Run 9 – The Yarra River. 30/05/2019
Still trying to determine the fastest day of the week. Have already worked out that Monday to Wednesday are not that quick so tried a Thursday. Ran from work to virtually the end of the Yarra river under the Bolte Bridge and from there started to run upstream towards the city. Almost decided to run all the way to the start of the river but then realised I didn’t want to.
Beautiful run on the northside of the river – except for the bikes. It seems to me that some riders think shared pathway really means – get out of my way. At one stage I thought I would be safer on the roads with the cars.
Then I realised that running upstream meant I must have been running uphill. Relunctantly I concluded that this would not be the day I broke 1 hour. Thursdays must be just like Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays. But running along the banks of the Yarra still beautiful, favourite run yet, except for the bikes.
Turned off the river at Glenferrie Rd past the Kooyong Tennis Club. The hill on Glenferrie Rd is just like the Alp d’Huez climb in the Tour de France, except it is not as steep and there are no corners. Still, not good for a fast time. Finally got onto a downhill section heading back to Elwood but by then, time had got away from me. Clocked a time of 1:52:50 but that was for 21.2km so my half marathon time obviously much faster than that.
My Three learnings
Some bike riders do not like to share.
Rivers flow downhill – so need to run downstream to hit fast time.
No one has ever qualified for the Boston Marathon by running up Alp d’Huez.