You win some, you loose some

A big thank you to Trent Morrow from ALTRA shoes! He is sponsoring me two pairs of ALTRA Lone Peak 3.5 trail shoes! WOW, that is amazing. Also helping out with another two pairs of ALTRAs is local adventure store, Adventure Equipment. Thanks, Mark. Another WOW. I might try the new Torin. Now I need to find some trails to run on.

To that end, I've booked a spot in the 28km Two Bays Trail Race, Cape Schanck to Dromana on Mornington Peninsula in Victoria on 14 January 2018. I had put in for the 56km, but they dumped me from that because I am too slow. To make the trip from Cairns down south a bit more purposefull, I'll also go to Tasmania and run on the trails there prior to heading to Melbourne. Steve Appleby is going to help me out with some good trails to pick from around Hobart in Tassie. And I look forward to also catching up with Steve Lee while at the Two Bays Race. He is also doing the Cape Wrath Ultra. And as far as I know, we are the only Aussies going.

At this stage I've booked my flight to Hobart, but not home yet. I'm waiting to see what happens at work, as we will either be required to be there from Wednesday, the 17th of January, OR from the 22nd. A really stupid set up where we need to do some enormous amount of professional development. One option is to get it out of the way in three big days prior to students coming back at the start of the year (mostly a waste of time and not very productive), as we are all buggered from doing nothing in the holidays and can't cope with the 10 hour days, OR an option put to us for next year is to do 1 hour after school each Monday for a Semester. I picked the latter (and so did about 50% of the staff) as I need to write the Biology Year 11-12 units for the new National Curriculum that starts up in 2019. So depending on the outcome, I may be able to stay an extra week in the Melbourne area.

Looking forward to one activity I book while in Tassie: Wellington Park Thark Ridge Track - not running or hiking, but volunteering to help with maintenance on the track for one day.

Spend some more money buying the gear I need. And things are arriving already. I think the poles I got will be too short. I did measure it, as per the instructions, but I'm not sure. 110cm. I'll need to find some YouTube videos and quickly learn somthing about running with poles. Doing the Atherton Forest Trail Race on Sunday, so want to use them. But if I'm going to return them, I don't want to use them. AGGGHHHH.

I read Rebecca Rushton's book: The Blister Prone Athlete's Guide. So now I have some more things to add to my shopping list. Getting some silicon tubes to go over the toes. At least they are cheap.

Still in the process of getting my entry into the CWU. Trying to send money overseas is just a joke. At this stage, the money has been sent, but it could be up to 7 days before the guy actually receives it. I have to pay one of the competitors who has withdrawn, to get my entry into the event.

Entering the SILVA Great Lake 3 Day (GL3D for short) event is turning out to be more hassle than it's worth. That race is on 5-7 May. I've had to buy a tent and another dry bag to meet the mandatory gear for it. But at least the location is closer to a few of my mates in the UK, so I may actually be able to catch up with a couple of people.