My last working day before our longish weekend.  I’m really looking forward to our jaunt away – unfortunately Graham is a wee bit up and down.  Reasonably happy, but he’s got a bout of his usual pre-race doubts (“have I trained enough”, “have I trained too much”, “I’m feeling flat”…).  It’s the usual story – he’s looking forward to going away, but won’t be able to relax until the Kepler is over.  At least he’ll still have half of Saturday to enjoy after the race, unlike those that’ll be on course for the full 12 hours.

Some weirdo of a Japanese guy has come out in the Southland Times claiming that he wants to do the Kepler in 4.30 hours.  The record is 4.37, set by Phil Costley (who broke Richard Ussher’s previously set record).  This Japanese guy is (his own claim) “One of the world’s top trail runners” and yet Graham beat him at each of the Frontrunner Offroad races.  Okay, shorter distances, but it really annoys me when someone comes out with statements like that.  He obviously has no appreciation for the speed of the likes of Costley and Ussher, but nope, he’s going to beat the record by seven minutes.  I hope like heck Graham can beat him again on Saturday and make him look like a right goose (or a right piece of sushi).  Perhaps he’s mistranslated the 60km distance and thinks it’s only 40km?

My wee boat has been sold, and it’s going to good Southland stock – a Jim (James) Hargest.  How’s that for a good Southland name.  I thought maybe it was James Hargest High School purchasing it for their sports department when I saw the email address, but nope, it’s going to a descendent.  Jim farms out of Invercargill so he’s going to meet us in Lumsden enroute to Te Anau – I’m to text him when we leave Dunedin which will give us around three hours to reach our rendevous point.  I’m pleased it’s going to a good home – Jim has done the Coast a few times and Kepler nine times;  a good keen man!

My second boat is sitting on TradeMe at the moment.  It’ll be a bargain for someone as I’ve listed it with just a $1,000 reserve (the boat is only around three years old).  There are 15 watchers and a few questions have been asked, so I just hope they spur each other on when it comes to the bidding.  However while there were 12 watchers for the Sprinter, there was only one bidder.  It’s a fickle business!

I’ve felt a bit blah this week.  I’m up-to-date with my sessions, but haven’t felt at all motivated.  It’s been a hot, sticky week, and I’ve had the children in the evenings so it makes it a bit more of a logistical mission.  The highlight though, was setting a new PB in the pool yesterday – I did all my 100m intervals in 1.58 or less, with two at 1.54 (previous best was 1.56).  I was a bit nervous that I wasn’t going to be able to repeat my good swim of last week, but I did, and did a smidgeon better.

Graham is at home today, packing and getting things organised for the weekend.  We’ll be hitting the road around 7am tomorrow and it’ll probably take us around 8-9 hours to get to Te Anau.  It’ll be a long day, but fortunately the kids are used to travelling lots and tend to amuse themselves pretty readily.  I’m not sure what the weather is predicted to do on race day – Graham wants it to be cold-cold.  The last time he ran it there was snow on the ground, whereas last year it was stinking hot.  He’d prefer the snow!  All will be revealed at the race briefing tomorrow night I guess.

I have Monday off work and it’s already full of things that we need to get done.  Pick up the dog from the boarding kennel, collect the new cat, do the Christmas shopping, a Podiatrist appointment, someone wants to test-drive my boat… So much for a day off!

Right.  Work to be done.