Saturday, May 20, 2006

May 19 - Ivanhoe to South Yarra via Ashburton

Well tonight was my second attempt at following the Alamein Rail Trail home from work and it proved a much greater success than the initial attempt (See May 12).

Leaving Ivanhoe and heading straight down to the Yarra, I followed the trail north to Burke Road. A few little 'S' bends and I was heading south on Burke Road. At this stage I was having to check myself and pull the speed back a little, as I knew that I was running further than I have in a very long time.

About 2-3 kms down Burk Road I hitched on to the Whitehorse Rail Trail and this is where the issues began last week, but not this time. When the trail finished, I turned right and ran alongside a hockey field which led me directly to the Alamein Line Rail Trail. From here it was a piece of cake, following this all the way south to the top of the Malvern Valley Golf Club where I joined the Gardiner's Creek Path.

The issue here was the bridge was closed, so not wanting to push my luck I decided to climb the gates and head across the bridge anyway. So managed that without drama and headed along the path following the South Eastern Freeway towards the city. Was having small spurts of energy here, where again I had to reign myself in.

Ended up joining the Yarra Trail at St Kevin's and following the path on the north side of the river until I reached the rail bridge between Chapel Street and Punt Road. From here I strolled the last 500m home.

Overall I ran 28km in 2hrs 45mins, which was at a very comfortable level, which is 5.54 km's.