from a nut?? But please don't be discouraged from doing one yourselves. This was just an example of an especially brutal race, I've had better and believe it or not, I would consider doing another.