Big news!!!!

Sorry for those that have been holding off from eating between my posts, I suppose you get to lose some weight!

Where do I start, from the last post seems good I suppose.

The cold/flu/virus lasted longer than expected, I did run a Winter Orienteering race at Westleigh which only served to remind me of my lack of fitness.

From there it was another sojourn back up to SE Asia for work. I did sneak a run in at Singapore with a friend of a friend expat. We headed out on a Sunday morning and after about 4km at about 4:30 pace I finally decided to ask him about his marathon PB which was 2:49 and here I was trying to match him stride for stride in the tropics with no base.....

A discrete turnaround after I urged him to not fuss over me and keep going and catch me on the way back. I suffered like a dog all the way back. Those who know me well know my predisposition for sweating and dislike of heat. Well the heartrate was telling the story and I eventually opted for a 500m walking cool down back to the start, after a few breaks to try and stay under control.

The following weekend I was back in Singapore again and had entered in advance a local "10km" race. It is sufficient to say that I have been very spoiled by the Striders races. This race was chaos at the start, had a bottle neck for the first 2km, no marshals on the course at all, the actual course was different from the published map and at the end there was no official finish line! I won't even go into the details of then trying to retrieve my clothes bag and then the "goodie" bag. The whole thing was a shambles and then my run was not much better...

Some more stuffing around in SE Asia and then finally back home, just in time to join up with the family to drive up to Guyra for one of my mate's 40th birthday party. His family live on a property about 15km N of Guyra and so on the Saturday we did all the country things with the kids, chasing the cows and horses around etc etc.

Dave has got into mountain bike riding and adventure races and so had organised a mttb ride with a few of his mates and at the last minute asked me along. Despite having no gear he borrowed a bike for me and so I was sort of set. Until I saw his and his mates bikes which were all multi thousand dollar full suspension bikes. The bike I had was probably worth all of $400 and had NO suspension at all!

Anyway it was all great fun, I had no chance at keeping up with them on the technical downhill sections but had great delight in smoking all of them on the uphills, even on the bike I had :) The best bit was a technical creek crossing which was reasonably deep and about 20m wide. Dave went first and made it about halfway before falling over in the water. I adopted the "go hard or go home motto" and headed through, with the (undeclared) advantage of having actually riden in a few mountain bike races, including a national title I tracked through quite nicely with steady balance and rode out the other end. After the other 3 also fell off halfway all of a sudden they looked on me with some new respect, despite my steed :)

Great stuff, I really enjoyed being back on the bike and the body, other than the crotch and hands pulled up with no problems!

Anyway, back to the title for this post. I do actually have some very big news that I have been sitting on.

With my recent promotion and additional responsibilities at work it had become obvious that something would have to give. So it has been agreed that I, and my family thankfully will be moving to Singapore! The good news is that during my last visit I managed to organise for the better half to come up and visit Singapore for the first time and look at accommodation and schooling options. Thankfully it was all good and we seem to have found good lodgings and also a great Aussie based school!!!

Also on the good news side is that the running scene in Singapore seems alive with a seemingly decent but unexplored Striders equivalent in MacRitchie Runners and also a semi Coolrunning parallel in SG Runners.

Suffice to say that it is with very mixed emotions that I write this post. I have established some great friends through Striders and Cool Running, the opportunity I have been given is great but I will deeply miss the great running society that has developed in Sydney and Australia. All I can do is look forward with excitement but for anyone who happens to be passing through Singapore I will be mortally aggrieved if you do not stop over and catch up.

The blog will continue, with a few changes, I think the sub 40 at 40 might be out of reach in running in the tropics but I do have a few goals/challenges in mind. However I can be certain that both the running and posts with be sporadic in the next 6-8 weeks as I stretch to move the family and our belongings as well as trying to keep on top of my new work responsibilities!!!

Not much more to say with out starting to sound too cliched after a glass too many of red as I work towards tidying up the cellar.