Thea runs at Broulee with Broulee Runners

Broulee run

It has often been said to me that when you travel, you should try to fit in a run. Back when I was running better, now what seems like a long time ago, I only travelled for runs, like the sunny Melbourne Marathon and Fitzroy Falls trail run. I was upset, when I got to London, to discover that a 10k fun run was on that I didn't know about until I was walking past everyone on my way to the Thames.

I haven't been on a holiday for a year. Last year I went to the Great Barrier Reef and learnt how to snorkel, and saw the most amazing giant clams and even a turtle. I was overdue for a holiday, and on discovering I would be going to the coast (Broulee), I remembered seeing a link on Geoff's blog called the Broulee runners. I'm not in form, but regardless, I looked them up, then straight after arriving at the coast, I started searching for this anchor in my running gear, sure that I would work out where this mysterious object was that wasn't on google maps.

I took a turn near Mossy Point, which to my great amusement had some moss covering rocks, and realised I was on my way to Tomakin, so I asked some tourists on skateboards where the anchor was. They pointed up a nearby hill, and sure enough I found my destination. The view from up there was amazing! I took all this in while I eagerly waited for others to arrive.

Everyone was friendly, and helpfully offered some advise on nearby fishing spots too, and some things I should see that were nearby. It wasn't long until we were off, and I found another female runner who ran 'about 28 minutes' to run with for the 5k.

I soon realised I was no match for a 28 minute 5k. :( I let her run off ahead, and hoped against hope I wouldn't lose sight of the runners around me, as I had no idea where we were running towards. I was puffed quite early, and had a stitch, and surprised about the log we had to hurdle, but I was happily looking down the cliff face to my left at a great view, and looking at magnificent beach side properties to my right. (and mentally hoping I wouldn't fall over).

We descended the point down to the beach via a tricky tree rooted dirt trail. I had to slow right up here in order to avoid falling over, and walked a few strides, jumped over a tiny gully, then ran onto a concrete path. (grrr, I so don't like concrete). From that point, it was concrete all the way with the beach hidden by shrubs. However, this run took me past the local takeaway, shops, petrol station and bait shop, which I was happy to discover as I ran along.

Runners eventually turned back at some stage, I could see them all zoom by, some with a friendly wave as they went. (particularly from the slower runners). I hung on to the person in front of me, and discovered the turn around point was a give way sign near Broulee Island. I happily turned and followed the exact course back. On the way back, the course was more challenging, because I was tired, I'm no longer fit, and I had to go up the hill right near the end, including the tree root path. The hill kept going and going, or at least it seemed to. The big log we had to hurdle was so much harder when returning, and I managed to finish in a blistering time of 29.29. Ha! Funny time, I like that! I wish I was faster though.

This run was preceded by a nasty cold (yet again!) and followed by my worst bout of food poisoning ever, and no, it was not caused by the take away shop. I was so sick on my holiday it was crazy! I found vomiting in the rainforest to be much more pleasant than vomiting in the bathroom, however. :) What a beautiful place to be sick! I also played minigolf and got to see around 80 dolphins off one of the lookouts, they were travelling and in search for food, so obviously, fishing wasn't so good, lol.