Thanks to Singapore Air’s free Silver Kris wireless internet I can write this blog post.

This morning, after 2 hours sleep I caught a taxi to Perth International Airport. I’ve checked in, passed through customs, bought my Bundy (the KL conference requested a bottle of local spirits for their international night) and a 2GB SD card at duty free, paid $12.45 for a lukewarm single size pizza and bottle of “vitamin water” and am about to board my Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

After almost 2 years I will finally be abroad again!

Dad, Mum, Ola and Bjoern at Rembrandt Polish Restaurant, Inglewood. My meal (foreground) was served in hollowed out bread.

The scampi, prawns, baby squid, scallops, fish, mussels, salad and chips of the grilled seafood platter from 2 from Ruocco’s, South Fremantle was plenty for the 3 of us.

Luscious tiramisu, coffee and limoncello followed the seafood.

I had to get this photo taken on the train from Fremantle to West Leederville.

The smiles tell it all – the end of a fabulous evening at Bjoern and Ola’s.

Upon returning from Port Hedland I found the following Redback spider relaxing in its web and guarding its new home, my Fila running shoes. Needless to write, this poisonous spider did not live much longer.

On the weekend I returned to Perth exhausted after 12 days of intense work costing a road construction project in Port Hedland. This was my first visit to Port Hedland, the main town in Western Australia’s Pilbara and Australia’s highest tonnage port.

BHP Billiton, the world’s largest mining company and newcomer Fortescue Metals Group transport iron ore on massive 2 km+ long trains to Port Hedland to be shipped to Asia and the world.

I was originally going to stay for 3 days but the trip duration was extended twice.

I stayed in a donga (transportable building) in Camp Kooyong close to the airport, waking up at at 5:15 am in order to start work at 6:30. Camp Kooyong was full of FIFO contractors, working long hours away from home.

It was easy to see why so many contractors had beer bellies. Good food is served up buffet-style every day and there is no limit to how much can be eaten.

An iron ore train travelling under the full moon at dawn

I worked in Wedgefield, close to South Hedland, a satellite suburb of Port Hedland. They use big wheelbarrows here…

My office was the “crib room” (lunch room), another donga, and I shared my table with a microwave – visible at the far end 

BHP Billiton’s iron ore train engines dwarfs a car

A massive iron ore ship in Port Hedland Harbour getting loaded for export

Everything in Port Hedland is big – many road trains have 4 trailers

Port Hedland Airport

Port Hedland “International” Airport, has 1 flight per week to and from Bali, Indonesia but multiple flights daily to Perth.  One can tell it is a contracting town as the airport security scanning area has seats reserved for taking off steel-cap boots!

Half marathon finishers received a medallion

This morning, in cool, overcast weather, I ran 21.1 km around the beautiful Swan River, finishing the 2009 Perth Half Marathon in 1:57:47. I was aiming to go under 1:50 but I’m very happy to get under 2 hours, particularly considering a) the congestion at the start, b) 2 toilet breaks and c) inclement weather. Courtney Carter, the men’s winner ran 1:07(!), to become the 2009 WA State Champion, beating over 900 fellow participants in the process.

I ran a 1:01:11/56:36 negative split* which I’m proud of. My mirrored splits (cumulative time bracketed):

1st half

0-2 km: 11:56 (11:56)

2-4 km: 12:25 (24:21)

4-7 km: 17:17 (41:38)

7-10.55 km: 19:33 (1:01:11)

2nd half

10.55-14 km: 19:21 (1:20:32)

14-17 km: 16:46 (1:37:18)

17-19 km: 10:12 (1:47:30)

19-21.1 km: 10:17 (1:57:47)

Daryl of Frank And Daz Take On The World fame also ran today. Running part of the way with him was inspiring. What a legend!

My next challenge is to double the distance and run a full 42.195 km marathon! I will achieve this in the first half of 2010.

*A negative split occurs when the 2nd half is run faster than the first. Many runners are tempted to run fast at the start only to suffer later on, often affecting their overall time.