Warragul XC & Puffing Billy Races!!

Warragul 6km XC Race--Saturday 3 May 2008

It was a pretty gloomy day and we met at uni at 11am to car pool down to Warragul, approximately 2hr drive. I was with the "Team S'pore contingent" as D1 calls it...haha which is Iylia, Ray and I =)

Iylia drove while Ray navigated. We stopped by Pakenham coz i needed to pee badly. haha. it was drizzling and cold. it was a v scenic drive...got to see farms and cows and sheep haha. we got to Lardner Park and set up base in an old shed which smelt like cattle.

Race start/finish area

The guys' race was 8km (2x 4km loop), at 2.10pm.

The boys doing run thrus. D1, camera friendly as usual..

The Formidable White Train!

The men at the starting line.


Kate, Camilla and me cheering the guys on.
Spot the Melb Uni runners in the white top with diagonal blue sash.

Almost 2km into the race, Liam on the R with Grant keeping up.

Not ones to miss a good photo opportunity, Tony and Matt Irons managed to look over and SMILE. Ray trying hard to pace Tony, which turned out to be a bad idea. haha.

D1 with Andy Selby close behind.

The guys ran superbly! Liam and Grant finished near the front, an exciting sprint finish between Dave Pariossien and Hamish...haha we were jogging around the course cheering the guys on and me snapping race photos for everyone. haha.

The girl's race, 6km, started at 2.50pm. it was a 2km loop followed by the 4km loop.

Renata, our new Swiss runner leading the women's race. Damn she's looks so cool and so pro!

Yup, that's me happily running across a muddy slippery patch. Not cool or pro at all.

Oh that's me again, trying to pace Al (ahead, out of the photo).

Alison Smith, women's XC captain

Sprint finish (to the toilet)!

I had a pretty good run except for the terrible terrible stomachache i had to endure during the race! Spent the half hour post-race in the toilet...haha. i ran the first 2km in 8.20, too fast i think, but i was feeling real good. haha. in the 4km loop we had to jump over a fence into a muddy loop with many ditches. I stepped into many of the ditches coz they were too wide for me to jump across.

Tony and the guys kept making fun of me, coz we were supposed to jump/climb over the wooden fence but i slipped horizontally in-between the bars instead, coz climbing over wld take too much effort for a shorty like me!


we had our usual post race picnic...scrumptious as usual. haha. D2 brought along an old table, how thoughtful.

Then the Team S'pore Contingent took some really nice photographs:

What a cute shot of me and Iylia. My mouth was stuffed with muffin!

What a nice shot of Ray and me. I was tip toeing.

Team S'pore

YEAH!!!

Ray, Iylia, Alison and me headed back to the city, with ME DRIVING! haha so fun, i like driving! Dropped Iylia off at Melb Central coz he was gonna buy movie tickets for Iron Man for Ray and me, then dropped Al off at uni. Then headed home to bathe and change for dinner.

We had Nandos for dinner and bought loads of snacks for the movie, which Iylia was CRAZY about..expected of a hardcore comic book fanatic. haha. Nice conclusion to a fun day =)


13.2km Puffing Billy Race--Sunday 4 May 2008

The race starts in Belgrave, in the v hilly Dandenong Ranges. We meet at Liam's studio in Smith Street to take a coach bus down. I ran this race last year in 64min 55 sec and was determined to beat that this year. At least this year's chilly but not raining.

Photos on the bus ride there:

Me and Wilson...nice =)

Iylia, me and Wilson at the Belgrave train station

Me so psyched up pre-race...
Iylia excited about his race tag, or is he just showing off his chest...

The race was good, i had a solid run and felt strong...it was HILLY! between 5-8kms was almost entirely uphill. haha. the last 2km was on terrain. it was a good run! I shaved almost 5min off my time from last year!! YEAH...1 hr 10s...fabulous. Could the secret be to be greedy and overeat desserts...? haha.

Trio shot: Ray, Iylia and me on the train tracks at the finish. cool.

Me and D2, Dave Ulbrick, who finished top 15! fantastic.

me and ray.

Iylia shooting his Magnum look...or is it Blue Steel? synchronised calf stretching with D2. haha. i was picking wild "magic" mushrooms from the soil and "de-gilling" them. GROSS GROSS GROSS. patterns nightmare!

couple shot--Ray and Iylia by the lake. sweeeet.

me and iylia by the lake. awwww.

Al and me =)

Ashlea and me.

We then took the bus back to the city. But we got caught in a jam so it took really long. In the meantime, we were entertaining ourselves by taking embarrassing shots. Here are a few of the LESS EMBARASSING ONES...


Iylia as poster boy for Powerade Energy. Caffine + sugar. which reminds me, after downing an entire bottle before the run, i got a Powerade HIGH and started laughing at every little unfunny thing. How cool is that? A natural high without drugs/alcohol! hahaha.

Wilson failing miserably in his attempt to look cool.

Ray showing off his superior balancing skills--a green apple nested on his head! amazing!

Hehe im not posting any embarrassing shots of me...right, so the 4 s'poreans decided to have lunch on smith street. What a spread!


Ahh...after walking around smith st after lunch i went home and knocked out!!! haha tiring weekend of racing, but so much fun =)