First Christmas get together for the Silly Season!!

You may be mistaken in thinking I have dropped off the planet.  Not so.  Life (as it sometimes happens) has gotten in the way.  But on a lazy Sunday evening I thought I best post.  Actually I hate Sunday evenings, hate them with a passion.  Because that means it's nearly time for the work week to start.  I feel this way oh around 4pm of a Sunday, each and every week (apart from if I have a Monday off!!!)

So as my northern hemisphere friends can see, we are having some glorious weather right now.  Summer officially starts tomorrow, and I reckon it will be a hot hot summer.  But for right now I'm enjoying this lead up to the really hot weather.

Saturday was the first Christmas get together of the silly season for me.  I met up with some of the lovely friends I have in the Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew.  Leah had organised us to meet up nice and early down at the foreshore for an early morning run and then back to the Pavilion at 8.30am for breakfast, Christmas colours/theme a necessity.

So bright and early I met those that were able to make it, I tinselled up my running hat (note that it's in the correct way this time!!) and while a couple of the girls who met earlier were running the Surf T Surf course and beyond, the remainder of us ran along the foreshore.  It was so enjoyable running with the other ladies, I do have trouble talking and running but it was just an easy morning, good friends and a festive feel in the air.  Debbie had even brought her dog KT who was dressed to impress.

Now I am going to go on record and say I think tinsel is a definite must for all runners.  I got such lovely 'good mornings' and big smiles on my run.  Either they were smiling at the tinsel or they were grinning awkwardly at the crazy lady in front of them.  Eh!  Either/or !!  I was having fun.

I call the group my health & fitness sisters.  They come and go in the crew, but there's that core group that remains constant.  Saturday morning was awkward for some of the ladies, but these are the ones that made it.  And a loose decision was made that next year we need to organise a monthly run - maybe the last Sunday of the month or something that stands out.  As long as two turn up so no one plays Larry Lonely for breakfast, then any more are a bonus, right.

Is this a happy smile or is this a happy smile?  KT I think wins the best dressed of the morning.  She ran with her santa scarf on for 6 kilometres.  Way to go KT.

I looked at my calendar earlier and we have got a lot of functions and get togethers to go to over December.  That usually never happens.  Next week is a bit of a lull and then it hots up.  And I'm pretty pleased that apart from one more present I want to get Mike, and the couple I'm waiting on mail order to come in - I have all my gift buying done and wrapped!  I aimed to get that done before December hit so I could just cruise instead of the crazed lead up to Christmas I had last year.  

I'll be doing Days of December again this year, I'm doing it this year with a difference.  Both in the theme and the size of the album.  Here's the front cover to whet your appetite...

Digital Scrapbook products from Designer Digitals.

City2Sea Race Recap

What a weekend!  Yippee!  Okay backtrack, one day ages ago in a moment of madness, or perhaps chocolate high, Chloe and I decided to enter the City2Sea, not thinking about logistics as to sure, we could enter, but how were we actually going to pull this together.  But this weekend we did.

Accommodation booked at the Travelodge, method of transportation decided, which meant early starts for both of us with a 3 or 4 hour drive for Chloe just to get to the train up north and a 2 hour drive for me to get to my train from Geelong.  We met within moments at the train station, see we timed the trains to get in roughly at the same time, and the adventure had well and truly begun.

After checking into the accommodation we ventured over to the Race Expo.  Not having been to a race expo before we had a browse around, picked up our number, and I entered the contest for a year's supply of Gatorade, oh goodness!  You had to anticipate what your finishing time would be and nearest the pin would win.  I'm about 2 minutes 15 seconds away from my finishing time, so wonder if the others who entered got closer?

We popped over to the sports section at DFO and did a bit of damage there.  It very well could have resulted in a buying frenzy but we were a bit restrained, but I ended up walking away with yet another two running tops - electric blue and jade green.  Thank you Adidas and Asics!   Then headed up to the Running Store in Queens Street and it was at this stage I'm thinking all this walking we were doing wasn't really boding well for our legs, getting a bit tired.

We found a lovely eatery in an arcade and ordered our pasta to do a last carb load !  We asked for fast running pasta, the waitress assured us it was.   We almost (I say ALMOST) talked each other into ordering dessert, wondering if we could fit this into the realms of necessary race preparation, but the 12wbt angel that was sitting on our shoulders that night talked us out of it.

After an early night I was almost too scared to open the drapes this morning to look out ... what was this drizzling wet stuff on the window???  This was not in the race entry form.  It looked cold and dreary and WET out there.  Decided a taxi was the easiest way to get from the Docklands to the MCG and we were up there like a flash and on the look out for any of the other runners from the 12wbt Runners Connect group.

Here we found Cat and Catherine, or actually I should say they found us.  Yes we all looked like we were half drowned and I was about to feature in my first wet t-shirt competition!  This old long sleeved t-shirt was donated to charity at the start line.  And yes I may look a little weird.  I didn't realize I had my running cap on inside out.  So the brim wasn't bent in a naturally arching shape, it looked like I had a board out the top of my head.  How stupid.  I later realised that a few times when I took my hat off and on to wipe the wet hair, that I either put it back on right side in, or back inside out.  Doh!

We soon lined up at the Green Start, wished each other well and wonder of wonders the rain stopped and we were off.  I took a few photos on the run, amazing looking ahead and seeing a sea of runners, it was all so very colourful, how far in the distance had the group spread out.  We ran through the start to be rained on by green confetti.  Chloe teared up ... in a good way, not a bad way, it was all very emotional that we were here in Melbourne and doing this amongst all these people.

Action shot on the run, forgive the blur, but I was on a mission trying to get us in the viewfinder whilst bobbing up and down and laughing hysterically.

Over the bridge to see the runners ahead of us rounding back, you could see how careful we had to be not to slip on the wet road.  Yes, that was a bridge we were soon to run under, eeek!  Not a long bridge thank goodness.

Running through the streets of Melbourne was pretty special, down Flinders Street, along St. Kilda Road.  We made sure we clapped as we went past any of the bands, and thanked volunteers.  They were pretty great yelling out encouragement.  Through into Albert Park, check out those ominous clouds, you couldn't even see the tops of the buildings.

We got to the counting down stage, once we hit half way.  One thing I am very VERY proud of us for during this run was that we ran the whole flipping way.  15 kilometres!  Walking only through the drink stops, because lets face it who can run and drink without snarfing the water up their nose, right?  Amazing what a bit of peer pressure, or friendly running camaraderie can do to make the legs continue on.  And soon enough we knew we were nearly at the end, we could see flags, we rounded the corner and there was the finish line.  No stopping now and over we went.  Terrific.   Through to be given a banana and a chobani yoghurt and the medal, ahhhh the bling.

And yes, I still had my hat on inside out.  Oh woops, lets do that again, that's better!  So that means my finish line shots are going to have a stupid stupid inside out hat on. Oh Lordy Lord.

There you go, get that hat off and that's a bit better.  I don't think I'll ever wear that hat again, I think it's cursed.

15 kilometres is a flipping long way !!!
1 hour 55 minutes and 31 seconds.

Definitely not 3rd last or 6th last this time.
I came 6060th out of 6672 finishers in the 15km
And 194th out of 270 female finishers in my age group, shhhh 50-59.

So by this stage we were damp through, a combo of sweat and the cold and wanted to head back to the city quick smart so after about 4 sardine packed trams we finally squeezed onto one.  Way to get cosy with fellow runners, that's for sure.  Back to Southbank so we could grab a bite to eat, our tummies were definitely at the grumbling stage, despite having some 12wbt banana bread at 6.30 when we got up.  Collect the bags at the hotel, change into warm clothes and then back to the train station to say goodbye and make our treks home, feeling so darn proud of ourselves.

I still had my medal on :-)  made sure I showed the taxi driver at the Geelong train station who took me back to mum's to collect my car, then showed the man at the Inverleigh general store when I ordered a coffee to go.  Yep, pretty darn proud of this medal, it was definitely earnt today.

Thank you Chloe my friend for making this a possibility and making this a weekend to remember.

Lara Fun Run - a late race recap

Whoops, I had uploaded the pics from my iPhone and they were still sitting here as a draft, I could have sworn I had posted them.  Better late than never right?

A late race recap from the Lara Fun Run which I ran on 2 November.   

I had never done this race before so didn't know what to expect.  I only knew that Sarah and Leitchy (my partners in crime at the Geelong Half) had done it before, but were not doing it this year.  So what the heck, not knowing anyone I entered.  It's an easy enough one to get to if I stay at mum's in Geelong the night before.

It was being held at the beautiful Pirra Mansion.  This gorgeous mansion was the start/finish, the finish line is just out of sight there.   The fun run was really well organised.  Race bibs could be picked up at certain spots before the event, so I got down to Geelong Saturday morning to pick mine up and then did some Christmas shopping, win-win.  I know I could have picked up my bib on the day, but I like to be prepared.

I liked that you didn't have to park a gazillion miles away from the event also.  A cleared paddock across the road from the mansion was opened up for parking, marshalls made it very orderly, and within a minute from getting out of the car I was at the start of the race.  

I had since found out after entering that two of the ladies from our fabbo 12wbt Runners Connect group were going to be there, we had never met before and planned to meet at a designated spot.  Not knowing what they looked like (as their FB avatars didn't really show) when anyone slowed down as they walked past me I would say "hi are you Renee?" (nope) "hey there, are you Carmel" (nope again).  I was meeting way too many people this way so I kept quiet then until the ladies found me. 

This is what I love about the running community, it was like we'd known each other for ages.  So glad to meet like minded people this way.  And we needed the obligatory meet up photo to show the rest of the Runners Connect group (an unwritten rule no less!!)

I had decided this run I would wear my 12wbt Warrnambool & Surrounds cap so I gave a nod to my fellow crew back home, we are represented far and wide!

The event was very family oriented.  There was a kid's dash to commence the day, where they encouraged parents to run with the children too.  Also very good to hear that the entire entry fee for the kids would be donated to the child's school.  Great going race organisers.  No bling for the adults, but each of the children also won a finisher's medal and a certificate.  Way to keep the little ones encouraged.

The route for the 5km and the 10km was through the beautiful Serendip sanctuary (the 10km being two loops).  The field spread out, yes waaaaaay spread out, again I was back of the pack but it's all good.  The sky was blue, it was lovely.

But it didn't stay that way.  I got to the 9km mark and the blue sky had vanished and it started raining!!!  The perils of being slow.  All the fast runners were back under shelter and dry and I was still plodding on and getting damp.  It wasn't too bad.  I crossed the line (official time) of  1:13:56 and with a smile on my face.  Plus I was 6th last this time, moving up in the world !!  ;-)   There were plenty of  'did not starts' so I beat all them too right?

Not that we probably needed it as the cars were so close but there was a bag drop (which I did utilise as I wore a jacket until not long before the start, brrrrrr).   There were also a few tent displays and some other race sign ups available for Run Geelong and the River Run I think it was.  The scouts put on a BBQ and I knew from the race emails that there would be a yoghurt van (called Yogalicious or something similar) on site and I had promised myself that as a treat.  Deeeeee-licious!  Probably way more fattening than a sausage, but I tricked myself into thinking it was healthy, it was sooooo creamy and I had passionfruit drizzled all over it.

Oh and another thing I hadn't encountered before, race participants got a 'virtual goodie bag'.  There was a link we were given that was active for a set period, you could go in and download various vouchers and information to utilise after the event.  What a great idea, you didn't end up with a stack of paraphernalia that ended up in the bin.  You really did only download what interested you.  Very innovative.  It was innovative wasn't it?  At least I had never seen this done before.

So all in all, a great event, I thoroughly enjoyed it and I will definitely be back.