4 Seasons in One

I was looking foward to another group run on Sun. I had a really great time running with them last Sun. It's been pretty chilly, wet and even hail on Saturday. Oh, before that, Geelong Cats won the AFL Grand Final. I wasn't sure what to expect watching the whole game as I'm not into footie. The game was quite fast and furious. St. Kilda was leading in all but the last quarter of the game. The final score 80-68.

I woke up at around 7.05am, with plenty of time to get to the meeting point. But when I look out the window, I can see the trees blown to one side, sky looks gloomy, I can hear the wind blowing from inside the apartment. It took me a long to decide whether I should step out the apartment and headout for a run or just stay in the warm bed. As I dont have much time to add in more mileage before Melbourne Marathon (MM), I decided to brave the wind and cold. I was already running late. When I reached the meeting point, I didn't see any familiar faces around. I got to know later that they were there but had to leave on the dot as it was cold for them to be hanging around there. Anyways, I knew I was going to be late, so my backup plan was to run with the Melbourne Marathon training series group which starts just a few blocks from the apartment. Their runs start at 8.30am. I got there just in time. One of the trainers informed that some doing shorter and the longer ones will be doing 24km. Perfect. I went with the group and it was a comfortable pace. We ran through some of the paths that will be used for the MM this year. Albert Park, Beach Road and MCG (ending). The pace was ok for me, but the wind was so strong that sometimes you have to hang on to a straight line if it was a crosswind. I tried to stay behind some runners but it didn't work. The sun did come out for a while which helps to heat up my cold body!

As we reach the Beach Road, it was challenging enough to run through it. Running besides the sea, we had lots of crosswinds and at certain parts, the wind blew the sand from the beach which got into my eyes. That was not a good feeling at all. As I was wearing contacts, I didn't want to rub it too hard as the air was really dry and it may come off easily. In the end, we did a sensible thing by running across the road to the opposite side of the footpath. I can't imagine myself riding with this wind. I'll probably get blown off with my bike.

You probably don't see it too often in Malaysia but the ladies are leading the way most of the time. They are really fast and they made it looked so easy. We went into the cover of buildings and that was quite a relief. It drizzled for a while but luckily it didn't get any heavier, otherwise I would have frozen! We stopped a few times for drinks and also to regroup. At one of the stops in front of The Crowns, there was an event and I saw Proton Persona was on display. I wonder what they were doing? Trying to break into the market here perhaps? Cars are so cheap here in Australia that I don't think Proton will do too well here. In the final few kms, the girls cranked up the pace, and I tried to follow, but couple of them were ahead of me. Boo hoo...

So you see....you can't really predict the weather here in Melbourne. It is just so unpredictable. I already went through 4 seasons in one day (kind of). You have the strong wind, cold, sun and rain! I just hope race day will not be anything like today. But if it is, at least I've already been through it and I know what to expect.

At least I went on with the run, and I won't regret the rest of the day for not running.