I’m back in Queensland, Australia, with Lisa, to visit her mum, Wendy who lives in a small town called Pomona. Pomona is famous for two things:
- The only silent movie cinema in the area, which is pretty random
- The annual race up Mt Cooroora, aka King of the Mountain
When I was last here two years ago I walked up it and it does give spectacular views of the Hinterland, which is the area surrounding it. This year I thought I’d give running up it a try. I wasn’t keen on running down because it’s very scrambly and I certainly didn’t want to twist an ankle. I’ve sped up the route up as it took me 19.5 minutes and that’s quite a long watch. Make sure you don’t miss the end though as the views at the top are amazing.
That was my first run in a while and Christmas delights were weighing a little heavy on the belly so I thought I would give it another try to beat my record. This time it was a cloudy morning and I knew how best to pace myself. Basically the last 5 minutes are going to be very painful but if you can just keep going you can get to the top with a good time. I managed to do it in 17.28mins which is about 2 minutes faster. I spent 10 minutes enjoying the view/trying to get my breath back and then timed myself back down, which I did in 15 minutes.
So with a bit of training I reckon I could be up and down there in 30 minutes but alas, it’s time to leave Australia and carry on the training back in the UK. I must say I’m not relishing the idea of getting up in the dark and heading to the gym after living the Oz lifestyle of kayaking, surfing, open water swimming, trail running, and MTB. Being woken up at 6am by a blaring alarm isn’t the same as being woken up by a cacophany of birdsong and then sitting out on the veranda with an amazing fresh fruit salad. But hey ho, I’m very much looking forward to 2018. Back to Winter and before we know it, it will be Spring and then we will be off on our trip.