Tennis @ Busselton Mercure.

Been taking some well earned time off running after the Melbourne Marathon on October 7th, need to manage bruised heel? and a few other hopefully temporary ankle and knee niggles. Went down south with my wife Kathryn and our 11 week old baby Jacob to celebrate our first wedding anniversary. Spent some time taking Jacob to see the ponies,kangaroos and feed the chooks at a semi-rural property we spent a few nights at.

Then it was on to revisit one of our honeymoon destinations last year, which is now known as the Mercure-Busselton-apartments. They have some very nice tennis courts, so Kathryn and I had a bit of a hit there. Then managed to have a good solid 2 sets (I got thrashed 6-1,6-1, but was hitting a few aces on my serve, and we played some pretty good rallies all around the court) for an hour or so with a bloke called Rob who was there with his family taking a break from his defence force commitments, he apperently has a 10km PB of 37min and is thinking of training up for an interstate marathon in future years. My heel was ok once I warmed up, but a bit sore afterwards.

Kathryn, baby Jacob and I had a very nice weekend adventure together, and the tennis was good, I hope to do some running again soon when I am ready and the opportunity presents.

Also chatted with someone on the weekend who is going in for an ACL operation similiar to the one I have needed for my knee since 2000.
Lately I have been having thoughts that maybe my body needs a break from running altogether, but I suspect the lure of racing will put that thought to rest.
I worry about the effect on my back,knees and ankles, considering I have done a lot of racewalking 20km-50km between 1989-1999, run 6 marathons 2004-2007, and 2 Ultra 45km races, while managing serious back (since 1996) and knee (since 2000) issues.

Other than 6-inch 45km in December, and a few officiating duties for WA Marathon club, my running for 2007 is pretty much done. Maybe some triathlons this summer, or if I get really fit, maybe run some track races with Masters or Athletics WA but not a huge priority as yet. Might see if I can help out at some of Nathan and Daves Ultra activities. Be interesting to see if Kelly Ex. gets her sub 3 hour marathon in the New York marathon next month. see here to follow her progress.

I'd like to go watch Rottnest Marathon (this weekend) and Busselton Ironman triathlon on 2nd December, (great to hear that an Australian Chris MCCormack won Hawaii Ironman (the pinnacle of Ironman races in the world) the other week) and will try, but my family commitments with Kathryn and Jacob are a much higher priority!

I guess as I get older doing recreational/leisure related things like tennis, hiking,mountainclimbing,bodysurfing,camping,trathlons and mountainbiking are going to become more of a priority than running. Its always a bit of a mission mentally to work out "where to from here?" after racing a Marathon.