Gods of Centennial Park

Those of you that run Centennial Park will no doubt be familiar with Movie Studios taking over sections of the park for months to create, build and shoot on sets that usually see 10-20secs of air time in these so called 'blockbusters'.

Right now, you may catch a glimpse of Margot Robbie and Rose Byrne over near the off leash dog section near the Rotunda not far from the main cafe. I unfortunately haven't as yet but I'm told they have been filming Peter Rabbit there. After seeing Margot Robbie in the Wolf of Wall Street, I'm not quite sure where the rabbit will fit in but interestingly, her on screen husband in that movie - The Wolf himself filmed The Great Gatsby in the same location plus just outside the Robertson St Gates. This was the scene where they drove out of his estate gates and it lasted all of 10secs in that movie.

A week or so ago I spotted The Gods of Egypt on Foxtel so I taped it and have since watched it. Now these guys took over a grassed area not far from the Hotdog trailer kiosk down the middle road of the park and they were there for 4-5mths. A massive timber set build saw a small Egyptian market place township spring up where they would film. Gerard Butler the main character so it sounded like it had hype, budget and who knows perhaps some hope!

Unfortunately not, I am sad to say. Wow what a disaster from go to wo. Not sure where to start. Brian Brown as the Greek God father, Geoffrey Rush as Grandada - Ra, the guy from Game of Thrones who is bonking his sister (Jaime Lanister) and a host of others looking for a ticket to Hollywood glory. Ouch!

So it got me wondering, they would have made more money filming 'The Gods of Centennial Park'. The heroics I have seen take place over the years inside that fence is nothing short of epic Greek status. We have Olympians, City to Surf winners, CEO's and captains of industry. We have nurses and doctors, surgeons & lawyers. We have retirees who refuse to slow down. There are former champions who still run the white fence with today's demographic oblivious as to who they are nor what they achieved in their day.

I would have enjoyed watching that more than Aussies trying to speak with an American accent and failing. I wonder what these new age Centennial Park running Gods would be called?

- The God/dess of the coaching squad switch.
- The God/dess of the 364 day training schedule (the 365th being a Park Run)
- The God/dess of the 2hr stand around warm up and 3hr cool down
- The God/dess of the training PB. Their best work is done around that white fence

And so on.

My week was far from God like. In fact I struggled most of it with a virus and still carrying a niggle/injury in my TFL (around the hip). I still have some good fitness but it's hurting more than it should.

Mon: 12km at 4:30 pace
Tue: AM: 5km  PM: 12km with 4 x Busby lakes (1450m) in 4:45's.
Wed: 7km (feeling off to run again)
Thur: 14km Hurts with Pyramid - 400/800/1200/1600/1200/800/400m - not bad but my pubic bone and TFL / adductors were hurting at the end which JFen chatted to me about (Osteitis Pubis)
Fri: Rest day
Sat: Decided to try a marathon pace run on the footpath in the park. 21.1km half marathon in 3:45's for 79:20 which IF I was feeling comfortable at the end, would have been a confidence boost but I was struggling a bit so glad to finish. 24km in total.
Sun: Slightly hungover after a concert in the Vines at the Hunter Valley. Not really amongst the vines, Crammed into a grassed ampitheatre around a bunch of drunken yobbos. Oh yeah ok I was soon one of those. Not as bad as my mate Errol who somehow forgot to eat - rookie.

Total for the week: 74km


Dragon, James Reyne, Psuedo Echo, Icehouse (and every stripclub's mate - Knollsy)

 5yrs old already.


Greta ventured over to Lake Wanaka in NZ over the weekend to take out their Run Swim event with her swimming mate Kate. This event sees teams running in the gear they swim in and swimming in the gear they run in. Continuous alternation of swimming (4km) and running (15km) taking 2hr 49mins.


Finally - annoying people of the week:

* The person who clearly sees me push the pedestrian light walk button but somehow feels they will have a better shot at it and proceeds to start pushing it again - and again - and again!

* Further to this, why is it that when we all get the green man go ahead to cross a busy city street, do we feel the need to charge off at awkward haphazard angles that immediately put us on a collision course with pretty much everyone coming toward us? Surely there should be white dotted lines where we stay left and get it done alot smoother.

* The dog owner who's dog has never chased or bitten them ever so s/he's not sure why suddenly they have latched onto a complete stranger's leg.

* People who reverse park as though they're driving a 747

* Grown men on skateboards.