Please, come away for the weekend with me, run a marathon, then get arrested.

Oh go on, you know you want to.

Weekend in Mudgee was AWESOME until about halfway home.

Had a lovely drive up there, chatting about nothing in particular and running in general.  Caught up with the others at the pub, had a nice dinner, some laughs and went back to the Bates Motel, had a nice night cap and waiting whilst Mrs Bates put clean sheets on the bed (yes, my room had dirty towels and dirty sheets on arrival).  Anyway, once tucked in under clean sheets to a bed that resembled a board, I snuggled down to go to sleep only to find the air conditioner was blowing cold air in my face.  Up and down about seventy five million times to TRY and turn it off.  To no avail.  It just kept blowing air, so I climbed up on a chair and tried to stick the blades closed, unsuccessfully.  By this stage it was midnight and with me being an old lady and needing to be in bed by 8.30pm pre race, it wasn't a good start.  Lay in bed, tossing and turning, with cold air STILL blowing on me only to doze off then wake up to what sounded like the QE2 berthing underneath my room.  Either I was above the boiler room or someone was trying to work out the inner functioning of THEIR air conditioning.  1am came and went and so did many loud, DRUNK residents.  Not much sleep.

Woke up to a very fine morning, not too cold, in fact PERFECT running conditions.  The run itself was much better than expected.  Given my limited training, I expected it to be tough (and it was), but I found myself pushing on and at around 11km I really started to enjoy it.  By 15km running up a gradual long climb, with winds pushing me back, I knew there was never going to be a PB but I would do my best.  At this point a big kangaroo hopped across the path, scaring the living bejesus out of me initially, but it was lovely to be plodding along through the vineyards with the aussie wildlife.

I kept reminding myself of other races where I was unhappy with how I'd run because I hadn't tried hard enough.  So I kept pushing and pushing, I wasn't going very fast against that wind but I did keep going and finished in 2:11 ish (not exactly sure as I forgot to turn off my garmin / and / or look at the clock!!!).  So I was really happy with the run, because I knew I had done what I could with the level of fitness that I had (i.e. I knew it would be crap to start with).

After a visit to the winery and lunch at the pub, where everyone in my group except me got bling, we headed off on the long journey home. 

And that is where it all went a bit Pulp Fiction, with all sorts of bizarre, yet quite surreal things happening to two very nerdy law abiding citizens and culminating in us almost getting arrested, twice.  It was a bit like Thelma and Louise without Brad Pitt or any shooting or blow jobs. Actually it wasn't that exciting at all and by the time I got home, I really needed a medicinal vodka and a nice lie down.

Today, my muscles ache, everything is sorted and I am already giggling at our adventures.  My stars said that Saturn would give me a workout.  Well I expected it to happen in work.  I was totally unprepared for this. 

Saturn 1 -0 Me