A Short But Eventful Day

The Gold Coast Bulletin met me first thing for a photo shoot. A journalist was due to call later to get the story to go with the pictures, and I still had my short walk to Oxenford ahead of me. The next morning’s paper carried the story under the headline “Heart hero nears end of epic trek”.

Nic, aka Running GIRL, joined me for part of it. Walking was probably an exception for her; I reckoned she’d be back to running the next day. We got a photo together in our red HAA shirts along the way. From Southport I headed through Labrador, then inland towards Oxenford.

I’d been wearing a peak cap, with my running sunnies perched on top. When a truck passed, I forgot to hold onto the cap. There went the hat, and the sunnies with it. It had been a while since I’d worn a peak cap that close to trucks.

The walking came to 15.3 kilometres, short by HAA standards. I finished at BIG4 Gold Coast Holiday Park in Oxenford, where we stayed that night. Once I’d finished, I got onto the “complex” task of planning the remaining time 😆. I put the final two days into Apple Maps. The plan was to start from Oxenford between six and seven the next morning and finish in Springwood. On Thursday I’d head from Springwood to the South Bank parkrun start line, hopefully arriving around two or three in the afternoon. People had been asking where they could join us, so I shared both routes.

It was hard to believe there were only two walking days left. I wanted to get to Brisbane, but I didn’t want this whole thing to end.

It was Ols’ 23rd birthday too. I’d wished him happy birthday in person that morning, then nearly forgot to post it. He had just raised the average age of the HAA support crew from 22 to 22.5. Happy birthday, mate!