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Bribie Island "Beach Bash" 46km

Results - Men

Results - Women

Report by Kevin Cassidy

Heading north to Queensland from Melbourne was always going to require a climatic adjustment from the cold snap that had me running a local 5km in long sleeves and tights just two days prior, to the humidity of a more tropical zone. It sure was a rushed trip with an internet booking on the Friday resulting in a Saturday morning flight for a Sunday event. I made my way to Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport and strode purposefully towards the Virgin Airlines check-in desk that is now housed in what was once the hollow remnants of the former Ansett terminal and collected my boarding pass from a very pleasant but less than attractive member of the Virgin staff. The flight to Brisbane was uneventful with the exception of one of the flight attendants fancying herself as a bit of a comedian behind the microphone. As a career choice, I think she should stick with her job at Virgin.

Its amazing the mindless things you do to fill in time. At the baggage carousel in Brisbane, I passed the time by putting the stop watch on one complete lap of the carousel......I minute and 47 seconds is much quicker than any other baggage carousel I have ever encountered!!

I was very fortunate to be able to avail myself to the hospitality of Ian Cornelius and his more attractive half, Chris. The three of us were motoring up the freeway when Ian decided on a "Short-cut" which resulted in us doing multiple laps of the roundabout in the Morayfield Shopping Centre car park!! Chris was quick to put us on the right track with her superior navigational skills that saved us from the embarrassment of circling the roundabout for longer than it took the Chinese to build the Great Wall.

Saturday afternoon saw a quick visit to one of Bribie Island's newest residents in Gary Parsons, or should that be "Councillor Parsons". Gary has just been elected to the local council and had just returned from organising the removal of a beehive!! Gary now has to meet with all the various clubs and committees on the Island....all 172 of them!! Good luck, Gary. Such a task may well make your run around Australia seem easy! Better you then me, I reckon.

Sunday morning and Race Director, Geoff Williams, was pleased with a field of 13 Ultra competitors and a swag of other runners in a series of shorter events. The course was as basic to follow as you could hope for. Even with my reputation for getting somewhat lost from time to time, I could not possibly go wrong with a course that is 23km up the beach and 23km back. It was great to catch up with the regular Queensland ultra nuts as we made our way up the beach on the hard wide sandy surface with a strong tailwind at our backs. There are many ways in which to celebrate a 68th birthday, most would probably spend it at the local elderly citizens club in the confines of a comfortable armchair while very few, undoubtedly, would ever consider spending it alongside their daughter in a 46 kilometre run ......... Joan Robards did exactly that. Take a bow, Joan. Yours truly was most impressed.

The most eventful incidents on the outward leg were seeing a small snake who seemed quite unimpressed at all the runners interrupting his morning nap while, a little further on, a large tortoise was far to engrossed in settling himself down in his bed of sand to give any runners a second glance.

The turn around point at 23km was impossible to miss with the evergreen and ever reliable Charlie Hall having planted his 4 Wheel Drive vehicle in the sand and operating an aid station from the tailgate.

The return journey was always going to be much tougher with the wind now in our faces, an incoming tide that was pushing you up into the softer sand and the proliferation of 4 Wheel Drive vehicles roaring up and down the beach........with some being less tolerant of sharing the beach with runners than others. Eventually, the tide came in so close that a number of runners at the rear of the field had the privilege of "wading" ankle deep to the finish. Fortunately, no one was washed out into the shipping channel but could you imagine the publicity this event would have got if someone did? Unfortunately, a less than co-operative timing mechanism decided to malfunction mid race and left us with an incomplete set of results but as Ned Kelly once said........"Such is life".

At the presentation, Geoff Williams was handing out trophies and spot prizes with his usual enthusiasm when I managed to meet Julie Schrag. Julie is an interesting individual to say the least; she has recently completed a 1,600 km walk from Longreach to Brisbane, covering some of Queenslands most remote and inhospitable terrain. Julie is on her way to the Colac Six Day Race where she will definitely impress all around her with her determination and consistency of pace. I took several photos of the presentation only to discover some seriously flat batteries in my camera......................so much for my photos. Along with the stop watch, they had gone to the great photo shop in the sky!

Returning to Brisbane with Ian and Chris was uneventful as we managed to avoid multiple loops of roundabouts. I was kindly delivered to the Brisbane Airport where I was to collect a hire car for a couple of days. Farewelling Ian and Chris, I approached the "Europcar" desk. " I guess you are a European company," I said to the woman at the desk in an attempt to make some small talk with what I thought would be a statement of the obvious. "No", she replied, "We are in Australia, New Zealand and Asia...........Where that name came from is anyone's guess.

Climbing into a tiny silver car, I motored off in the direction of central Brisbane. Logic told me that following a sign that clearly said "Brisbane" would take me there......Wrong. After twisting and turning my way passed factories and open spaces in heavy rain, the road suddenly came to an abrupt end at the front gates of a sewer farm in an area that was known, rather oddly, as "Luggage Point". I mean no disrespect to the builders/operators of the sewer farm, in fact, I have no reason to doubt that as far as sewer farms go, this one is amongst the best sewer farms in the world........It's just that I had hoped by this stage to be amongst the central city area enjoying a drink rather than at a sewer farm! After much back tracking, I finally found myself outside the Pelican Point Pub somewhere amongst Brisbane's waterside suburbs where I entered the bar, glad to escape the rain. I procured a very large "Diet Coke", stood long enough to realise that no one was going ! to find me interesting enough to start a conversation, then propped myself at the bar where I stared out over the water towards Stradbroke Island with the rain still pelting down. I could not help but see the irony of the Queenslanders insistence on calling their home the "Sunshine State"

In Brisbane, they have some unusual suburban names. Try getting your tongue around "Bulimba" and "Capalaba". I heard a variety of pronunciations and I don't think I managed to master any of them.

Light switches operate upside down, car registration numbers are back to front, railway lines are narrower than a toy train set and Daylight Savings which has been so welcome across Australia for 30 years still hasn't managed to find any form of appeal amongst the local population. The Brisbane street directory has the rather confusing name of a "Refidex".........the exact origins of such a word seem to be as much of a mystery to locals as it is to me, with my inquiries resulting in blank looks and shrugged shoulders.

In Queensland, fuel is much cheaper.......as is gaining admission to public swimming pools and those all-you-can-eat "Sizzler" restaurants are a gift from heaven. A relaxed pace of life and friendly people mean that there is never a reason to regret a visit to Queensland........I can't wait to get back there...