A 20 year comeback!

We recently moved from Melbourne to Bendigo, a regional city of about 85,000 people. One of the side effects of this change is that outside the inner Melbourne suburbs, there is a different fire service, the Country Fire Authority, which is composed mainly of volunteers. In my distant past, I used to be a member of the local fire brigade in the small town that I lived in. That was up until nearly 20 years ago, when I moved to Melbourne.

The volunteer fire brigades not only put out fires and deal with other emergencies, but many brigades also compete against each other in a competition that involves the use of firefighting equipment, particularly older forms, such as manually pulled hose reels. This becomes a challenging test of skill, strength and speed. Back in my former CFA days, I was very active in this form of competition.

Fast forward to about a month ago, I assisted a passing traveller who had car trouble. There were other people helping out, including one guy from a local fire brigade. This sparked a conversation about the fire service and I mentioned that I used to be involved in the competitive side. Not long after, he had to go somewhere else, and the conversation was forgotten. However, last night, there was a tap on the window. It was the guy from the fire brigade. He had come to ask if I was still interested in joining their team this summer. I took some contact details, and will be calling the team coach later today. Good thing I keep myself fit, I may be rusty in the skill department, but I'm physically in top shape. I workout most days, and walk or cycle everywhere.

Fingers crossed for a place on the team this summer. :)

Now, most readers probably have no idea what these competitions look like. Well, I've just uploaded some videos to YouTube. Check these out for some samples.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TI1O9lic0AE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QJNSYKGdBk

Running

I've been a bit slack in posting here, but just a quick update. Over the last few years, I've run in a few events. Notable ones include:

Australian Rogaining Championships, July 2007. This was a 24 hour hiking/navigation event in the Australian Outback, some 80km east of Alice Springs. The scenery was stunning. I haven't got time to recount it all here, but you can see it in my blog at http://t-dubvk.blogspot.com/2007/07/navigating-red-centre.html .

Run For the Kids 2008. This is an annual charity run for the Royal Childrens Hospital. In 2008, I managed a time of 1:23.49 over 14.1km

Melbourne Marathon 2008. My first marathon attempt. I managed a time of 5:19, and had to walk the last 18km, due to injuries from a road incident 3 months earlier.

Run For the Kids 2010. Came back for more. Run For the Kids is a popular charity event, attracting 30,000 runners. The course is quite spectacular, taking in part of Melbourne's toll road system, with a tunnel and bridge crossing, followed by the redeveloped Docklands precinct. This year, the course was 14.38km long, and I finished in 1:24:54 in somewhat warm conditions.

I'll try and post more frequent updates! :)