OLD NUFFIELD TRACTOR-LIKE RUNNER SEEN RACING AT ROCKS RIVERSIDE PARKRUN.

February 13 to 20th.  Prior to the Rocks Riverside Parkrun on Saturday, the last parkrun I raced was on May 28 last year.  I clocked 17:31 for a 94.01% age-grading then and 18:59 last Saturday for an age-grading of  86.74%.   I thought I was good for at least 18:20 but had to bust a gut to run sub-19.  I felt like an old Nuffield tractor my dad used on the farm.


We had four vehicles I was allowed to drive when I was a little boy.  We had a little Massey Ferguson; an old Nuffield tractor that dad bought for a market-gardening side-project on some spare land on their 20 or so acres; a Mazda one-tonner B1500, which he used to cart product to the markets; and, when a little older and after we had moved to a bigger farm, I purchased a Austin A95 speedway stockcar to race around the back paddock.

Well,  last Saturday I felt like I had morphed into that old Nuffield Tractor.  Felt strong like I could pull a tree stump along behind me and keep chugging along and maintain my pace; whereas, last year I felt like my old Austin A95, hardly a Sprintcar, but still with enough kick to go at a solid pace - just enough to impress the naïve. 
Most times in training I feel like the little Massey Ferguson.  Just a general workhorse that does what is needed to get the job done.  Oh, what about the B1500?  Well, I was allowed to help load it and had to wash it.  It took a few years before dad allowed me to drive it by myself.  The Nuffield was a handful and, from memory,  I had to stand up so as to get to the brake and clutch.  Thank goodness for hand throttles.  Anyway, the thing is, the Nuffield was the tractor for digging deep, for turning new earth. So for Comrades I will have to be content to leave the A95 in the shed for the most part, and jump on Fergy fairly often and bring out the old Nuffield for the really hard digging.  And then it's off to the markets with a full load of goods in the B1500.

So not happy about losing the "speed" I had last year and turning into more of a Nuffield but, I suppose,  as the old farmers say: "No use crying over spilt milk, just bail up another cow."

Nuffield

Poser. Note the slippers.  Not sure what the occasion was. 

Nuffield trying to be an A95.

I am heading off to run the Orange Marathon this weekend. . I entered before i qualified, with a "C" group start spot at the Australia Day Marathon Festival. I couldn't recoup my expenditure so what the heck. I may as well have some fun.

I am aiming to run sub 3:20 so as to get a "B" start at Comrades. According to the official Comrades' coach, Lindsey Parry, March through April is the time to do the volume and the really hard miles. So, according to his thinking, it is unwise to race a hard all-out marathon at the end of February. It is okay, however, to run what he calls a training marathon. As a potential three -hour runner (on paper - not meaning to disrespect those who have actually ran that time in the last little while and are surely capable, Parry thinks runners of my level, should be able to recover from a 3:10-20 so as to get stuck into serious training during March and April after short recovery. We'll see.

I'll be flying from Sydney to Orange with Regional Express (REX). I am not comfortable flying at the best of times and recent sad, tragic events aren't helping. I suppose life is too short to catastrophise.