Inward Bound

Some kangaroos hanging out around the base of Black Mountain in the evening. A somewhat modern carillon gifted by the queen of England playing at three o'clock on a Saturday afternoon. A conglomeration of high school students in crew uniforms, waiting for their division while their parents cheer from shaded tents. The dam that forms one end of Lake Burley Griffin below hills planted evenly with pines for logging. My rationale for aiming to partake in Inward Bound was that it would be an amazing opportunity to really take in the Australian bush, but the training runs in just the past week have been the best way to experience scenes from Canberra farther afoot than the Uni or downtown (when I remember to look up from the heels in front of me).

Backing up, Inward Bound is an event unique to the ANU. As mentioned earlier, competitions are between residential colleges; the signs recruiting for IB around Burton and Garran say things like "Help bring the trophy home!" and "Winners are grinners!" or provide the "Top Ten Reasons To Do IB," both serious and humorous components. Competitors are, in teams of four, blindfolded and dropped off somewhere in the bush. To explain exactly what this means, at the first meeting, Liam, the head trainer (who has done 7 IB's), held up a map of the ACT and pointed out that there was Canberra... and surrounding it nothing but an expanse of green or yellow-indicated "national parks." There is one end point-- a set of map coordinates that all teams are racing towards. Teams in the shortest division will have been dropped 25-35 km from the end point, with distances increasing from there. One of the big tricks is for the navigator to figure out where the team's been dropped (it will be dark, sometime between 1 and 5 am) and the right direction to run. Needless to say, I didn't sign up for nav training.

I have no idea if I'll feel up to running 30 km in less than a month (during the hot 15k Saturday run I was quite skeptical), or even if I do, if I will make it into one of the four person squads. Regardless, I'll continue to enjoy sunsets in Canberra, slightly breathless, trying to keep my feet at tempo with a pack of other runners.