Aussie Dust

David is due to have an Arthroscope done on his right knee on the 30th November.

He  hasn’t  run since he  injured his knee  six weeks ago but the delay in having the arthroscope done is due to surgeon (Dr Hari Goonatillake) taking part in a cycling event.

Seems like Dr Hari has taken to heart David’s health message back in August 2008 (when David had an arthroscope done on his left knee).

Despite not having had the arthroscope  he’s been filling in time working out in the gym and climbing ladders in his work.

It has been 12 months since David and I visited Kalgoorlie for David to  run the 23km Balzano Wheelbarrow Race.

Although entered it looks like a recent injury to David’s right knee is putting the run in jeopardy (Sunday 24 October) .  Today was spent visiting the Doctor and arranging a MRI so  a diagnosis  can be made of the troublesome knee which will no longer bend or stand weight on.

At 6.00am David along with 1,000 runners of all shapes and sizes gathered  at Esplanade Park (opp Bell Tower) for the City to Surf marathon.  Despite warnings of rain later in the day Sunday morning was quite mild and promised a lovely day.

At 6.20pm  runners  were directed  200mtres up a short street to the start line on St Georges Terrace.  There they took off in the dark towards the causeway to turn and run back along the river out to the University of WA and back again.

The flat course made the first half very comfortable.  The hills at the 20kms mark changed everything and David’s comfortable 5 minute per km pace slowed dramatically to 8-9kms going up Malcolm Street and the hills in Kings Park.

The hills put such a strain on David’s arms that his forearms are now very sore.  Fortunately the cramping he suffered badly with at Bunbury weren’t anywhere near as bad which is surprising.  For onlookers like me and David’s brother Bob, the 22c temperature was perfect but for runners  it was hot.  Many coming into the finish exhausted and ready to collapse.

Fortunately for David his earlier stomach problems didn’t affect him as much as was expected and  he ended up running the course in a fantastic 4hrs 25minutes.

The Kenyan’s on the other hand took all the major prizes with the  first male ( Chelimo Kipkemboi ) in at 2hrs 14 minutes and the first female (Ethiopian) in 2hrs 35minutes.

Overall there were 40,000 runners in the event

Most of the international marathon field have times under 2hrs 11 minutes with Kenyan Chelimo Kipkemboi the best with a 2-10-30 in last year’s Toronto Marathon.

Pictured above seated with David (second from right) is Kenyan Reuben Kosgei former Olympic & world champion visiting Perth hoping to secure the $20,000 first prize.  Tomorrow’s race is Reuben Kosgei’s second attempt at 42.2km.

David hasn’t had the best of starts with stomach problems most of this past week, but he is now well and will be starting the run behind the elite guys at 6.30am tomorrow.

We wish him well.

Today was a chance to meet some of the world’s best runners running the City to Surf Marathon this Sunday.

Not surprisingly most of the elite runners are from Kenya, Nigeria and Ethiopia.  Some have been in Perth for a week and have had a chance to run the course while others are  arriving  tonight. The two women runners  found Perth’s mornings and nights cool than they were used to in Nigeria.  When asked the two women runners said they will run the course in 2 hours 40 minutes!

They thought that running with a wheelbarrow was funny and despite the language barrier we could see that they thought David was a little mad. What an introduction to Perth.

This mornings meeting was also a photo shoot by  Channel 9 and the newspapers to promote the event.  David is still not 100% but is determined to run,  so to be safe he is seeing the Dr this afternoon to get another opinion.