Christmas Round Up

Heck I've been slack in blogging, but rest assured I've not been slack in life.  I've been busy running and busy finishing my 2015 Project Life pages.  Whew, what a slog, I got behind in that scrapbooking project but I've just made a marathon effort and finished every page.  Only the cover and title page to do then I can send it on to the printers for another year of memories on our shelf to look over time and again.

The lead up to Christmas for us was hectic, we had quite a few parties and BBQ's to go to, even the week leading up to the weigh in before Christmas I kept my weight in check even with all the aforesaid functions, so that was a win in itself.  We enjoyed ourselves immensely, and in our quest to get our photos with santa, we didn't disappoint, although only managed two santa's this year, as opposed to our three santa's last year.

These photos were from the Lodge BBQ, poor Santa didn't know what hit him when Mike lined up behind the last child for a sit on Santa's knee.  Not to be outdone, he wasn't going to get one up on me, I lined up too.

Okay jury is out, some say it was a bad camera angle, but is Santa looking down my top????  ((insert blushed face here)) !!

We had the early family Christmas on Mike's side of the family.  Mike's dad does this each year a few weeks before Christmas and it's just lovely.  We can all get together, partners included, although sadly my two stepsons had to work this day.  But it's a lovely relaxed day and it actually feels like Christmas, we do the lunch with the trimmings, the presents under the tree and it's a nice way that we can all be together and not feel pulled in different directions now that there partners families and in-laws and all in the mix.  Bravo to Mike's dad for pulling this off every year, and like every year I set up the tripod for a few photos.

That was a huge day, we had visited my mum earlier on in the day, she still doesn't do the whole Christmas thing since my dad died on Christmas Day in 2007.  She prefers to be left alone on that day, and whilst I fought that for so long, I've come to realise I can't change that, I can only change my reaction to it.    I also went down again the Sunday before Christmas and my brother and I took mum out for lunch, which was really nice, we went down the waterfront and had a delicious lunch closer to Christmas than the first gathering.

So the both of us partook in our town's Christmas parade.  Mike was with the Lodge and of course he played his Bah Humbug up to the hilt.  I was with CWA and was an Elf with my little Elfie sidekick.  Oh bless Lucky, he marched along that road as if he owned it, didn't even try to get his hat off once.  All the little kiddies wanted to pat him, he was in his element.  Although it was so hot and thankfully the parade was in the service lane under the shade of the trees and only went about half a km, so once that was finished off came his elf suit, I took him home and then went back for the Carols by Candlelight which was a great night and resulted in yet another Santa spotting!

  

So for our Christmas Day here at home, it started with a 5km Christmas morning run, what better way to start the day.  Although it was waaaaaay too hot for a santa hat, so I tinselled up instead.

The menagerie got their presents, although Molly wasn't really interested.  I'm afraid we don't have long left with our girl, she was more interested in the big plate of icecream she got later.  Look of devotion right there looking at Mike, bless her heart.

First time we've had one of the kids for Christmas lunch and it was just lovely, Mike was in his element with Saxon here.  Table was set, meal was delicious - turkey, ham, a fantastic cherry stuffing loaf I found in a magazine, vegetables, and then a delicious raspberry white chocolate blondie with icecream and raspberries on the side for dessert.  I always go all oddball with my Christmas dessert, usually find a dessert in a magazine and say right that's it, no plum pudding for us, urrgh.

Mike got a blow up crown entitled "King for the Day" from the menagerie.  Mind you it was only for a day, don't think they allow him to be king longer than that!

Courtesy of my new selfie stick, I think I need to get the hang of it!

How different is it to have Christmas with a little one around.  Just wonderful.   Just in case Grumpy forgets his name, we got him a fun pretend number plate, he's going to put it up in the studio.

It got hot, so off came the clothes.  And this is the look you get when you find out that everyone is having a delicious Christmas lunch and all you get is a jam sandwich!!!  He is allergic to dairy, egg and nuts, so his mum will bring his own food.

Nanna got cuddles too, although he was more interested in Thomas the Tank on TV.

So proud of this little family, with soon to be another baby in February - shhhh I know what the sex is, but I'm not telling!

As usual we set up the camera to take a photograph on Christmas day but honestly forgot and didn't have time early on in the piece.  After everyone had gone, we had changed into our shorts as it was so hot (we won't go there about the socks and sandals Mike was wearing!!!!) and I said hang it, this is us and this is real, lets just take the pic in front of the veggie garden, so here it is, here we are on Christmas day.

Boxing Day saw us have Britt, T and family come for afternoon tea, so lots of the ugly goggle eyed gingerbread men I had made got eaten thankfully, and presents exchanged once more.  And then it was over, Christmas was done and dusted for another year.

Hills!!!!

Met up with my friends Kate and Floss to do a bit of hill training this morning.  And what a morning.  We took on Mt Noorat and showed it who's boss.

Just arrived and set for adventure.  Looking a bit fresh, the most we'd exerted ourselves was getting out of the car and in wonder at all the butterflies fluttering around.

And then we were off and running.  Well Kate was running, Floss and I were still mucking about!

I was about to very elegantly climb over the sty.  Just hoping the electric fence wire was safely tucked away in that rubber tubing!

Don't mind my 'Something about Mary' hair. Ha!  I didn't have a hat and it was a tad windy!!

It really is an amazing sight and pretty special you get to run round the crater. 

What a morning!  Loved it!

Fallen off the face of the earth, but I've still been running!!

Well yes you may think I've fallen off the face of the earth, but surprise surprise I haven't stopped running.  Just too impatient to sit and blog unfortunately.

Best news though, biggest news ever, I have made it to 1000km for the year.  I've never done that before, the closest I've gotten was 903 or something like that last year.  I was over the moon rapt.  Mike came with me, well actually he DROVE to the park and I did a lap of town first, as I had to do 8km that night to make the 1000.   So he was running laps of the lake and I met him down there.  What a taskmaster, he wouldn't let up on me until he knew I would have 1000km in the bag.  He drove home and I ran home! ha.

Now this happened a few weeks ago, so as of now I'm up to 1053km.  Blitzing it this year!

Now back to Mike, he has gotten the bug.  It was only a matter of time since getting fitted for his Brooks at the Running Company.  Even though he professes that he is not interested in races or events, he floored me one evening when he knew I was going to head up to Hamilton to go to parkrun the next day, we were sitting having dinner on the Friday night and he says "so what time are we leaving tomorrow".  WE????   Yep, he wanted to come too.  My friend Narelle was going to be Race Director that day so he said, he can be another one at the run too.

Although never one to act shy or retiring is Mike.  When I went through the parkrun pics at home later on, oh dear!

Followed by his finish line antics, arms up in the air, he'd made it !!!  5km.

Followed by a dramatic grab for his race chip ...

I did say dramatic, didn't I?  He had the volunteers in stitches.  "I neeeeeeeed me chip" he was saying.  Never a dull moment.

Love that you get nice parkrun action shots.  It's a great course at Hamilton, a little double back and then a lap around the lake.  I really enjoy it, although I don't head up every weekend as it's an hour's drive.   I'm aiming for once a month.

So on the odd occasion we've taken to running together.  It's been fun.  I just do my plod and Mike does his jack rabbit sprint, followed by an out of breath "ooooh my ankles" rest while I pass him, and then another jack rabbit sprint again to catch up.   I must admit we are having a ball.  We don't always run together, but the times we do I'm really enjoying it.   Love my new 'half marathon girl' especially the back!

Lastly for this epic catch up post, I took part in the Indigenous Marathon Foundation virtual run for November.   This was the second year an amazing lass Sarah has put this fundraiser for the foundation together, with 942 participants this year, I also took part last year.  So this year I pledged to run 100km for November and I made it with change ... 107.41km.

Just a little about it from the website:

Each year, the IMF selects a group of young Indigenous men and women and trains them to run the New York Marathon. Their journeys can change not only their lives, but the lives of the people around them and their communities. The IMF was founded by marathon legend Rob de Castella in 2010. You can visit the IMF here and see all the amazing work they do. 

Roll on to last weekend and the man ran his first 10km (oh well 7km, with a chat to the neighbour, with a final 3km big blockie to finish it up), ahhhh see the allure of the double figures has gotten to him.  Then he changed, mowed the front lawn, and then fell into a stupor on the couch!   Ahh well, he earnt that grandpa nap!

Now lastly for the epic post, I saw this on facebook or instagram can't remember, but it made me laugh.  Next time hubby says you are hard to shop for ...

Keep on running, we still have 27 days to run!

City2Sea Race Recap for 2015

This post should come with a warning ... there are many gratuitous selfie shots.  Be warned!  ;-)

So the weekend saw me heading up to Melbourne to once again take part in the City2Sea.   Last year it was my first really big Melbourne event and I went with Chloe, you can read about the hijinks HERE.    But alas this year poor Chloe and family started dropping like flies in the week leading to it and my partner in hijinks succumbed to the bug and didn't make it.

So me being the seasoned Melbourne runner ... yeah right!! ha. flew the flag for both of us and I headed off.  Friday night was a sleep over in Geelong at mum's, and then Saturday morning I took the train to Melbourne.  Found the accommodation I had booked and checked in and then headed up to the Melbourne Museum to collect my bib.

What the heck was with that, making us trek all the way up there, and honest me made sure I swiped my Myki, even though I was only one stop outside the free zone.

So with that done I dropped that back to my hotel room, which incidentally was very conveniently located in amongst the shopping precinct, hmmmm don't know how I planned that!   Checked the envelope and cheapskates, only the race bib, no pins!  Thankfully I had put an emergency set of pins in my bag just in case.

Then I hit the shops baby!  I had some things on my Christmas shopping list to buy so while I had the shops at my feet I made good use.   Love the decorations in the arcades.  Christmas is coming like a steam train for sure.

First visit to Morris & Sons.  I have bought online before from their Sydney store, but now there's one in Melbourne, not sure how long it's been there, but ended up buying some wool and a crochet hook to keep me entertained on Saturday night tucked up in my room.

And what's a visit to Melbourne at Christmas time without checking out Myer windows.  Oh how I loved it.  The story of a little doggy at Christmas.  The people my age oohed and ahhed at the recreations of Melbourne in the 50's (I think it was), it would have gone over the little ones heads, but it was completely delightful.

During the day I had had some chats with Mike about the dreadful happenings in Paris.  Mike was a bit freaked out at me being in Melbourne on my own.  He knew I would look after myself, but it's the fact I was far away from him.  I assured him I wouldn't go out wandering at night on my own, even though I would have been fine!  I did want to see the town hall lit up, after having my dinner at a little sidewalk cafe in the arcade, oh delicious I headed back to my room, and to be honest I was too comfy to go out again when it got dark.  I just wanted to sleep.

Took the obligatory photo of the gear for our runners group and then lights out!

Sunday I woke up to perfect conditions, it was coolish, overcast, but not so cold that I needed a jacket.  I checked out but left my case at the hotel and then super early headed to the MCG.  As I walked up Swanston Street there were 14 police cars all parked in a row, yep they would be out in force at the big events in the city today.

There was a slight toilet issue as soon as I got to the MCG.  The portaloos were backed up, and it was only 7.15am !!!  Oh dear I couldn't bring myself to brave them, ewwwww.  And they had only one outside access toilet to the G open, obviously no access inside the G at this race.  And the line just kept getting longer and longer being that there were only three ladies loos available!

At 8am I met up with some of the girls from the 12wbt Runners Connect Group (Katherine, Nadine and Beth here) and then Trina came a bit later but I don't have that photo.

Beth and I had decided to run the race together, twinnies we would be.   Love this pic, instead of saying cheese Beth decided to say moooo (paying homage to our Runners Connect cow mascot!).  Poor man behind us just stood and scratched his head.

 

Katherine also said she would run with us, yay we would be a trio.  Only one thing, Katherine and I were registered for the blue zone and Beth in the yellow.  Now we reckon we could have run in the yellow - as in you could run in the zone after, but not in the zone before, yellow was starting five minutes later than blue.  But Beth didn't want us to try in case we were disqualified.   So because this race was for pure fun and enjoyment, not for time, not for a PB, we made plans that we would start in the blue, run the km and whatever and wait on the corner of Fed Square and Flinders Street station for Beth and then we'd all run together.

Bit excited waiting for the start.

And then Katherine and I were off from the blue zone, action shot, bobbing along trying to get our heads in the photo.  Hey the world is on a lean!

We got to the designated corner and stopped and waited, what a funny experience that was, seeing the avalanche of runners coming down Flinders Street.  Hey there's a storm trooper!

Soon enough the bibs turned from blue to yellow and we kept a keen eye out and there was the pink flash waving madly at us and then the three of us were off.   What a fantastic time we had.  I usually run alone, I don't train with anyone because of the fear of holding them back, but we were all about the same pace, super quick Beth was coming back after injury and we ran at a comfortable pace.  There were music and dancers placed strategically along the route at intervals, hence the Run Out Loud tag the event had been given.   I took a photo of a few of the acts.

No idea how this lass stayed on her stilts but she was grooving away to the best of them.

There were rock bands and dancers, kettle drum players, a ukelele band, some bagpipes, and cheerleaders.   One thing I did notice was that the energy levels of the acts didn't falter, no matter how far into the race we were.   We made sure we cheered and applauded the acts as we went past.

A couple of action shots along St. Kilda Road, heck it's hard to run and take a photo and get all three heads in at the same time! ha.

Almost, but still not quite!

Then the Albert Park slog!  Hey there's a sign for me, obviously I was going way too fast!  NOT.  The next flash that came up was "SLOW DOWN ... FOR CROSSING SWANS" haha.  Oh and we saw some little baby swans while we were running, totally adorable.

It is a slog around Albert Park, and we noticeably became quiet at one point, so much so that I commented.   But continue on we did, because once we came out of Albert Park it was just a short run down to Catani Gardens.

I high fived a couple of police that were on the route keeping an eye on proceedings.  We rounded the corner and then saw the finish line up ahead, Beth's husband was having a cheer and taking photos and then the three of us, arms in the air crossed the finish line, yay!   More bling!

Water and an apple and some fun photo opportunities.  Damn straight three hot women running the race!

This one made me laugh "Run like there's a creepy man behind you".  I will remember that one in speed sessions!

And here's the run, all 15 kilometres of it.

I will go on record and say this was probably one of the most enjoyable events I've run, because of the company obviously.  We were out there for the pure enjoyment of it on Sunday.  The weather was good, we chatted and boogied to the music, we laughed and laughed, there's something to be said about not taking the events so serious all the time.  I missed my mate Chloe, but we will be planning some hijinks for 2016, don't you worry.

So that's the last fun run I've entered for the year.  I seriously think I need to rectify that.  I've registered for fun runs every month of 2015, but nothing for December.  I may do a couple of Park Runs, but I shall have to have a think about what else I can do.  Then the fun begins to plan for 2016. 

Hamilton Vitality Run

I'm afraid I'm playing catch up blogging!!

Last Sunday I drove up to Hamilton to take part in the Hamilton Vitality Fun Run.  I had entered the 10km and was thrilled a couple of my Warrnie friends were also heading up.

I saw the half mara take off as I arrived and I pulled the car over, wound down the window and yahooo'ed Kellie who was running on past.  Beware the crazy woman in the aqua coloured car, is all I can say!

I met up with Melissa and Alison and after picking up my bib and chatting to a lady I have met on some of the Park Runs up there, I hightailed it back to Kellie's car to keep warm.  We sat in the warmth of the car and chatted but by the time we decided it was time to make a move down to the start area it had warmed up, not shivering at all any more.

It was a lovely course, part of it familiar from the Park Runs if been to, then along the river and back.  Must admit I kept one eye out for snakes!!

Love this pic the photographer took on course.  How lucky to receive photos for free via their FB site.  I wrote and offered to pay for it I liked it so much.  Giving the official runners salute!!

Met up with the girls after the run...

And yep once again we colour co-ordinated unknowingly!

And another event completed.  A thoroughly enjoyable run, first time entered it, but it ended up HOT!!!

Next up ... City2Sea!