Jan Juc Beach run

A massive weekend was planned fo us. This weekend was Craig's Geelong 70.3 Half Ironman weekend. There were 2 others from BTS competing (Tim and Mark) and I went down to support all of them. It was fun flying with a bike as luggage, made us feel like real athletes!


So, we flew out of Brisbane on the Friday after my spin class at Ride Inside. We hired a car at Melbourne and drove down to Jan Juc, just near Torquay about 30mins drive from Geelong. It was a real adventure. The place we stayed at (Wattle Grove) was just lovely, really peaceful, surrounded by trees and it just had a really good vibe.

The sun doesn't set down there for ages, so we went for a drive to the infamous Bells Beach. It was blowing a gale and freezing cold. Craig didn't have a jumper on so we went back to the warmth of the unit!

Saturday morning we had a massive sleep in and eventually we got going and Craig wanted to test ride his bike that he put together the night before and make sure there were no problems with it prior to going into transition. I had on my programme a 45 - 55 minute run. So I fiddle farted about and eventually got going.

The people that were managing the place suggested I run along the path on the beach so I gave that a burl. It was probably the most beautiful, scenic, well footed runs I have ever done. It was one of those runs where I really didn't want to turn around to come home, it was just magnificent. I ran from Jan Juc around to the point and into Torquay. I didn't make it into the Torquay township thought. The run meandered along the coastline, at times you were looking out over the beautiful ocean and at times you were running through beautiful bushland, there were a few little hills, there were steps, it had everything. There were plenty of people out exercising with their dogs and kids and everyone was really friendly. I wanted to stay! My HR was around the high 140's mainly, although it did get up to the low 160's on a couple of the hills.

A very enjoyable run indeed!

When I got back Craig told me that his ride was hell, it was really hilly and really windy (it was very windy on my run - at one time I was running up a hill and the wind was trying to push me downhill and I was barely moving forwards!). I can't imagine what it would be like to be riding in that! I felt sorry for Craig, he seemed a little concerned that the wind was going to make it very tough going for him on Sunday. I guess everyone is in the same boat.

We went later in the afternoon to register Craig, check his bike into transition and drive the course so that he knew what he was up against. Mark stayed the night with us.