Catching up

I've been a bit slack on the ol' blog hey.  But that means I've been busy.  So here's a catch up in 100 words or less! ha, since when have you known me to only use a hundred words!!

We've become a Garmin family!  Well I've had my Garmin for a while now, but Mike was fortunate to buy a second hand one and he's loving it.  Says he feels like a 'real athlete' now! ha.   For any non-runners reading this or anyone scratching their head - the Garmin is one of many ways to track your run.  It's like a little computer on your wrist.  Measures your pace and distance by way of GPS, lots of other things too like heart rate.  Then you sync it to the app and you can get all sorts of data from it including elevation that you ran, amount of steps, speed, it's wonderful for stats junkies like myself. 

Mike has been out in the studio painting.  With all the rain and cold weather we've been having, this has been his 'time out'.  It's nice a cosy in the studio too.   He's slowly getting back into it.  He studied painting in his younger years, and it's been annoying him how it's not really like riding a bike, you don't just jump back into it.  But like anything the more you practice [ train ;-) ] the better you paint [ run].  You knew I'd have to put a running analogy in there somewhere.

So the running, gearing up for Sydney.  I've been doing hills!!  Not that this Sydney run is hilly, it's a new course and is apparently flat.  But hills make you stronger.   On this particular night it was so funny.  I have this crescent that is a nice out of the way place to just go up and down ad nauseum.  I was doing 5km of hills this particular night and at one stage as I was puffing my way up, an elderly lady came out of her house and said "are you lost dear?"  

And long runs!  The thought of doing 19km around my little town here would do my head in, so on this particular Friday off I popped into Warrnambool and had a lovely scenic run along the ocean and up to the whale viewing platform.   

So much nicer on your run to see sights like this - just gorgeous.

Or this...

And as of my run yesterday there were only 8 days to go!   7 days now.  Heck by this time next week it will be all over red rover and we shall be cheering my friend Kellie in doing her first marathon.   I have the best travelling companions in Kellie and Alison for this trip.

We've been getting a fair bit of water around these parts in the last few days.  There's been some shocker floods up in Coleraine and Casterton and yes we've had rain, but now the water coming down from north is adding to it and we're flooding down here.  So much so that the Koroit to Warrnambool half marathon that was MEANT to be happening this morning and which I was volunteering at, has had to be cancelled.  The rail trail is under water in parts.  As in under REAL DEEP water!   Sad sad sad for the organisers to make this hard decision but safety first always.  There's no way you could have run it, and too late to change course and get the various permits.  Disappointing for the runners who were training to peak specifically for this weekend.  But as runners they will understand that the decision was not taken lightly.

And so to end this post on a fun note, look at these two munchkins.  How lucky we are to be their nanna and grumpy.  Their Great Uncle from Scotland sent them Celtic jerseys as a gift.  I think they're pleased.