The CrossingAdelaide parkrunday
Torrens parkrun And A Unicorn
There was no progress towards Brisbane, but Adelaide gave me exactly the reset I needed. Torrens parkrun, fresh shoes, a replacement watch and my first haircut in two months made it a very full rest day.
Day 64 did not move us any closer to Brisbane.
That was the point.
I still ran 5 km, because it was Saturday and we were at Torrens parkrun. HAA had started at Canning River parkrun, Kalgoorlie-Boulder parkrun had been part of the first big milestone, and now Adelaide had given us the third parkrun stop of HAA.
There was no forward progress. Just a 5 km run for fun, a chance to be around people, and the slightly strange feeling of doing something normal inside something that had become very abnormal.
Torrens parkrun made us very welcome. The SA Heart Foundation came down too, which meant Hearty was there. Somehow the day had room for a giant heart mascot as well as runners, sausage-sizzle logistics, and the continuing question of how my feet were going to survive the next section.
Julia was central to the day. I only knew her through Facebook, but she’d become my person on the ground in Adelaide: fresh Hokas, sausage-sizzle supplies, the sports massage, the replacement Garmin delivery, event-shirt logistics, errands and messages.
Foodland had donated bread and sausages for the Torrens parkrun sausage sizzle. Julia had supplied other bits and pieces and even had her neighbour on the Weber. Nikki and Simon from the SA Heart Foundation brought Hearty, helped with media releases, and had been part of the build-up to our Adelaide arrival.
Sausages. Bread. A barbecue. A mascot. Someone taking delivery of a parcel. We were three people in a campervan, and every person who picked up a task took pressure off us.
The results from Torrens parkrun were straightforward enough. I ran 33:02. Ben ran 24:18 for a parkrun PB. Ols went with DNS, which is also a valid parkrun strategy.
The fresh Hoka Stinson 3s made their debut too. After more than 2,700 km, it was very nice to have that marshmallow feeling back. The shoes weren’t glamorous. They were survival equipment.
After parkrun, we wandered around Adelaide.
I met Perry, who was queued outside Adelaide Convention Centre for an anime and computer-game convention. One does not simply turn down the chance to take a selfie with a unicorn.
I also found a huge mural in progress near the Adelaide Festival Centre and stopped for a chat with Yvonne, the artist. It was being created for the SALA Festival, and the flying boy in the mural was her son Austen. Later I discovered Yvonne was an ex-schoolmate of Shaun Kaesler, an ultra runner back in Perth who I had first met at the Australia Day Ultra in Australind!
Adelaide also gave me the chance to deal with city tasks that had been impossible for weeks. My iPhone needed replacing, which on HAA was not really a normal phone-upgrade problem. That phone was camera, map, message link, the way I posted updates, the thing I used for media calls, and one of the ways I stayed connected to the support network. Back on the Nullarbor, I had put it in the pocket of my jacket while I was running, and the attached SPOT tracker repeatedly banged against it. I did not realise until I took the phone out and found the screen smashed. Adelaide was the first place in a long time where I could walk into a Virgin Mobile store and sort it properly.
I also got my first haircut in more than two months. Utterly normal. Weirdly luxurious.
The replacement Garmin Fenix arrived too. The old watch had produced corrupt files, failed uploads, GPS glitches and the extra pressure of never knowing whether a day would be captured. My friend Simon contacted Garmin Australia, received a new watch and sent it to Julia while I concentrated on the next kilometre and meal.
After parkrun and the Adelaide wander, we headed to Jim and Renae’s house. Jim and Renae were Ols’ uncle and aunt, and they opened their home to the three HAAmigos for two full days and nights. Their son Stuart was following HAA too. Comfy beds, a warm house, proper meals, and very clear instructions to “make yourselves at home” were no small thing after weeks of campervan life.
That night I posted something more personal. I had suspected that nine weeks on HAA was changing my body, and the photos seemed to back it up. I compared a photo from Kalgoorlie-Boulder parkrun with one from Torrens parkrun. Before leaving, I had spent a month tapering, training very little, eating favourite takeaways before the long stretch of survival-style food, and I knew I had gone over 120 kg by the time we set off.
In Adelaide I weighed 115.6 kg fully clothed except for shoes and socks. HAA wasn’t a weight-loss project, but my semi-secret long-term no more mr fat guy goal of reaching 100 kg by Brisbane felt possible.
Images From The Day
