The Outback Expat

Brisbane Park Run Tour – New Farm

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Of all of the Park Runs I have tried so far I would say that New Farm is my favourite. Me, Naomi and the Aussie have visited a few times so far and I plan to go back again.

1. Course

The course is lovely, it runs along the river which is one of my favourite places to visit in the city, and back again.

2. Accessibility / Manoeuvrability

The course has nice wide paths so it is easy to go past the other participants and people also enjoying the river on foot/scooter/bikes. Another plus is that it is mainly flat and there are markets nearby which you can enjoy after your run.

3. Volunteers

The volunteers are lovely, very helpful and informative. They are also very encouraging as you go past.

4. Photography

So far I have liked the photos which they publish after the event. They usually take them by the finish line when I try and get that last minute burst of energy to run!

5. Ambience

The best thing about Park Run is the ambience. Everyone is very supportive and positive and it really doesn’t matter if you run it in under 20 minutes or walk it in an hour. The main thing is that you are there giving it a go and getting better every week.

My June Faves

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A bit later this month but these are my favourite photos from June.

1. & 2. Both of these photos were taken on a walk / run at the park near our new house.

3. This was taken on the New Farm Park Run. It was our first time trying this venue and I really enjoyed the route and our usual weekend debrief.

4. I went on a walk with Naomi, our lovely American friends and a lovely friend they had visiting from Germany to Whites Hill. It was a great walk with some good hills to go up and down. I loved that I could breath pretty normally as we went up and down the hills and my recovery was really quick.

5. It seems exercise was the theme in my photos as this photograph was taken just before I started the Park Run at Wynnum. I have to get up about 5am to get to the Wynnum Park Run but I never mind because this view greets me as I arrive and I also get to do my weekly debrief with Naomi. Its a fantastic way to start the weekend.

6. On the 23rd the Aussie, Naomi our American friends and their friend from Germany went to a Winter Solstice Festival. This photo was taken during the lantern parade on our way to the bonfire.

7. The day after the Solstice Festival Naomi and I visited the Yoga Festival. I had never tried yoga so this was a good opportunity to see if it was something I would want to try again and it was. I was surprised by how strong I actually am and I definitely want to keep on doing the yoga.

8. As you know my family visited at the beginning of the month so I sent them this picture to show them that I had made up the spare bed after it was delivered for their visit.

9. When I did Park Run I entered a prize draw which was run by Dulux. Just after we got home I had a call to say I had won the prize which was a pretty much life size Dulux dog! It took a while by the dog (now named Dudley) was delivered to our house at the end of the month and he is causing hours of entertainment!!!

Things I have Loved This Month – June 2018

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June has been a bit crazy busy what with moving house and having to spend quite a lot of time at our old rental property to get it ready for handing back the keys but in between what seems like endless cleaning we have had a fun month.

Music
I subscribed to Spotify in June and have really enjoyed using the service. I quite like the various play lists, especially the work out ones and that I can select music based upon my mood or what I am doing which I love.

Movies
Ocean’s Eight – Naomi and I went to watch this movie and it was brilliant. I loved the original Oceans series and had high expectations which were met and exceeded. We had heard some negative reviews of the film but they were frankly unfounded. It was funny, fast paced, glamorous and kept you guessing right until the very end.

Ronni Khan is Food Fighter – I won a double pass for this movie which is a documentary about Ronni Khan and her mission to reduce food waste. Ronni’s charity, Oz Harvest partners with companies such as Woolworths and Qantas to redistribute left over food. The movie was a real eye opener and certainly made me rethink how I buy and use our weekly food shop.

Events
Northey Street City Farm Winter Solstice Festival – we attended this on the 23rd which is a few days after the actual Solstice which happens on 21 June in the Winter here and 21 June in December in the summer.

It was quite a quirky event and not really as I expected but I really enjoyed catching up with our American friends, their house guest from Germany and Naomi with the Aussie. The lantern parade and bonfire was really nice and the fire was welcome as the night was a bit chilly!

Lantern Parade

Yoga Day Festival – in the same weekend as the Solstice Festival I also attended the Yoga Day Festival with Naomi. I really wanted to try yoga but never quite got around to it so when I saw the event advertised I wanted to give it a go. I am definitely not as flexible as I would like but I am actually so much stronger than I ever thought I was. I really enjoyed it and want to keep doing it to keep building on my strength.

Yoga Day Festival

Doing
I have for a long time wanted to start running and Naomi told me about the Zombie Run 5K App. Its a 5k running trainer where you gradually build to running 5km non stop but against the backdrop of training to escape the Zombies! You get a running commentary of the story during each exercise and I frequently find myself laughing in between runs!

Park Running

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For the last few months I have been participating in Park Run most Saturdays with Naomi.

Park Run is a fantastic free event where you can walk or run 5km with a bunch of like minded people. It begins at 7am or 8am depending on the location on Saturday mornings in towns and cities across the world which means a fairly early start usually depending on which Park Run we choose to visit.

It can be a bit intimidating to actually go and get started at Park Run especially when, if like me when I started, I was only able to walk the track, but when you get there you quickly realise that there isn’t anything to worry about, everyone is lovely and you feel very supported.

I also used Park Run as part of my training for when I participated in the Commonwealth Games Gold Run and it definitely helped me get a bit quicker so that when I did the the Gold Run I managed a pretty good personal best for me.

My current PB is 44 minutes 38 seconds. We try and walk the track with intervals at the end of the track so I am feeling pretty positive that my time will get better and maybe under 40 minutes at some stage soon whilst I build up to running more of the track.

I’m now up to 12 Park Runs in total. I understand that when we get up to 50 runs we will be sent a t shirt by the organisers which is pretty cool and a great way to celebrate that kind of achievement.

Sunrise Time at Wynnum Park Run

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