Dorothy, Tinman, Lion and Scarecrow - treading the yellow bricks in Jindi

Jindi weekend a winner on all fronts – three cracking good rides, some good laughs and a restored state of enthusiasm grinding to the IM start line. Even a dose of food poisoning from Ravi’s Curry in a Hurry at Goulbourn on the way home didn’t dull the luster of what was a super weekend.

Leaving Kansas Dorothy didn’t even know Tinman, Lion and Scarcrow, the only thing they shared was a desperate desire to get to Oz. And while Oz held a different promise for each, their journey was common, and in many regards they found more along the Yellow Brick Road than they did in the eternal city.

I don’t remember much about either of my marathons, but I do remember the freezing Tuesday night winter intervals with Gra and Billy, and heading down the Oaks Trail in the dark sans-lights with Gaz on a freezing Saturday morning. I can’t remember much about the North Sydney Gift, but I remember like yesterday vomiting in the ampitheatre at Parra Park during every one of those Saturday hill sessions with AB. I have no idea where my silver medal is from the Masters Hep, but I remember like yesterday JD hoosing the strangest of moments for telling me he was gay - while we were squashed hard into an impossibly small cubical with a team of Parra cheerleaders at Parramatta Park waiting to run onto the ground for the race at half time.

The artifacts you collect along the way are immeasurably more valuable than any prize at the end, because in the end, thousands of people get to collect the same prize. But only those looking out from within the same cloister get to collect and share the same relics as you along the way. They are unique to our journey, and long after the finisher’s medal is lost in a box somewhere in the garage, the memory of sitting on top of Beloka Hill – rooted – will still be clearly preserved, and filed away better than any excavated prehistoric arrow head.

The finishing shute is just Oz, relocated to a convenient beach-side resort town - a shiny light that provides an essential point of focus. The yellow brick road is the real story, and we will keep treading it for another 26 days.