Run 93. The King of rivers. 8/4/2020.
Having run the Ovens river on my last visit to Wangaratta, it was only appropriate to also run the King river that makes up the Ovens and King region. The King river heads out to Oxley where the King River Cafe is a preferred option for family events. That was the turnaround point, but unfortunately even it is closed due to the virus.
Perfect running conditions means no wind, only 12 degrees and a bit of cloud cover. Started the run near Our Lady’s catholic school and had a nice easy run until I approached the freeway. The road I was on went over the freeway but the running path headed left towards the river. Decided to follow the path and ended up going under the freeway beside the river – lovely area but mucked up my distances.
Approaching the halfway point the crowd started building up, from nothing for the first 8 kilometers to two llamas in a paddock. Certainly not the New York marathon, but better than some other runs. I will assume they were fans as they watched me intently as I ran past.
Made it to the cafe but like so many Coronavirus businesses it was closed – no coffee for me today. Headed back to Wangaratta but this time decided to run on the road over the freeway and take the chance of limited traffic. This worked out OK as only one car and the driver waved to me as they often do in the country.
Perfect running conditions meant this was one of the more enjoyable runs. Finished the run about 500m from the car due to the small detour crossing the freeway the first time but nice time of 1:45:43
My Three Learnings.
Absolutely no wind is best for out and back runs.
Fans can take many forms, including llamas.
Even Oxley is impacted by Coronavirus.