"There's a Track, winding back ... Giving me a heart attack... On the road the finish line...."

No, I know that's not how the song really goes, but there were a couple of women running behind me today in the Rotary 6km FunRun today and every time we passed a marshal, they'd burst into song ... and one of the songs they sang was The Road to Gundagai.

I gotta say: to still be able to sing after running 6km on a hilly bush track, on a Brisbane Autumn morning - it was a bit like showing off, I thought ... but it was fun!

I did a 6KM race today (official time 52:26) and, as always, really enjoyed myself.

It was a small crowd - probably fewer than a hundred runners & walkers ... about half of whom were in the 11km race, while the rest of us were in a 6km event.

It was an annual event, organized by three Brisbane Rotary clubs to raise funds for the Leukemia Foundation, and it started on the campus of Griffith University in Brisbane.

For those not familiar with the Uni, Griffith's Nathan campus is in the middle of bushland on the city's southside ... and is surrounded by bushwalking tracks leading into the nearby Toohey State Forest.

The funrun started at the campus ... but then headed off into the bush, for a 6 (or 11km) sojourn with nature.

Of course, being bushland, there were hills. Lots and lots of them.

So much so, for example, that at one stage we ran within a couple of hundred metres of a lookout!

So I'm not unhappy with my time, slow as it was ... I was just glad to finish! :)

The day began at daybreak (well, Duh!) ... but I have to ask: why is it that I always wake up early on a race day? It's not as if I'm nervous (I know I have no chance of winning). Maybe it's just the anticipation? Dunno.

Anyway, I headed down to the Uni, which fortunately is only a couple of km from my home ... (hey, I probably could have walked there, and used that for my warmup. Oh well!) and saw that some of the more serious runners were already limbering up by running up the hill from the start-finish line.

But I didn't join them ... my PT had me doing some leg-squats on friday and I'm suffering a bit of muscle soreness, so I decided to just do the 'aerobic' warm-up that I knew would be laid on. And it was. And then the 11K runners got underway.

And then came something rather unusual ... a Tai Chi warmup as well.

I've never done Tai Chi (despite its apparent benefits for Diabetics like me) .. but have always thought it looked gentle, and slow.

Well, it is slow-and-controlled - but it was also quite a cardio workout. Who'd a thunk it?

Just after 8AM, the 6k event started ... and we were away.

Starting off up a hill.

Oh, it was only a relatively gentle hill (probably rose 10 metres in 250) - but it was still a rude awakening!

The first Km or so was on the roadway --- then we headed bush.

The track we used was bitumen - and was flat for about 50% of the time.

The other 2km, however, was either rising - or falling.

And that meant that at times we were getting a magic view across to the city - and at all times, we were surrounded by distinctly Australian bush.

It was a marked contrast to my usual running route (along the river, with a major road on one side and the river on the other).

In fact, I commented to a fellow runner at one stage about the difference - and she agreed. Like me, most of her running has been 'on the flat'. We ran side-by-side for a few hundred metres before she urged me to move ahead, as she was not gonna get any faster: her aim was just to finish - having never run more than 5KM.

So I was really pleased to see her come in strongly, only a few minutes behind me at the end.

As expected, I finished near the end of the small pack of runners ... but I'm not unhappy about that: as my T-shirt today says ...

"Proud back-of-the-pack runner and Couch to 5KM graduate"

Actually, the shirt, which I only made up during the week, got a few comments - including one women (the second-placed 'masters' walker) who was asking all sorts of questions about the C25K as we waited for the presentations at the end.

She's been thinking about taking up running - but didn't think she would ever be able to run 5 or 6 kilometers without a break.

When I explained that the C25K was designed for people like her (and me, a few months ago) she got quite excited ... jotting down links and pledging to check it out for herself. I gotta stop preaching :)

Anyway - another run under the belt - and while I was there, they were calling for participants in another local fun-run for Rotary ... this time at UniQ at St Lucia in late May. Hmmmm. Guess where I'm gonna be on the 27th of May? :)