The girl's gone mad, another fun run...

Noorat to Terang fun run was on Friday evening and there I was lined up yet again, two fun runs in six days!  I've got it bad!!  This was originally going to be my first fun run in my early grand plans and yet here I am lining up with a few already under my belt.

It was not boding well though, we had torrential rain in the afternoon (as in the little town I live in it rains as if someone turns a tap on and then can stop just as quick as it starts).  The heavens opened up, there was lightening, there was thunder.  It was still hot and humid and steamy.  We were basically just waiting for the locusts to arrive to round off what mother nature was going throwing at us Friday!!

However in a JFDI nature, off we headed off in the car and found that only about 15km up the road at the start of the race it was bone dry.  Crazy mother nature.   Crazy me too, I was jumping at the bit when I got out of the car!!  Love this photo that Mike took of me.  Who knew I could jump so high off the ground!!  It is actually probably now one of my my favourite shots of me and embodies how I feel about life right now.

I quickly registered once there a bit miffed that I was in the VETERAN section!!  Hmmmph people of Terang, please have the wheelchairs ready at the end!!  I'm only 48 and yet a veteran!!  I then set about finding my friends in the crowd, we had a few 12wbt ladies from the Warrnambool & Surrounds crew running that evening.  And my good friend Nadine (who also happens to be my hairdresser) wanted to join in the fun with the plan of running step by step with me the whole way.  

I kept joking I had my entourage along for the evening.  My photographer/paparazzi (Mike) snapping away at me and my hair stylist (Nadine) to ensure I looked my best during the race, a little touch up here and there!!  bwah ha ha ha.  

Some of our beautiful 12wbt ladies before the race - Lynn, Janelle, Vanessa and me.
We had a number of others there also but just not around when the camera was snapping.

And the gorgeous Nadine, the most encouraging woman 

(and successful Tough Mudder I might add)

who I'm proud to call my friend.

Soon enough the walkers took off at 6.30pm 

and then at 6.45pm the runners lined up for the starting pistol.

And they were off and racing!!   

This sleepy little town hadn't seen such action in a long time!!

Mr. Paparazzi was kept busy as we ran on by...

True to her word, Nadine kept up the encouragement the whole way to Terang.  

I actually find it kind of cool we ran from one town to another.

Nadine ran pace to pace with me, it was actually a new experience 

running alongside someone and it actually 

was a lot of fun and made me push myself even more.

She even had some energy for some selfies!!   

Yep, see we were really out in the sticks on this run!!

I very well may have been saying (through gritted teeth) 

"put that blasted camera away" at this stage

I'm not sure.  I know I was exhausted.

See the storm clouds behind me, 

that gave me the impetus to JFDI and keep on running.

Once we hit the 80km post on the outskirts of the town I knew I could do it, it was such a great feeling.  Love love love the people of Terang.  As we ran passed houses people were out on their porches or sitting in their front yards clapping encouragement, some had sprinklers and hoses set up so we could run through them.  I've never felt such relief and actually ran through every single one!!

Soon enough though we rounded the last corner in town and I could see the big FINISH line. Mike was waiting for us, snapping like a mad thing (there will be some photos never to see the light of day though, I don't even recognise myself!!!!)  But I absolutely love this one.  Nadine looking as fresh as she did at the start of the race, and me looking ... well ... we'll just say sweatingly elated !! (some of that is from the hoses mind you)

Flushed with victory.  

I ran the 5.92km in 43 minutes and 07 seconds.  

Still though I wasn't able to run the whole way, but I ran the most that I've ever run, only walking 6 or 7 times and limiting the walk to 20 paces before taking off again whilst Nadine kept bobbing up and down jogging.  One of these days I'll get there I know.  But I did find concentrating on that whole mid-foot-strike made it easier on my calf muscles.  So there is a lot to be said for that, concentrating on form when running.  If I keep at those drills I just know one of these days I'll finish a fun run start to end running the whole way.

And so okay, I've shown you the good shots up there.  So one thing about having a dear husband fun run paparazzi is that you can't control what he sees in a split second.  Did I really do so many goofy faces (and trust me people, this is just the tip of the iceberg, he took about 150 shots on the night!!)   Some might call it goofy, but I'm going to call it exuberance!!!  Work with me on that will you!  :-)

The one time I turned tables on him before the race!!  My greatest supporter and encourager.  Encourager? Is that such a word?  Well it is now.  Thank you honey for all the waiting around and snapping like a mad man so that we could get pics of our 12wbt girls as well.

So what's next in the fun run calendar?  I think May is the next one for me, so there can be a lot of training, drills and keeping up the endurance over the next couple of months, and roll on May for the Mother's Day Classic.

A Running Session

Or clinic if you will.   One of the fellows at my work is quite the runner.  He's also the President of the local athletics/running club and he loves to embrace anyone who is taking up the wonderful sport of running.

So he sent an email out to everyone at my work inviting us along to a session with him last night.  He was going to discuss running gait, and showing us how to incorporate specific drills and strength exercises to improve the way we run.  The ultimate result of this hopefully will make us faster and help us to run longer, and most importantly to improve our running gait will make running easier for us.

I'M UP FOR THAT !

Although the day before I was sitting in the mess room and John happened to join me and in our lunchtime conversation I stupidly asked him if he'd ever run a marathon.   Oh doh!  He's run over 40 marathons and a couple of ultra marathons.  And of course the penny hit me square in the face when I remembered yep last year he (and one of our other workmates) did a 24 hour run on a treadmill to raise money for local cancer charities.  

Can you even imagine running for 24 hours (I think they had a 5 or 10 minute break every hour).  I remember going down to the village green cheering them on Friday night, and heading in on the Saturday morning and yep, they were still running.

So I was eager last night to hear his words of wisdom.  You've heard me bemoan the fact that my legs give out way before my lungs do.  I need to fix that.  It was great too because we could invite friends, so the fact about six of our local 12wbt girls came along was testament to the fact we are wanting to embrace running and get better at it.

He had us run around the oval as a group so he could watch our form, thankfully he didn't pick on any of us, because I came last !!   Well good thing, I didn't need the boys from work running behind this lycra clad body and seeing all my jiggly bits.

After watching him demonstrate 3 different gaits, I believe a lot of my problem has stemmed from the fact I run with a walking gait, striking the ground with my heel first, adding a lot of pressure to my legs and making me make more of an effort to propel forward because I'm almost on a slight lean backwards.

So I'm now making a concerted effort to hit the ground mid-foot and the minute my heel touches the ground to spring off.  In turn this means I'll be slightly leaning foward as I run, which will propel me even further forward.  Oh so much to think about.

He went through some drills - bum kicks and hot coals.  Yep, I'm going to look a bit silly if I start out my jog like that but it's all for the cause right.

And the biggest revelation was he doesn't get caught up in the kilometres.  If he's going out for a run he doesn't say "okay I'm going out for a 5k run", he would rather say "I'm going out to run 30 minutes".  Because it's all about endurance, not distance.  Although me being the check-list-tick-off kind of person I am, I like to know how far I've run.  It's kind of like a badge of honour.  But I'm going to try to turn that thinking around.

I'm willing to take anything on board to get me fitter, stronger, faster, run longer, actually finish a fun run with no walking involved  :-)  I'll get there I know, but I'm impatient!

We really can never stop learning can we.  

Weigh in Wednesday

I lost a fantastic 600 grams today, I was jumping for joy.  This takes me to an even stevens 28 kilogram loss (61.5 pounds).  I'm over the moon happy.

Some bloopers from yesterday !!

Perhaps not bloopers as such (except for the arse shot!! thank you darling husband of mine)  but some photos that have made me snort with laughter when I've looked back at them.   Ahhh the fun of the day.

[[You'll need to click on the photo (I think) if you want to read the comments]]

I mean really, who's arse (apart from Mish's) looks good in leggings?  I ask you that?   :-)

And whilst we're on the subject of my arse ... we were weren't we???  I've pulled up relatively unscathed from yesterday, a blood blister on my big toe (ouch!) and an incredibly sore butt, kind of the sides of my butt where it joins my leg, more than likely just my muscles protesting from the upward climb.

Other than that I'm good for my next fun run ... on Friday night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I'm a mad woman possessed now.  More about that later.

I conquered the Elephant!

Yahooooooo.  I did it.  And quite frankly right now this evening I'm walking around like a little old lady, but I feel ever so proud of myself.   Although the day did not start well, I had a heat rash on my left armpit and an unpopped blister on my toe to which I bandaided it "just in case".  I was breaking up before the race was even beginning.

We got across to Derrinallum around 8.30 and signed in.  This is the first fun run they have organised, the Market to Mount, so I feel pretty good that I'm at the inaugural event.  There were probably about 80 runners and walkers all up?  Maybe more, not sure.   And as you can see here this was first thing after signing in, 8.30 and it was pretty hot and only going to get hotter.  That sun was FIERCE!   And behind me the "elephant" just out of town that we were going to have to scale.

Here I am in a group of runners heading through town.    The run commenced at the Recreation Reserve on the east side of Derri, commencing with a lap of the oval, then out onto the highway, running through town and past the market, out of town and up to the mount and then to scale the mount any which way you could.

Didn't I say in the Surf T Surf photos in January that I was going to have to work on my goofy faces, oh Lordy Lord, here I am running past Mike who was snapping away like a mad man.

So I did the race in my run/jog/shuffle/sometimes walk a few steps/shuffle/jog/run style.  Thank heavens for the race organisers having plenty of water tables on the way because that sun was merciless.  Although I have combatted the flies for sure, I dabbed Nature's Botanical on my skin and it did the trick.  Works for horses right? tee hee.

So once I hit the road heading up to the car park at the mount I just knew it would be tough going, I could see the front runners already scaling up the steep incline at the front.  I did a bit of overtaking, then I was overtaken, vice versa as it went.  Once I left the car park and the incline really began I knew I was in for a rough trot.  It was STEEP!  The first part was scoria/gravelly type footing, and from here on in I walked.  I was in good company apparently, after the presentation I was talking to the second adult male place getter and asked him if he actually ran up the mount, and he said none of them did, it was way too steep.  That made me feel better in hindsight.

Years ago I used to do a walk up a big hill in Belmont when I lived in Geelong many years ago, Mount Pleasant Road.  Being the ex-brass band girl I was, I would have a stirring march playing in my head and that would keep me at pace getting up a hill.  I tried the same tactic.  Unfortunately my stirring march in my head was like a record on the wrong speed and it was getting slower and slower.  

Another water table (THANK GOODNESS!!) and still climbing and the track turned to cut hay kind of grass.  Every now and then I'd get a spurt on, but it would be short lived.  My legs were going wobbly at this stage and my calf muscles screaming in agony, but on I kept going.  It was magic looking up at one stage and seeing the finishers at the top.  On I went until I rounded the last knob and there was the finish line and I finished with a run.  I mean come on, I'd come all that way, I *had* to finish with a run, didn't I?  

This photo was kindly taken by Natalie from Colac, one of the ladies I met up at the top and she emailed it to me (thanks Natalie!!!).  Oh and that wasn't sweat, well maybe some of it was, but it was mainly when I upended some of my drink bottle on myself to cool down.  

47 MINUTES and 33 SECONDS!!  Way to go me.  It was meant to be 5km, but Natalie said her Garmin watch said it was more like 5.7km.   

So after admiring the view and having a breather and a rest and a drink for a while, what goes up must come down and we started the trek down the mount.  There would be a shuttle bus to take us back into Derri.  I almost came down the quick way though when I slipped on the path and fell on my ass!! (padded as it may be).   I walked down with two new friends, Natalie from Colac and Shona from Creswick, both seasoned runners and very inspiring.  We nattered about running the whole way down.  

The shuttle bus had just not long headed back into town so we thought eh, lets walk it, it will be a good cool down for our legs.  Except we got back on the highway and had the crazy notion to run back into town.  So a huge thanks to the ladies for the encouragement in keeping me running.  It would have been soooooo easy to have waited for the shuttle bus.  I think Mike was surprised when we came running back into town, and he took our photograph.  

And that was it, the end of the line.  I was holding up the tree here, or maybe the tree was holding me up, not sure.  But all I know is that I was so darn proud of myself.  I remember grumbling to myself on the way up the mount that this was a first and last time, I'd never do this again, but by this stage, those little endorphins had kicked in and were fluttering about inside me and I was already planning to put this on the calendar for next year.  :-)

Oh and fun runs really tire a person out, don't they?  Look who I found asleep on the couch this afternoon when we got home.  Must have been all that standing around holding a camera that wore him out.    My friend Alison commented though "but well it is a big camera after all" !!

So a couple of things I'm REALLY proud of myself for today:

1.  I didn't know anyone else doing the race and still did it anyway.

2.  All up by not waiting for the shuttle and running back to town, it was a 10k (or thereabouts) day.

3.  I love pushing my body like this, even though I'm walking like a little old lady tonight, it's a great feeling.

Tomorrow I take on an Elephant !!

Yep, you read right.  I'm doing the Market to Mount fun run at Derrinallum in south-west Victoria, a hop skip and a jump from where I live.

AND I'M TAKING ON AN ELEPHANT !!  AND LOVING IT  :-)

The 5K run is from the Recreation Reserve to the top of Mount Elephant.  (photo "borrowed" from their website).  Hey, if I'm gonna run up the darn thing, I think I should be able to use the photo, right?

Mount Elephant is named as such because it's meant to resemble a big sleeping elephant (I think), that's what I've been told anyway.  Wikipedia says it's 240 metres high and is actually a cone formed by an extinct volcano.  There's lots of these "mounts" around the area I live, it's very volcanic.

Anyway, I'm pretty jazzed about it all.  I've got to make it to the mount first before even contemplating running up it.  I wonder if I'll have a Rocky Balboa when I get to the top???  "MISH, THIS IS FOR YOU!!!" and prancing around like a mad woman with arms raised in the air.

This is the next fun run in my year's grand plan of fun runs and I'm quite looking forward to it.  Who said that???  Me???  Where has this spirit of adventure and health and fitness come from?   Although what I'm not looking forward to is the expected temp of 36C.  At least the run is on early.

I even said to Mike he didn't have to come if he didn't want, but he can't wait, he's so proud of me and will be there armed with the camera, so expect photos tomorrow  :-)

Wish me luck.

Who's that girl ??

I had my first instance of someone I know not recognising me today.  It was hysterical.  Sure I know I have changed but I didn't think I'd changed THAT much.

So I'm at the gym after work, I had just arrived and was putting my keys and sweat shirt away and I glance over to the machines and I see someone I know, Leanne, there.  Now when I say I "know" her, we don't interact on a daily, weekly or even monthly basis.  We probably see each other a couple of times a year.  She is the daughter-in-law of a dear friend and I see her on the odd social engagement.  But only about 6 months ago I actually sat on a 3 hour train ride next to her, funnily enough we had bought tickets and our seats were together.  So it's not like she doesn't know me.

Okay so you following along here, you get the relationship we have.

So I glance over at her and she meets my eye and I smile a hello and she looked away not even registering me.  Huh?  What was with that?  Then she finished with that machine and walked in my direction to go to another machine and I say cheerily "Hi Leanne" and gave a little wave.  I don't know why I felt the need to wave, we were only about 10 feet apart at that stage.  But that's neither here nor there.

And she looked at me blankly and kind of shrugged her shoulders and said a wary "hi" but with a wondering look on her face.

I said "It's me!  Carol!"  and then the penny dropped and there was a gasp followed by "OH MY GOD" and "I didn't recognise you" and then she followed it up with "you've cut your hair".

Well that had me roaring laughing.  Yep, nice save Leanne, real smooth!  

Yep, cut my hair and cut just over 27 kilograms.

I hear of things like this happening to other people, but never thought it would happen to me.  Hysterical!

Well I'm proud to say I certainly did that after work.  

I ran.  

On the treadmill.

4.4 kilometres without stopping.  Yahooooooooooooooo!!!!  My best time without stopping yet.

There is hope for me in the upcoming fun runs yet.  Will I go the distance running the whole way?  That is the big question for me right now.

V Day surprise

Well it's Valentines Day and a red flag day at times, but no chocolates, you hear that universe NO CHOCOLATES!!!!  It's too hot for them anyway, they'd melt.

We have a pact, we only spend $10 on Valentines Day on each other.  It actually is fun and makes you get inventive.

Someone cheated though.  Look what was delivered to me at work.  

I don't know what thrilled me the most.  The surprise of the flowers and all the girls watching them come into my office.  Or the squeal I gave when I read the card...

Never thought I'd read those words on the card "gorgeous skinny".  Well he's going a bit overboard with the "skinny" but I loved it all the same.  Oh and ET, I have a photograph but I won't put you through the horrors, but lately my husband has been loving freaking me out with his impersonation of his stomach sticking out like ET ... phone home!  

Makes the bucket of nuts I gave him look a bit lousy!!!

I can honestly say I'm the happiest I have ever been in my skin right now.  And it can only keep getting better and better.