Coastal cruising...

We awoke from within the comfort of Ruby for the final time and wandered into the Austi house after 7am. After reading our article in the Illawarra Mercury while having a nice bacon and egg brekkie (still had to have the Weetbix beforehand) we drove to our starting point at Thirroul and hit the road as usual. Paul, Elese, Noah and Jess, our hosts from last night joined us for the first kilometre or so until we hit Austinmere Beach, when it became the original trio once more. It was a beautiful change of scenery as we hit our strides alongside the Pacific Ocean-the first time all trip we’d been able to see the sea for the majority of the day.

We arrived at Sea Cliff Bridge and took some artsy photos, just as Uncle Adrian turned up to give us a generous donation. The entire day’s route was on the same path as our Ulladulla run, two years ago. Maybe it was because of this that we felt like we “were home”, even though we had over 40kms to go and wouldn’t actually finish until tomorrow.

The Edge rejoined us at Stanwell Park and the boys had to manoeuvre up Stanwell Tops hill. We thought this was one of our toughest challenges on the Ulladulla run, however after just conquering Macquarie Pass two days earlier, Stani Hill was a breeze. We jogged about three quarters of the way up it before walking the rest. If any cars were to beep us angrily (which they didn’t) I’m sure Ben would have just given them the finger anyway...he seemed to be good at that over the paast three weeks-walking casually down the middle of the road and getting offended when a car would justifiably warn him of imposing danger.

Once we were at Bald Hill we had a breather. Another South Coast newspaper had a chat and photo shoot with us, and then we had our own photo shoot, re-enacting photos from the Ulladulla run. We were chatting with Sam’s mates Dean and Ros, when a lady asked what we were doing and donated some cash. She then asked if we had a tin and went round to everyone on Bald Hill asking for donations on behalf of us. She was nearly as ruthless as The Edge, asking just about everyone except for the Hang gliders just about to take off from the cliff. Awesome lady.

When we saw the signs to Heathcote telling us we were 18kms away we started to really feel like we were nearing the end of our journey. However the money game was in the full swing of things and when Mark found a shiny $2 coin and hit the lead he thought he was home. Little did he know that I had a little secret...I’d told the boys about my “secret spot” where I eerily always find decent money when going for training runs. I’d told them that I’d let them in on the secret when we get there, however the competition was still fierce. Each time I’d jog ahead they’d catch up to make sure I wasn’t going for the goldmine. I’d cross the road to throw them off, but they’d follow me across the road-I was toying with them. Eventually when they’d lost the scent I pounced. I got to the particular spot (which will remain a secret to everyone else) and hit the jackpot. A whopping $8.30 worth of shrapnel goodness! They couldn’t believe it. We have found money every single day on the road, and hope to continue the streak tomorrow, otherwise we’ll be doing a nudie run into Cronulla.

We saw the “Welcome to Sydney” sign getting closer and closer as we neared Waterfall and passed underneath it with mixed feelings...pride, joy, excitement and the overwhelming stench of each other’s body odour. It was another one of those “wow” moments, along with our first 100kms under our belt, crossing the NSW/VIC border, reaching the halfway point and Ben’s first shower of the trip.

Another sign we needed a photo with was the Heathcote sign. Nearly three weeks earlier we’d taken a photo with the “Heathcote, VIC” sign, and never did we think we’d reach the same sign in NSW in the tremendous shape we were currently in. As we neared my house we took a slight detour to visit the GU warehouse at the Heathcote factories. GU’s main man Lloydie had hooked us up with lots of GU supplies and we wanted to thank him for helping us out, which they clearly did.

We then trotted on to Heathcote shops where we called it a day and headed back to my house where we saw a sad event taking place...Ruby was being unpacked and pulled apart, ready to be taken back to her home at Mascot. As we were unpacking, the next door neighbour Tim came over with a card and $250 for the boys...we opened it and weren’t sure whether to be extremely thankful or laugh when the card explained that the money was to be used to “pay for Ruby’s dint so it doesn’t come off Ben’s credit card”...but we did both. It was an exceptionally kind gesture and one we accepted graciously.

We spent the afternoon organising bits and pieces for tomorrow and then headed up to Heathote’s premier restaurant the Rusty Wall for a beaut dinner. We were reunited with Carlee for dinner and all of us talked absolute rubbish about the past three weeks. Having a nice dinner (rather than one from Ruby’s microwave) and a few beers to celebrate was tops, however it was a little strange...the run isn’t over and we still have to finish the job tomorrow-although it’s only a short 17km trot to Cronulla to finish, in a way it feels like we’ve made it. It was nice to finish today the same as how we started on day 1-with just the thereof us, as I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be crazy, hectic and chaotic all at the same time. Although I don’t want to put an end to this exhilarating ride we’ve called Run For a Reason, it will be nice to complete the goal and celebrate at the end. It will be hard to stuff it up from here, and I know for a fact all three of us would crawl over the finish line if we had to. But after watching the amazing efforts of Joelo and Benny today, I know all three of us will be galloping over the line together tomorrow with our heads held high, whatever happens.

Cheers

Nick

After deciding that only the three manliest beards would continue, Ben dropped out and Nick's 9 year old cousin Noah was substitued in by default

Sea Cliff Bridge. Recently voted best bridge between Coalcliff and Clifton ever

Bald Hill photo revisited...understandably the first jumping shot of the trip

Joel, Ben, Nick and Rubes entering the southern suburbs of Sydney

Heathcote. Aboriginal for "place of men with hearts of gold and manly beards"