Saturday, December 21, 2013

Running at the farm - dodging cow poo, uneven ground and ant nests!!!


How glorious it is to finally be on holidays. We both had our last day of work yesterday, packed the car and then at 2am this morning we got up, and were out the door by 3:30am NSW time.
 

After around 6 hours (including stops) we crossed the border into Queensland!!! Great feeling to be heading home, well to Mum and Dad's home.


We got here at about 9 Qld time.. pretty good effort.

Onto business then...
At the beginning of this round I did some serious goal setting. I set two types of goals Habit Goals and Achievement Goals, you can see my goals under the Goals tab at the top of the page.

The second group of goals I set were achievement goals. As always I'm inspired by Kate and her ability to set insane goals and then totally achieve them. Her most recent effort saw her running the cross country course at her old school which she defiantly avoided as a teenager.

One of the goals I set for over Christmas while in Stanthorpe was called 'Choose your own adventure fun run - run from the house to the back dam at Mum and Dad's property'. When setting this goal I had no idea how far that was in kilometres but a goal is a goal.

I decided planning was the key and that I should walk the track from the house to the dam to see how far it is. As I hadn't completed my SSS due to our drive I decided to head up there Saturday afternoon - yep the day we arrived. I thought I'd use Map My Run to calculate the distance. I walked out of the house yard, noted that it was weird that the gates were shut, then through the second gate (which was also closed - again weird) and started off on the track. The first bit was pretty flat so I decided I might as well run as far as I could, then I would know what to aim for.

The weirdly closed gate...

the track

Getting started

Pretty soon I found that running a track on a property is WAY tougher than running on the road and footpath at home. On the road and footpath all I have to worry about is my breathing (which I really struggle to keep even) and my pace...oh and cars lol. On the track I had to dodge the following obstacles:

Dried up Cow Poo,
 
uneven ground and grass tuffs great for rolling ankles,


and crazy ants nests!


As I was running, avoiding the above hazards, I wondered who had been at the farm with horses...


I had completely forgotten about the cattle. The ones Mum and Dad earn a living from for agistment!

So that's why the gates were shut!

Now normally cows don't worry me at all, but usually when I encounter them either they are in yards or I am in a car....not in the same paddock as them on foot. The first ones I came across were more afraid of me and turned and ran off!



But this one really had me worried! Those horns gave me a fright and then the damn thing started coming towards me. At this point I was still running and it certainly made me run faster....



And then of course I had another hazard to dodge while running - fresh cow poo!


running away from the horned cow!


And then I was there!

I couldn't believe I'd run the whole way on my first go!! I was so excited!!!

pointing at the top of the dam wall, standing at the base!

From the house to the dam it was 2.2kms and it took me 18 minutes! I completely smashed the goal that I'd set - the run wasn't as long as I thought it would be but it was just as challenging!


So proud of myself!

So now I guess I need to reset my goals but for the time being I'm very proud of myself. Below are some photos I snapped on the way back of the property. It was a beautiful place for a run!







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