Day 3: Sunshine Coast to Gold Coast

If I thought yesterday was a tough day in the office, think again! Geez I honestly didn’t expect this run to be a breeze but I didn’t expect it to be this hard either. All day I’ve had those thoughts in my head about not being a natural runner and what on earth was I doing. Today was tough.

I woke up this morning with a dull pain behind my right knee but after two days on the road I didn’t think it was too bad! And when I read all your messages and words of encouragement it really buoyed me up-thank you so much.

I quickly realised that it was less painful to run rather than walk. Later in the day this changed somewhat…more on that in a bit.

When I started to plan this trip I spoke with a couple of people who had done similar adventures and routes. One said it was no problem because once I hit Brisbane I just had to follow the South East (SE) Busway all the way down to the Gold Coast. Another person from a local running group said there was a cycle path that ran all the way from Brisbane CBD right to the Gold Coast; fantastic I thought. Well I did find the SE Busway but it was quite clear that ONLY buses were allowed on it. I accosted a policeman in the CBD, who happened to be a Superintendent just visiting for a function!! He phoned the office but they were pretty vague where I could pick up the path and said a few times, ‘So you want to run, not catch a bus’…theme developing here after yesterday!

After wasting a lot of time in the CBD my husband who was heading for the next arranged check point phoned Brisbane City Council to ask for their advice. A big thumbs down to them. They were unable to tell him where you could get onto the cycle path in Brisbane. They just kept directing him to a website (which was useless) and told him they did not know!! Poor form Brisbane City Council. After miraculously finding the path somehow I proceeded to spend (waste) several hours running along it for a bit, only to find it stopped and so on. At no time were there directions how to get back on another section. Again, not good Brisbane City Council. Have a look how Perth does the freeway cycle path-you have a lot to learn.

I was now way behind schedule after all the messing around and decided to find another route to head South. I was tired and miserable and hadn’t even done many kms. And then my achilles started to throb like crazy. In the end I never made it to Beenleigh today, which only means I have to run longer tomorrow. I am sure that I won’t be impressed about that in the morning. Let’s just hope the achilles is better.

On a positive note, I’m ¾ way to the Gold Coast!

Day 3: Aspley to Kingston 45.07km

Total distance to date: 142.92km

Read about Day 1 here: http://www.eagerforlife.com.au/day-1-sunshine-coast-gold-coast/

Read about Day 2 here: http://www.eagerforlife.com.au/day-2-sunshine-coast-gold-coast/

 

Don’t forget it’s not too late to donate to the two amazing charities that I am supporting:

1. Farm Animal Rescue (Australia)-An animal sanctuary based in Brisbane