Saturday afternoon mudbath.

The forecast was 13 celsius.

It got to like, 8. And the wind was blowing off Antarctica (I used to joke about that, but the weather guy said it really WAS blowing off Antarctica!).

Not a good day for the Victorian 16 kilometre cross country championship. (Why 16? It used to be the Ten Mile in pre-metric days.)

We arrived at Coburg at around 1pm. It was FREEZING! The rain was coming down in sheets. We put raincoats over our several layers and tried a half-hearted warm-up, leaving Goldie the Brittany toasty and warm on her rug in the back of the car.

There were several under-age races on first and due to the severe weather, the open events were delayed. Finally the starters got the women's 4k race away after leaving them on the starting line for nearly ten minutes. The poor girls were just about suffering hypothermia. Off they went, splishing and sploshing through the mud. T. had a great race and ran her best time despite the conditions. She was soaking wet and muddy but postively glowing with relief after she finished.

The men's race got away at 2.45 - four laps of the sodden course. By this time, there was the real possibility that the course would be flooded if the Merri Creek were to break its banks. By the second lap, the rain had eased slightly. The track was a complete bog by this stage - having been pounded by several hundred runners all the rain run-off was pooling in it.

I'd had the foresight to wear spikes so I managed to stay upright. Others, wearing normal running shoes, were slipping everywhere, especially on the downhill turns where the camber of the track turned out instead of in, completely the opposite necessary for balance. There were several injuries. Someone broke an ankle - one of our runners saw the guy go down and heard the ominous crack. The poor guy was carried off on a stretcher.

Amidst all of this, it was darkly amusing to hear the official course announcer talking up the event and getting excited about the inclement weather - he was saying stuff like: "Ladies and gentlemen, today we have the worst conditions in living memory for an official Victorian cross country race! None of us can remember such low temperatures! And such steady rain! It is only 8 degrees and they are half way through the open 16 kilometres as we speak - they have another two whole laps to go!"

And I'm out there slogging through the mud, thinking Great ... just another two laps! Thanks for the reminder!

Soon it was all over and we went to Nellie's for afternoon tea. She had an open fire! and hot food! We ate and talked about the race, staring out the picture window onto Nellie's garden, the rain pouring down once again.