Running with a Kiwi and two other Ausrunners

The Columns that are not the Pillar’s meeting point!

This morning, four Ausrunners ran around The Tan and then from Anderson St through Federation Square via the Yarra Trail – in what it is now known as “Em’s training track”. There are many ways the sequence of events of this sunny spring morning can be told. This is the story how I recollect this morning’s run.

I collected Vicky from her hotel just before 8am. Vicky is our Auckland’s Ausrunner friend, who happened to be visiting Melbourne this weekend. Agreement was that Ausrunners would meet at the Pillars and promptly I discovered that we had different interpretations to what the ‘pillar’ landmark was. Em’s landmark (and, to that effect, the majority of people) is that it is the point where The Tan faces the river. In other words, it is the 3.87km mark – the end or the finish, the section in Alexander Avenue that connects to Swan St. Unless you are like me - living in the clouds, you were led to believe the ‘pillar’ landmark was the Police Memorial (at the bottom of Government House Drive), the 2.75km mark. Wrong. The pillars are those twelve inconspicuous rocky pyramids used for stretching and other banalities on Alexander Avenue.

So just before 8AM I parked my car in what I thought the meeting point was. After a few minutes wait and not seeing Em or any one else, Vicky and I started to run, clockwise – we started gently and wondering if we would meet other Ausrunners. Undoubtedly Vicky was polite and refrained from expressing any disappointment, but about eight minutes later we crossed paths with another face I have seen regularly around The Tan. I simply called EM! There was she – with her usual gear and orderly running posture – inimitable. Tony (TB) was with Em. Both were running anti-clock wise and wondering what happened to us…

We chatted for a minute and then the four of us commenced our run together, in a fashion order at times the four of us along the path and other times in pairs… Amazingly Em and Vicky checked their watches and clicked lap start buttons. (Surely Em will release the technical data of today’s run – which was completed in under an hour).

The only other Ausrunner I had previously met was Em. So it was an absolute delight to meet Vicky and Tony today. Invariably meeting them today was like meeting old friends … I knew so much about them via email, blog and the forum. Today’s run comprised one lap of The Tan and when we reached the intersection of Anderson and Alexander Avenue instead of tackling the hill for the second time we took the Yarra Trail (as suggested by Em) and ran towards the Federation Square and then we connected again to The Tan and ran till the corner of Anderson and Alexander and returned to the Pillars… just before we completed the run we sprinted. The honours of the sprint go to Tony (who professes not to be a sprinter) and Vicky (whose running determination, strength and focus is outstanding).

During the course of our run today we spoke about so many things – ranging from running stories through life related stuff to future running plans. We even spoke about some of the usual discussions in the Ausrun forum. Vicky will be competing in the Auckland Half Marathon next Sunday and we reaffirmed our faith in that Vicky will have another awesome run as she had last week when she got a PB for the 10km. There is no doubt that Em’s running performance can only go from strength to strength and 2007 promises to be a stellar year for Em.

Our Kiwi visitor was not only on a superb form but sharp on her running effort, considering that she was in Hobart for four days last week and then shopping in Melbourne and having a ripper of a night in a thriller rugby match at the Dockland stadium last night. Dont forget the three current hours difference between Auck and Melb.

After we completed the run, we went to breakfast to 181 Domain. Should not be surprising that two runners had pancakes and the other two runners had Benedict eggs with salmon. We chatted further about our running experiences, other people's running races, but particularly we spoke about our Melbourne Marathon ups and downs.

Three and a half hours later, we parted ways. We said farewell to our Kiwi friend and wished Vicky the best of luck for next week’s Auckland half marathon and we said we expect a comprehensive race report.

Amazingly, Vicky not only knows now the landmarks of The Tan, but yesterday she sighted the wombat combat runner…! . In a city of more than 3 million people we let our visitors see some of our very own peculiar people. That’s spooky, folks! I wonder what the wombat's life story is.

Postscript One
What constitutes a pillar? Damm it! Who cares, really? Most critically, the main thing is that we had a nice run together and shared common stories.

Obviously... the pillars are those vertical cylindrical columns associated with wisdom, rather than those columns (or structure) supporting a monument…

Postscript Two
This was my last run for a few weeks, so I believe, if I want to get rid of the shin splints that have been bugging me for the past seven weeks. There’s no doubt that I have found so much enjoyment in those long runs … it has been terrific to build strength to run more than 20 kilometres at a time. So if I wish to return training for another marathon in the first quarter of 2007, I better take time to recover.

Postscript Three
One Ausrunner, who should remain nameless for the time being, has agreed to give a go at the bin cold bath (strange, isn’t it?)!
Details, such as size of the wheelie bin, duration and reward, needs to be sorted out.