Good times and great rewards!

This last weekend saw my comeback race at Cooks Tour 50miler.  After a rough month or two with mysterious leach born injury, I managed to put together about seven weeks of solid, un-injured GOOD training.  I had some high hopes going into this race but knew full well it was going to be a hectic four days.On Saturday, we drove down to Woodford and set up camp at the pool.  After our traditional dinner at the pub we bunkered down for the night and tried to stay warm.  I was up at 2am and ready to roll for the 3am start!  The course was changed due to low numbers in the miler to do the 33k and then the 50k course back to back.  This suited me fine.  I started running with my old mate Nick and top lad, Kiran.  We chatted and the k's flew by in the dark.  Nick took off from us after a while and Kiran and I settled into a good pace together.  We must have been getting carried away with our conversation as we missed a turn and ended up off course for probably about 10min. Ugh!  After finding our way back and a decent stack, we ran together to the pool before heading back out on the 50k course.I was then on my own as Kiran put the foot down.  I was still running strong but not able to stay with the speedster!  I cruised along nicely and after a quick nature stop, and only had a rough time over a few k's leading out to Checkpoint 4.  Here we did a couple of tough loops where I usually struggle but on this day, ran strong.  It was then time to head back toward home and I continued to run well.  I was on the hunt, reeling in runners from different races and having a good time of it.Due to my detour and both courses being long, I ended up completing 86k in 9hr 12min.  In a small field, it was good enough for 3rd place and I was SUPER happy with how I ran all day.  The hard couple of months training I put in really paid off!  Stoked.  We hung out, ate and chatted for a while before we had to drive back to Bargara.The following days were epic!  To finish a course from last term at Uni, I had to go to Residential School on Monday and Tuesday.  So, I was up at 3:30am to drive to Rocky.  I was WRECKED and not sure how I made it!  I had a nice couple of days but I was just so tired!  By Tuesday night I was home again and happy to be back to our lovely beach shack.It has been a super interesting first couple of months to the year and I am looking forward to some rad, hard racing in the back half of the year.  I have been devising a secret master plan which I will reveal in time but I think it could be my most adventurous project thus far.Thank you to everyone for standing by me in these last few months, particularly my family for the help and support you have offered.  Onward and upward from here on in!I hope and pray you are on your own adventures and can not wait to hear all about them!  Keep charging friends, loving life and eating plants!  PEACE!