Mummy, my legs hurt

I had been pretty nervous going into this race - I knew I'd picked a mentally challenging one for my first road marathon. And with the combined forces of some stressful restructuring going on at work plus a few overuse injuries starting to appear after the Run Against Violence, my training had been pretty light on for the past few weeks (or should that be months?). But there were also lots of things about this one that made it easy - it was very close to home, I knew the course, it was dead flat (although that's good and bad!), and lots of friends would be there running, supporting and spectating. Mostly I was worried about the heat but luckily on the day it was a little cooler than it could have been. Still warm, but not crazy-hot. That bloody wind however!! Gusting up to 50km/hr it wasn't so much fun as the day wore on. The 'A' plan for this race (a very far fetched A plan I might add) was to aim for a 4 hour finish in order to qualify for Mt Solitary Ultra ...

Near Leura NSW Distance: 4.1km return Duration: 2 hours After a failed attempt to do this walk on my birthday in July - failed because Richie was on crutches at the time - we returned on Fathers Day to give it a crack. With the sun shining and the wind howling we set off from the very end of Mt Hay road at Leura. This track is well marked with open low scrubby heath so you can see well off into the distance to the squat, dome-shaped Mt Hay crouching ahead. With the short people in tow we took our time as usual, and there were only a few patches where the bushes were so sharp and overgrown that I had to lift Holly up and over them. Some interesting features including a rock ledge to scramble up and some short eroded rock formations that made for a great perching spot for Ty to lean into the strong wind. The climb up to Mt Hay is gradual but open with little shade in the earlier parts so probably best avoided in the heat of the day. The track rounds a bend part w...