In the words of Culture Club, "I'll Tumble 4Ya".

Although, strictly speaking, the tumble wasn't for you.

Or for me.

It was just a prattfall as I plodded along a perfectly flat path.

Sigh. But I'll get to that later.



I did the Royal Run for Research today - in its entirety for the first time.

It's an annual event to raise funds for the Royal Brisbane Womens Hospital Research Foundation, and attracts a small but enthusiastic crowd.

Many of the participants are hospital staff and their families, while others are runners (and walkers) of varying fitness levels.

Its certainly not the fastest race in Brisbane ... but it is one of the friendliest :)

The run is an 8km fun-run around banks of the the Brisbane River - matched with a 6k walk along (mostly) the same route.

It starts and finishes in the Brisbane Botanic Gardens, and is a beautiful run ... and they pick just the right time of year to stage it, with crisp, clear mornings ... cool to start, but then beautiful running weather.



It travels around the Botanic Gardens in Brisbane ... one of the city's most undervalued resources .. then under the freeway, across the Victoria Bridge, along the Southbank promenade, and then across the Goodwill Bridge (with another 2k out-and-back loop to Kangaroo Point for the 8K runners) before winding back around the river to the start.

Last year, as I was just getting into this running thing, I did the 6K walk - running only the last 500 metres or so, as part of my 'couch to 5K' program.

But this year, I was determined to not only do the 8k event, but to run the whole way - not even stopping at the water stations.

And I almost did. Until I got to about 6.5k into the run, and tripped on a millimetre-thick rise on the concrete path.

I did an amazing (slow-mo) roll-over, grazing my knee (and hands) in the process. I wasn't badly hurt - and the other runners around me were all very solicitous - but it did shake me up a bit ... so much so that about 300 metres later, as I started back up over the Goodwill Bridge, I slowed to a walk to examine my wounds.

Meh. What a wuz!

I got to the top of the bridge, and told myself to stop being a girly-man (TM Arnie) ... and picked up the pace - slightly. I'm still a plodder, but I don't care :)

Then, home to the finish ... and a new Personal Best of 51:17 ... about 4 minutes faster than my last 'official' run of that distance.

Plus, I'd burned about 750 calories. Which I promply ate back, with the free sausage-sizzle breakfast they laid on :)




The PB, such as it was, was a highlight for me ... but not the only one.

As I was standing in the queue, I spotted Philby, a woman who helped inspire me into running (even though she may not know it) via the CalorieKing website ... and I also got a chance to catch up with Deb - or Katisha - with whom I've been chatting online for years ... but not met in the flesh before :)

And then at the start-line, I bumped into Leo & Mrs Leo, again, from the CalorieKing website - so it was like Old Home Week :)

Actually, I spotted Leo on the track later - he was about a kilometre ahead of me - which made me feel OK - cause he's a much faster runner than me (and getting faster all the time) .. so to only be 1k behind at the 5K mark wasn't too bad :)

I was wearing my Team Diabetes running shirt for the first time today - so didn't have any aphorisms printed on the back ... but was wearing my Cool Runner cap (they are great, by the way ... soft, absorbent, wicking material ... best running cap I've ever come across) ... when the lead runners passed us on the out-and-back loop. It was cool of whoever it was to call out "go cool runner" as they passed ... made me feel part of a fratenity :)

I'm note sure how Philby went - but I know that Katisha exceeded her expectations, as did Mrs Leo - and Leo came in more than 10 minutes ahead of me, so he should be fairly happy too.

And then, to top it off, Mrs Leo won one of the random-draw prizes .. so a good day was had by all.

Next week's the Redcliffe Jetty to Jetty - and in three weeks, it's time for the Bridge to Brisbane - which marks one year since I ran my first race.

Doesn't time fly?