Run 40. Nhill. 18/09/2019.
The most remote of all runs so far. In Nhill (half-way between Melbourne and Adelaide) for a few days so took the opportunity to explore the town. Now given Nhill is not that large it meant running nearly all the roads in the town and even then hard to avoid duplication.
Decided this might be an opportunity to run with a level of control of my heart rate and intended to avoid, hills, running too fast, strong headwinds and soft surfaces. But only two and a half kilometers into the run I found another factor that pushes the heart rate up – magpies.
The attack did not last too long but the combination of waving my arms above my head, yelling at strategic moments to freight off the bird and instantly increasing my speed, all led to an accelerated heart rate.
Given my goal was now gone I took it easy for a while running around the local showgrounds, then around a relatively small town lake and towards the train station for a selfie. This train station was never in the Metro challenge. From the station headed to the local football ground where in 1977 Warracknabeal won the Wimmera League premiership – not part of the 1977 VFL season. Having gone past most of the town highlights I headed back home. Pushed hard up the slight hill at the end but despite this being a very flat run, the early season heat and the long day of travel from Melbourne clearly caught up with me. They say things go slow in the country – and so did I. Ran 1:56:27 but felt flat.
My Three Learnings
Although I’m a Collingwood supporter, magpies in spring should be avoided.
Wild animals and birds attacking you increases heart rate.
Nhill is unlikely to host a mountain stage of the Tour de France.