The Great Nosh

The Great Nosh was on again today and I had a fantastic time, even more fun than last year! It's a 15km bush run from Lindfield oval to Seaforth oval.

I did this run last year for the first time and it totally made me excited about bush running. Last year I was preparing for the Hunter Valley Marathon 6 weeks later so needed to get in the long runs, therefore I parked at the finish and ran back through the bush to the start.

This year I thought I'd do exactly the same so got a lift with Chris in his work Smart Car (those things are cool, especially how light on fuel they are) and we parked at Seaforth oval at 8am then jogged back to the start. Took the shortcut from Forestville Oval to Warringah Road and straight down the road to Roseville Bridge, then the rest of the Nosh course in reverse. It was about 12-13km by Chris's footpod in about 75 minutes, we just took it real easy and chatted the whole way. Av HR was 130 bpm.

There was a big crowd at Lindfield, perfect weather (a bit of cloud so not too much sun or heat) and I saw a while bunch of Coolrunners I knew like Hamburglar and Horrie. Chris and I managed to push up to a a good point near the front, because I remembered getting stuck behind slow people on the singletrack at the start. Off went the gun and my legs felt great. I saw Christian and Clement from HuRTS and thought if I could just stick with them hey'd drag me to a good time. About 4 near-ankle-rolls scared the hell out of me, but I refocused and made it to Roseville Bridge ok. Both the boys got away from me on the bridge and I never saw them again.

Also, weirdly enough, for the couple of minutes I was on the bridge Marty drove by and saw me! After the bridge the crowd had thinned out and I barely passed anyone or got passed again for the rest of the way (I think I gained two places and lost one). The course seemed to be better marked than last year and it was just a pleasure to race!

I didn't have much left in my legs on the 12-14km straight, but I sped through the last km of singletrack and ended up finishing right behind Reid, I didn't even know he was running it. I beat last year's time by 15 mins so you have to be happy with that. 74:36 , Av HR of 161 and Max HR 174.

I couldn't be happier with the result. A solid 27 or 28km with plenty of up and down and a really enjoyable bush bash - top Sunday!

5km 22:12 158
11km 32:44 164
12km 4:54 166
14km 9:59 152
15km 4:45 164