2024 January Tan Time Trial Results

President’s Tan Talk – January 2024

Our New Year’s Eve and January Tan Time Trial events were both held on perfect mornings for running (or walking), as evident in the photos below.

As always, the NYE Fun Run had a number of visitors from country Victoria, interstate and overseas, from as far away as Wisconsin US and Denmark. One most notable feature of both runs was the very (very) young age of some of the fastest runners, see pics below.

We had also had a visitor from New York back in November, and we explained the longstanding VRR tradition of having a photo taken at an identifiable landmark, wearing VRR clothing, most recently by Greig McEwan on his way to Antarctica. We provided NY resident Michael Mauro with a tee-shirt and asked him to send us a photo at an identifiable New York location. In one of our best-ever photos, see below Michael at the world-famous Rockefeller Christmas Tree. Workers at Rockefeller Centre first pooled their money to buy and decorate a Christmas tree more than 80 years ago in 1931, and people ice-skating in front of the tree at the Rockefeller Centre has featured in movies and on TV for many years. The tree is 80 feet tall, weighs 12 ton, and has 50,000 lights on 5 miles of wire!! Many thanks Michael!!

A very big thank you to our long-time VRR volunteers who quietly do all the things that need to happen for our runs to get permits, be insured, take place, be recorded, be photographed and, importantly, provide us with a cuppa and food while we enjoy a chat in our beautiful surroundings. Thanks to Sally Browne for feeding us.

The Paris and London marathon experiences of Karen and Mark Travill (see below) could be described as an interesting “cautionary tale”, as they set off underprepared for what lay ahead of them, but “got the job done”.

Note below that our modest annual subs are now due.

For those who ran the January Tan Time Trial, you now have just 11 to go! Enjoy your summer, your break if you’re having one, and we’ll see you in February.

Michael
VRR President

Well … as we were driving near Tipperary, we stopped to ask an Irishman “How do we get to Dublin?” … he thought for a moment and said “If I were going to Dublin …. I wouldn’t be starting from here”.

So we started our marathon journey to London.  After running Boston in 2019, me with a recovering torn hamstring tendon and Karen being in a moonboot, we took some time off, went driving, got imprisoned in our house due to Covid and gradually built back our training.

By December 2022, and due to many minor injuries, I had built up my running to be averaging 5km per week ….. well up from 0.

Karen was well ahead in her training averaging around 10km per week and even peaking with over 30km in one week.

Karen reminded that time was running out and we probably only had a good 20 years of running left … maybe less.  So, I bought a package (waiting for a lottery spot could take the next 10 years) to run the London marathon for the following April for our Christmas present.

So, Christmas day Karen found out we would be running London marathon … so training could start properly now, after all we had about 14 weeks to train.

There was of course one complication.  We were already booked on a tour to Sri Lanka for 12 days in March.  It is traditional on our trips to do some sight seeing as well and it didn’t make sense to fly home from Colombo and then fly back out again.

We want to see Wales but were advised that it is wet and cold in March (most of the year actually) and we also needed at least one long run before London.

So after some investigation we decided to make our long run the Paris marathon which would then give us a 3 week break before London.

So I booked the Flights from Melbourne to Colombo .. 12 days in Sri Lanka .. Colombo to London to Palermo … 10 days in Sicily … Palermo to Paris … train from Paris to London … hire a car to drive around Wales for 2 weeks and then to London for the marathon.
I wrote a program to get us up to a 25 km run before we left Melbourne and then on to touring.

I got up to averaging 50km per week for the last 3 weeks before leaving but only managed a 20km long run … Karen was running better and averaged 50km per week for the last 6 weeks also getting to a 20km long run.

All good plans …… Karen decided that the week before we left would be a good time to tear her meniscus ….. so after Injections in the knee, plasma, stem cells and anything else they could put in … we took off for Sri Lanka.

There was no running in Sri Lanka as we were on a tour, however we did do a bit of walking, with Karen hobbling along.

So after we left Sri Lanka we flew to Palermo, where it was much cooler than Sri Lanka but much warmer than Wales.  By this time we had decided that a walk/run strategy might be a good idea.  We had decided on 3min run/1 min walk.  We managed a few shortish runs of 5-6 km and even did a 16km walk/run to the Uditore Park Run, where they celebrated with many cakes after the run.  The celebration wasn’t for us coming but for others there and evidently happens regularly.

After Sicily we went to Paris.  We stayed near the Arc-de-Triumph, near the start and finish of the marathon.  We were in the same wave, so we ran together on our 3/1 strategy.  I only had to catch Karen once when she nearly collapsed due to cramp.  We finished in about 5hr and 4 min, but Karen had developed a sore foot and was cramping.

It took about an hour to walk home (well it seemed like an hour), which was surprising as it was only about 800m. people walked past us looking concerned and offering help.  We declined their offer and said Karen always walked like this after a race 😊

So we set off for Wales, Karen with a torn meniscus and now a stress fracture in her foot.

We did a few “hobbled” runs and Park Runs over the next two weeks … after all we were now tapering.

Finally we arrived in London with the Travelling Fit crew.  On the Friday we set off for a group run … and yes ….. Karen fell over and broke some ribs.

So this would require a rethink!!  Karen and I were in separate waves .. so we decided that as she had a torn meniscus, fractured foot and broken ribs that she should run 1 minute and walk 1 minute and me, being super fit would now run 4 minutes and walk 1 minute.

What can I say … Karen ran her 1/1 and ran the last 5km not stop and still ran 5 hr 25 min and completed her 5^th Major.  She will now run Tokyo in 2024 to complete her 6 Majors.

I ran my 4/1 but died towards the end and added a few more walks and managed 4 hrs 37 min.  London was my 6^th Major.

Anyone running two marathons close together should heed the above program …. And not use it 😊

Mark Travill