Running Down Unda!

Australian Parliament

Joy here...From January until June when we left Canada for Malaysia, I spent more time in airports and on airplanes than I ever thought I would.  I fell off my workouts entirely, and have been struggling to get back into the swing of things ever since.  However, since arriving in Kuala Lumpur and getting settled, by mid-August I was starting to feel like I was turning the corner to being a runner again.  I huffed and puffed much less on my runs, and I was hitting more of my workouts than not, and even getting in my targeted hours of running per week.

But then I got on another plane.

Yet all was not lost.

Not yet at least.

We landed in Canberra, the capital city of Australia and checked into our hotel.  The Man had completed his Master's degree in Canberra some 14 years ago, and he was invited there to speak at a conference on Malaysian law and politics.  I brought my laptop along with me and planned to do some of my own work.  But, of course, I also planned to run.

The Man doin' his thing!

On our first day there, once we had checked in, we changed into our running gear and headed out to run around the ANU campus.  Now after that run, I'm convinced that university campuses the world over are all created equal.  This one was like so many others I've been to, beautiful natural scenery somehow not fully taken advantage of by the seemingly hodge podge collection of university buildings.  And like other universities, there are plenty of shiny, new buildings all the while moneys for full professors, scholarships, and actual research is shrinking.

But as we ran, I thought about none of those things and just enjoyed the upside down world of "down unda" where trees shed their bark rather than their leaves, and swans are black rather than white.

We ticked off our 40 minutes and headed out to dinner with The Man's former M.Phil. supervisor.  Okay, day one - check!

Running around the ANU...

...okay, done running!

Then I spent some time doing work and sight-seeing around Australia's capital, a "city" that is very pretty - bright blue skies, beautiful greenery, and urban lakes - but rather sedate.  After wandering through museums and developing blisters, I headed back for a dinner at the Malaysian High Commission.

The following day we decided to go for a run around Lake Burley Griffin, a man-made lake in the heart of Canberra.  The winds were high, and we had to run around some Aussie boys who were drunk, beer bottles in hand, by 11:00am, but we were undaunted.  We ran with Telstra Tower rising up from Black Mountain to our right and the lake to our left, the sky threatening but not delivering rain.  We chatted, we laughed, and we decided that as lovely as Canberra is, we don't necessarily want to live there.

Lake Burley Griffin

Yet another run under our belts - check!

We headed back to the hotel and headed out for Nonya food in a suburb of Canberra and packed our bags for the next leg of our Australian trip:  Adelaide.

We got up bright and early on Friday morning and headed to Adelaide.  But when we got to Adelaide, we were shocked by just how cold it still was - both inside and out - and opted for visiting with our friends, going on a wine tour, enjoying a driving tour of the sights and sounds of Adelaide, and gorging on amazing home-cooked meals over working out.  So that was a weekend with no running.

Now I'm back in KL and back where I started from.  I feel a little like Paula Abdul in the pre-Idol days.

Over and out,
Joy

Run Stats:
1st run:  Ran for 40:00.34 for a distance of 6.41km with an avg pace of 6:14min/km
2nd run:  Ran for 60:00.01 for a distance of 10km with an avg pace of 6:00min/km