The Finish Line

I have reached the finish line with some major projects/events and I am almost there with the remaining ones on my 2015 list.

The biggest finishes of recent weeks have been (a) my last planned running event for the year, and (b) my university exams for the year.

My last planned running event was the Sri Chinmoy Triple Tri in which I entered with two other >50yr old women who I hadn't met until the day before the race. They came with good referrals though via a friend of a friend and we clicked instantly & became great mates in one day. For me, the Triple Tri involved running 3 separate very hilly, technical trail runs. The first one was 20km and took in the peaks of Mount Majura and Ainslie. The second was 12km and took in the top of Mount Taylor. The third was 13km and took in the top of Red Hill. I found them all tough going, made even tougher by falling on the way down Mount Ainslie in the first run and ripping up my hands.

Still, I ran all three runs within the time estimates I'd given my team mates and they did likewise with their respective swim and bike legs. The net result was that we blitzed the >50yrs female team of 3 course record by over an hour which was pleasing in itself and even more pleasing because it had been in place since 2004.

There were many points during my Triple Tri runs that I thought "I am never doing this again", and yet within 2 days we were talking about having a shot at beating our own record again next year. One thing is for sure and that is that if the other two girls are keen, I'll do some training on the actual run courses because I'm sure I could run faster if I did some course specific training. For the time being though, thinking about that is on the shelf for at least 9-10 months.

My last uni exam was scheduled for two days after the Triple Tri. That was pretty tricky as it meant cramming in as much study as I could before the Triple Tri knowing that my mind and body would be mush the day afterwards. As it turned out, the exam was okay for me. How okay and what my result(s) will be I will find out on Monday of next week.

And now to the remaining unfinished things. They are both crewing duties. The first is a novel crewing commitment that I am undertaking this coming weekend. Again, for a friend of a friend, I have undertaken to do a favour. This one involves crewing in my kayak for an ultra runner who has become an ultra swimmer post running injury. So, I'll be kayaking alongside him with nutrition and fluid for 9km on Sunday. He reckons it will take him approximately 2hrs 50mins and so that will be an upper body workout and a half for me :). The other remaining unfinished crewing commitment is going back to Coast to Kosci (C2K) on 11 Dec for the 5th year in a row and crewing for my WA mate, Rob, again.

By the time I am back from C2K it will 14 December and I will only have one week left at work before the Xmas/New Year shutdown. The year will indeed be almost finished. Then it will be time to plan running and other events for 2016.