A warm welcome into Wang

So what have we learned over the past five days? Melbourne to Sydney is a bloody long way…hell Melbourne to Wangaratta is a long way!!

Waking up this morning I was in absolute pain stepping down the ladders from my penthouse bed-“the cove” is getting less sought after as the days go by I feel. We left Mel’s place in Benalla a little later than usual and got on the road just before 8am. Ben and I started gingerly and were laughing at each other’s incompetence in the simple act of walking.

At 8.10am Ben got a call from Greg Evans from a Victorian radio station for an interview. (Apparently Greg used to host an old TV show called Blind Date?) I kept walking as Ben had his time to shine on the airwaves before a beefy bloke with a rugged beard with a ute pulled up beside me…”I’m listening to you silly bastards on the radio!” Joel and I leant into the car and heard Ben talking about the run. As soon as the interview finished the blokes promptly whipped out a $50 note and said “Here ya go fellas, tell everyone that the folks from Benalla are alright!” Well there you go you big silly bastard, I just did.

The morning wore on and I began to fall more than 2kms behind Joel and Ben, who were setting quite a cracking powerwalk pace that I couldn’t keep up, with my three injuries holding me back (knee, and both shins). I was tempted to jog to catch up like yesterday’s approach, but decided against it-today was all about walking and not letting my body deteriorate any further so I can finish this journey. I saw how good Joel pulled up yesterday and decided today was my tortoise day.

It was over four hours before I saw them again in Glenrowan, Ned Kelly Country. The boys had taken a photo with themselves and a five metre high Ned Kelly and were settling into a meat pie when I rocked up 20 minutes after them.

The rest of the afternoon the three of us spent the afternoon walking together and trying to “recover”. Before long we were on the outskirts of Wangaratta (the locals just called it “Wang”…seriously) and were stopped by the local newspaper the Wangaratta Times (a cracking read by the way) for a quick photoshoot and interview. We pushed forward through town until we’d hobbled about 41km for the day, however Joel’s Achilles suddenly played up and Ben’s manky-foot-itis took a turn for the worst.

To end a pretty average day on a positive note we managed free accommodation from Painter’s Island Caravan Park from the lovely owner named Sue. AND Ben’s cousin Mel (who we stayed with last night in Benalla) somehow managed to get us free pizza from Hollywoods Pizza, 40kms from her house…dunno how but I’m not complaining!

Although the days on the road are getting tougher, the hospitality from the people we’ve encountered is generally awesome!

The mood inside Ruby tonight is a little less chirpy than usual, however looking forward to the next few days without rain and trying to keep on keeping on.

Cheers

Nick

                                           The long road ahead

                         A massive gangster.... Ben and Ned talking business

                                   A leisurely afternoon hobble

                                     'Hanging' out with Sue in Wang

                    Bens manky foot-itis.... photo doesnt do it any justice

Photos from day four

Here are some photos we couldnt put up last night

Nick fertilising the Flora

 Emily the working the angles

 'Chuck' - look at that beard, pathetic

 Nick going for the high five but getting left hanging

Mel and the kids supporting the boys (thanks for the accom guys)

The highs and lows of day 4

It’s strange how much of a difference 24 hours can make the body and the mind of an amateur ultra-marathon runner out of their comfort zone…way out of their comfort zone.

The feeling waking up this morning was mixed. Ben’s feet still looked like those of a dead man, I had strains in both lower shins and one knee, and Joel’s Achilles were letting him know they were there. We left Euroa quite slowly, as we wanted to warm up into the mid 40km+ day ahead of us. Although I was jogging along, after a couple of hours my tendons were screaming at me, while Joel and Ben were content walking along and whistling merrily like an old married couple. This was quite a contrast from Joel and Ben having a few niggles on day 2 and myself powering on gallantly (yeah that’s right-gallantly). But I was much more worried about today than the other boys. I dropped behind rather quickly and had a think inside Ruby…I received a magic taping job from Carlee and within minutes I was charging down the street! I caught the boys and forged on ahead. At about this time Ben was struggling with his severe case of manky-foot-itis and took over the reigns as “most injured”, whereas I was loving life with this renewed sense of energy.

We had lunch at the 28km mark once again, and this time I had the extended lunch break. We trekked on through the town of Badaginnie, which is by far the most fun town name to say that we have passed so far (however we do stop at Wangaratta tomorrow, so Badiginnie’s fame may be short-lived). On this second leg my injuries began to resurface, whereas Joel was faring the best with his tortoise and the hare approach.

Ben had organised with Channel 10/Southern Cross to catch up with us as we were heading into Benalla, our stop for the night. Emily, a lovely looking journo rocked up with her camera and wanted to do an interview and get a few shots of us running along the road…we were at about the 40km at this stage and really weren’t too keen to break our “warm-down walk into town routine”, but we hardened up and trotted along for the cameras. All was well until Emily asked us to jog BACK in the wrong direction for another few shots…I know it’s only day 4 but we are dead set counting the metres, and Emily was killing us! If we weren’t such suckers for a good-looking female journalist I’d say we would have just kept running onto Benalla without worrying about the cameras.

Anyway, we arrived and were greeted by the principal of the local school, who did another interview and took a few snaps before we collapsed onto a park bench. Ben’s cousin Mel and her husband Stefan were kind enough to offer their place to crash at tonight, so we jumped at the chance! I think Mark and Carlee are just as stoked because they get their meals cooked for them tonight and don’t have to look after the three of us babies. Just before sitting down to dinner we had a surreal moment when the 6.30 Channel Ten news came on and the news article was about our run. Hearing our names mentioned and what we were doing was a great boost to morale (however the interview footage didn’t make the cut-Mark and I just must not have heads for TV!-so that was demoralising!)

As we were entering recovery mode Joel received a call from Glenn, who had done a Melbourne-Sydney run himself and had got in touch with us to offer any support in anyway. He said that the pain we were all feeling was to be expected and that we’ll get used to it. In case Joel didn’t believe him, Glenn’s mate Mal rang Joel up to drill the point home-both were very welcome phone calls and certainly lifted the spirits heading further into this mammoth event.

After a nice home cooked meal (thanks again Mel!) we are off to bed and ready to tackle the high’s and low’s of tomorrow’s leg to Wangaratta.

Cheers,
Nick

P.s. Apologies for lack of photos-website is stuffing up! We'll do a double-up tomorrow!

Marching on

We all started pretty gingerly and stiff this morning. At the start of the day we were wondering how we were going to get through it all. This was mostly due to the coldest morning we have had so far. At one stage in the morning the temperature was 1 degree Celsius. Due to the sore stiff limbs, cold temperatures and Nick doing 3 poos within an hour or two, the km’s were slow this morning.

After some deep heat and a few Voltaren tablets however, we were in our groove by the 10km mark. From then on it was Ipods in and everyone just went at their own pace. Again Ben flew and had 10min extra to relax at lunch, sneaking in a cheeky massage by the time we got there.

 After lunch it was clear that the 140 km’s under the belt were having a negative effect on our bodies. Both of Joel’s Achilles tendons started to give him some tude. Nick had some sort of anterior tibialis issues whilst Bens greatest concerns were his feet and blisters. Luckily Carlee (a physio) is on support and knew how to manage our niggling injuries. Without the outstanding efforts of Carlee and Mark we would be in all sorts.

The highlight of today (apart from finishing) was seeing Chris and Len. These two boys are doing the same thing as us but in the reverse. Nick and Chris did the moving high-five as planned, however was a little staged. Hearing their stories about their experiences along the Hume was encouraging and kept us going. They seem like great guys and it’s always good to encounter something like that to break up the day. We’re planning to catch up, share injury stories and have a few beers once we finish.

In non-run related news but still slightly run related news, all the boys are growing dirty dirty beards. We might upload some pics if we get a chance but were trying to emulate Forrest Gump. So far Ben is sooooo far behind but he thinks he’s Chuck Norris, However he is yet to slam a revolving door shut.

To sum the day up ill use the words of our adopted father, Mark “It was a bleeping awesome day.

Joel

Nick sporting the wascal (hat)

A picturesque morning

 Joel fertilising

 Lunch time, 28 down, 20 to go!

Joel, Ben, Chris, Nick and Len - Crossing paths again

Bens facial hair is much like his bodily hair..... Non existent

Getting to know the Hume...

Day 2 started much the same as day 1- alarm, a short drive to the start line and start running. We started just before sunrise and spent the first hour running through low fog in low temperatures.
Before long we hit the Hume Highway, our home for the next couple of weeks. Mark jumped on the bike and pedaled tirelessly until lunchtime providing us with drinks, food and stories. He reckons he rode about 25kms today, Lance Armstrong style.
By the time we'd hit 20kms or so each of the boys were sick of each other already and reached for the Ipods. Nick's wasn't working so used Carlee's, meaning instead of pumping rock songs getting him up the hills it was the likes of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry...inspirational stuff. This meant that the boys would run at their own pace until lunch time. Ben went out of the blocks fast and Joel and Nick didn't see him for an hour and a half or so, he was on fire! So Ben had a bit of extended lunch, however after having a chat to him, he let us know that his knee wasn't feeling so great.
After a few tuna sangas and Nick's fourth poo stop we hit the road again. This time Ben wasn't too keen on going out too hard so took it easy with Joel, whereas Nick went on ahead solo this time. When we saw a highway patrol car pull over in front of them with the lights flashing, we thought we were in for some trouble-we'd heard the cops frown upon people running up the Hume (which is a freeway in Victoria), so thought we'd have to find another option. The exchange went something like this-
Joel to cop: Ah g'day mate.
Cop: What are you doin?!
Joel: Just running from Melbourne to Sydney, it's a charity thing.
Cop: Oh I was wondering what you bleeping muppets we're doing.
And after that we were sweet! Back on the road and on our way. Boosted the confidence in knowing we'll be sweet whichever road we take.
The blue skies stuck around by the time we hit the town of Seymour. We passed through town before being stopped by the same highway patrol cops...seems they didn't have much to do, and offered for us to take some photos of us in or on their car)-the most laid back cops ever!
Finished up the day with around 47km under the belt.  Back we headed to the local caravan park (who didn't give us a dicount by the way) and hit recovery mode-showers, massages, dinner and now bed! Ben's feet look quite manky but says he's feeling better than yesterday, Joel says he's stiff and sore, and Nick says he's ready for more. Big day tomorrow, with about 49km or so being the goal.
Love,
The boys

                                 Backstreet's back alright!

              Joel getting a serious running technique together

Not long left. Joel directed this artsy shot and would like credit for it.

         Nick powering on past Ruby

 Getting a ticket written out by highway patrol...cool cops.

   Carlee working her magic....feels so bad but so good!

First steps...

The alarm woke us up at 5.30am. We got into our running gear, packed up Ruby and headed to Federation Square, our starting point. We arrived at 7am to a roaring support base of three people-our host Uncle Steve, Bob from Tradies (who has helped us out with sponsorship), and Rhiannon, a friend who was down in Melbourne for the weekend and kindly gave up sleeping time to see us off.

We took a few photos, did a little stretching, bid farewell to our followers and set off down Flinders Street at 7.15am. It was a great feeling finally getting on the road and simply putting one foot in from of the other-we’d spent months thinking about it, planning it, worrying about it, and to actually do what we originally planned was unreal.

Just after an hour later,  Ruby (with Mark and Carlee) drove past and checked up on us, but we were in our element-our feet and legs were fresh, our heads were clear and we were blister-free, feelings that I hope will continue!

By the 20km mark we felt we were outside of Melbourne and the scenery turned rural. We decided to have lunch by the time we hit 29km, over halfway for the day.

We hopped back on our feet and tackled the second half of the day, realising that we should slow the pace down to preserve ourselves for the next three weeks. We walked a fair chunk of this part of the day as we felt like we were ahead of schedule. The rolling hills and farmland around us were great to look at, however I was glad we weren’t tackling some of the hills we saw-some were pretty long and steep! Before long we saw a few Emus (in a farm, so weren’t really wild), and around 10 kangaroos (which were in a farm too, so yeah, not wild either)…hoping to see some real wildlife soon though.

Mark and Carlee were awesome in their first day on the road as support, hooking us up with food and drinks along the way. Carlee jumped on the bike and kept us company for a bit and Mark took some great photos along the way-much more “artsy” than the level Joel has been trying to achieve.

We hit the 53km mark to finish the day, however walked another km or so just to knock a bit of Tuesday’s total of 51km. Mark, with his gift of the gab managed to score us free accommodation at Kilmore, not far away. A big thanks to Peter from Kilmore Caravan Park for putting us up! Carlee gave the three of us a great (but bloody hard!) massage which made us feel a million bucks, the boys had our first shower of the trip (separately that is) and we had a good feed prepared by “Microwave Mark” and getting ready for bed , preparing for a big run tomorrow.

Overall I‘m feeling good after day-and providing we get good blue skies and great weather like we had today (minus the headwind), I think we’ll be sweet.

 Nick

Taking a cheesy photo before leaving Federation Square 

Looking like pros (but totally not) in our matching Saucony gear

Leaving Melbourne behind-the last time we'll see a big city like that for awhile

Made it to Heathcote! (Victoria)

 Recovery time...it tastes good despite the horrid facials

Our first stop-Kilmore (not too far from we stopped running at Wandong-gotta start back there in the morning!) Thanks to Peter for the free accommodation!

The calm before the storm

We all woke up today after a decent sleep…. Nick has claimed ‘the cove’ but Ben and I will be kicking him out very soon. All the basic shopping was done today and Ruby (our van) is now ready to support us in every way.

As a team we thought it was vital to get some team bonding before we set off tomorrow morning to improve our cohesion and communication. The best way to do that in Melbourne is to visit the MCG and watch a game ‘football’. Unfortunately there were no beers consumed however some lame artsy fartsy videos of Ferris wheels and trams were filmed for our video.

Benny had to fork out a little cash on a new camera. He has two in the post on the way to his house in Sydney with no way to get them here before we begin. We told the salesman at Camera house we’d put him in our blog cause he gave us a rippin deal. Thank you Thep =)

A big thankyou to Steve and Laura who have been kind enough to offer us their house to use while we have been ‘team bonding’. They also put on a MASSIVE feed for us which we probably won’t get for three weeks. Absolutely gold.

Ben and Steve picked Carlee up from the airport tonight at 8pm…and breathed a sigh of relief when they guessed correctly that she’d arrive at Tullaramarine airport (rather than Avalon 65km away!) . Along with Mark, Carlee makes up the rest of our support team for the first week-being a physio will surely be an asset to us along the way too-looking forward to some massages!

To be honest I’m pretty scared/nervous about hitting the road tomorrow morning. The drive down here really drove home how far this run actually is. I think all the boys are in the same boat, excited but nervous. Hopefully the first day (53km) goes as planned.

Joel

Buying all the goods and talking business

Enjoying the sights of Melbourne and talking business

Team bonding session at the MCG and talking about greeny

Carlee and Ben talking business

We made it 900km (in a van)

Ben and I drove to Mascot this morning to pick up our new home for the next couple of weeks-a 6 berth campervan we named Ruby. She’s a beast! We picked up Joel and Mark at Shellharbour and kept on trucking down south. Mark is our key support man for the next two weeks. Being an ambo may come in handy for us (but hopefully not to the point where we have to use his oxygen and cannulas and other crazy stuff he packed!) He packed his bike too so may have ridden halfway from Melbourne to Sydney by the time he gets back.

Along the way in the early afternoon we pulled over as we recognised two blokes we knew-Len and Chris. These boys had got in contact with me last week telling me they were planning a Sydney-Melbourne run themselves, however starting a week earlier than us (and running south rather than north). We had a quick chat to them and asked how they were feeling after five days of running…I’m not sure whether their reactions were encouraging or not…they were still going, which was positive, however they did look pretty knackered. We’re planning to pass them again in a few days, these time on our feet, maybe on day 3 or 4 of the run-and hopefully do an awesome moving high-five that’s been 900km in the making!

Uncle Steve’s been kind enough to give us his driveway for the night in Melbourne (Pascoe Vale), which is where we are at now. Thanks again Steve!

After a long day of doing not much, we’re ready to get some rest and use tomorrow to go grocery shopping, watch the footy, see Melbourne and plan the start of the run.

Will give you an exciting blog when exciting stuff happens…working with what I’ve got here!

Cheers,

Nick 

Joel, Nick, Ben and Mark standing in front of Ruby at Shellharbour, ready and raring to go.

 The interior view from the penthouse. Notice Ben is tired from a hard day of nothing really.

The boys with Len and Chris, the Sydney-Melbourne boys. Hoping to cross paths with them again in a few days!

Our last day in Sydney...

Our last full day in Sydney was a productive one, yet crazy rushing from one place to another.
Ben and I put our heads for radio to good use and had an interview with 2SSR 99.7FM in the morning. We chatted about the run and about how breast cancer had affected someone close to each of us. Line of the day would be Ben opening with "In today's society...". Classy.
We then whipped down to Wollongong to meet up with Joelo and do a TV piece for WIN, a regional TV station. We answered some questions, ran around the oval, posed and did stretches for the cameraman for about 10 minutes, which Joel mentioned was longer than he usually stretches for anyway...Should be on WIN's 6.30pm news tomorrow (Friday) night.
Lastly, the Leader (another local newspaper) took a few snaps of us at Cronulla (our finish line!) for an article which will be in next Tuesday's paper. We also mananged a few of our own photos when we saw Paul Gallen and the mighty top try-scoring centre for the Cronulla Sharks Ben Pomeroy walk by. Asking Gal to take a photo of us with Ben Pomeroy was priceless-Pomeroy was absolutely stoked! And Gal took it well, he was graceful in defeat as always.

We also received the last of Saucony gear from Joel, which means we can all use tonight to pack, prepare and gear up for the long van trip down to Melbourne tomorrow. Ben has already called dibs on driving it before all of us, which is fine by me as long as I get the large Double Bed...we'll see how that all pans out tomorrow-might be some scissor paper rock action going on. We will arrive tomorrow night and use Saturday as a rest day (or hopefully having a "team bonding" session watching the footy at the MCG) and then start the trek back up the Hume on Sunday morning. We kick off from Federation Square at 7am if anyone from Melbourne cares to join us.

Donations are still going great guns, with the website showing $15,758.73 to be exact...and don't forget that we have around $4000 waiting to be included from the poker day and the Pink high school day (another big thanks to Dan Peyton and Sam Bartlett respectively for those). We are getting closer to our target of $35,000, so please help out if you can...www.gofundraise.com.au/page/runforareason

With all these events going on it makes me want to get out on the road and just start running, because the build up has been intense-we better finish the bloody thing after all of this or we'll look like geese.

Once again, we plan to update everyone via the blog daily, so stay tuned for more. And please spread the word!!

Cheers,
Nick

                               Ben and Nick (and a photoshopped Joel) at 2SSR.

                                                           The boys

                                           Being interviewed by WIN

                                          Posing and stretching for WIN

                                           Photos for the Leader at Cronulla

Ben Pomeroy supporting the run...the best part about this photo is that Paul Gallen is taking it!

One week to go!!

With only one week to go before we launch ourselves at this Melbourne-Sydney run, myself, Benny and Joel are in the full swing of things of organising the last bits and pieces before we head down the Hume on Friday.
Getted super excited now, but then I feel nervous, then pumped, then dread, then excited again, it changes daily-I just want to get out on the road really!!

Donations are still flowing in which is encouraging to see...up to about $14,000 online with another $4,000 or so raised from events such as the poker day (Buy in for Boobies) and our Pink Day down at Warilla High School. So around $18,000 raised-just over half way to our target of $35,000. Keep the donations coming...www.gofundraise.com.au/page/runforareason

This was really just a "test blog" to see if we set it up correctly, but we should be using this address to keep everyone posted on a daily basis (or nearly daily basis depending on internet connection!) during the run. And once again, our home page is still at www.wix.com/runforareason/charitabletrio

Nick

P.s. Below is a very cheesy photo of us (once again-just testing how to use this blog site!)