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.

Shopping !

I went a bit nuts today and bought a new running top.  Yeah yeah so I already have many running tops every colour of the rainbow, it's been a bit of an obsession.  Well now I have one top that IS every colour of the rainbow combined in the one top!  win-win.   Isn't it beautiful !!!!   Mike would probably say it looks like a pizza with the lot on it, but I adore it!   Can't wait to wear it.

I think this might mean my running top obsession is now complete.  I mean to say, how can I beat this beauty.

So on the scrapbooking front Designer Digitals has an All About Me challenge going at the moment to scrap your anthem.   Well perhaps not my anthem as such, but do you remember the Sunscreen Song?  And I'll cry if you say it was before your time!   I remember when it came out I played it over and over and over.  The words just resonated and maybe that's attributed to my cup is half full attitude to life.  This is my page.

And if you'd like to read the words for you younguns who have no idea who or what this song is about, here are the lyrics.  It was originally an article written by journalist Mary Schmich, to which Baz Luhrmann put to lyrics.

Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '99
Wear sunscreen
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it
The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists
Whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable
than my own meandering experience, I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth, oh, never mind.
You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth
until they've faded but trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back
at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now
how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.
You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future
Or know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum.
The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind,
the kind that blindsides you at 4 p.m. on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.
Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts.
Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy.
Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind.
The race is long and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults, if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.
Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life.
The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives.
Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
Get plenty of calcium.
Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't.
Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the 'Funky Chicken'
on your 75th wedding anniversary.
Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much.
Or berate yourself either.
Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body, use it every way you can.
Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it.
It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your own living room.
Read the directions even if you don't follow them.
Do not read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.
Be nice to your siblings, they're your best link to your past
and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
Understand that friends come and go,
but for a precious few, who should hold on.
Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle
For as the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once but leave before it makes you hard.
Live in northern California once but leave before it makes you soft.
Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths.
Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you, too, will get old.
And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young
prices were reasonable, politicians were noble
and children respected their elders.
Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you.
Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse
but you never know when either one might run out.
Don't mess too much with your hair
or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
Be careful whose advice you buy but be patient with those who supply it.
Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past
from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts
and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

MSKA

So the other thing that occurred this weekend was the culmination of the MKSA (Multi-Stage Kilometre-athon) run by Kaz of Mind Body Motion.   So proud to say I have not shirked on any of the planned training runs throughout the past 12 weeks.  Hit every one of them.

We could pick 20, 30, 40 or 50km to be run over this current weekend, 18 and 19 October.  I chose 20!! Oh and each run, however you added it up, needed to be a minimum 5km.  I chose 20 mainly because although it would be a challenge, I already knew I had 10 in the bag from Dunkeld.  But to do two 10km back to back runs, would be a challenge for me.  I usually give myself a bit of time out after any particularly hard run, just to look after my old knees.

So my two runs went like this.  Saturday at Dunkeld a total of 10.29km.  And then Sunday today around town here a total of 10.36km.   And then this arvo I tell you these legs did not move more than 10 feet from the house!

SATURDAY's EFFORTS

SUNDAY'S EFFORTS

Yes yes, today was a lot slower for this old plodder, but I still did it.  20km - tick.

Mosaic to Mountain Fun Run

Yesterday could also be known as MSKA Day 1.  More about that later.

I headed off just after 7am to Dunkeld for the Mosaic to Mountain Fun Run.  It's a terrific feel good event, small, run by the local Kindergarten, so the young children are involved too.  I tell you, coming up to route markers and having an adult with the littlies helping was just great.  I was greeted by littlies giving me high fives, some dressed up - I spied a Spiderman, a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle and a WonderWoman.  Just great.

First though was to find my running companion and online running friend who was going to suddenly become very real, the wonderful Chloe.  She is such a breathe of fun in our 12wbt Runners Connect running group and we had planned to do the Stawell Fun Run recently which sadly was cancelled.  So Dunkeld was to be our first meeting.   We found each other straight away, started talking and I don't think we stopped!

The route leaves the big mosaic in the park in town, a beautiful spot and runs a few out and backs which you can see in the map below.  Look at the beautiful view seeing the magestic Grampians up ahead.  Mount Sturgeon?  Mt. Abrupt? Not sure.

It ended up being quite warm when the sun came out from behind the cloud cover and so the shady tree sections were very welcome.  It was fun running with Chloe.  Even though when running with someone you are lost in your own thoughts (cause trust me I cannot talk when I run, and that doesn't mean I'm going too quick, I just cannot talk), it's nice to know someone is close by, sometimes taking the lead, sometimes falling behind, but always within reach.  

So very glad to be finished.  Official time was 1:14:42.  Eh.  Last year my time was 1:14:04.  So I'm getting slower.  Oh well, at least I'm taking part, right?

Excuse my goofy smile, but it was great to again catch up with Matilda of Run Mum fame.  I met her last year at this race, after reading her blog for a while.  She's such an inspirational runner. And I did appreciate her hooting and hollaring at me when she saw me choofing along the road as she was sprinting!  Super fast lady.

Pretty impressed my Runkeeper had kept good time.  Here's the map.

After the race and the official results for the winners, Chloe and I headed over to the market across the road.  I had plans to have a hamburger for lunch and I was famished.  Yum.  The craft nut in me loved these knitted sheep.  How fun.

I left laden with goods including one skirt, two baby bibs, a jar of apricot and vanilla bean jam (oh yum!), a Christmas tree decoration and a Quack Pack for Mike!  (that is a six pack of different bottles of Red Duck ale).

Great day, look forward to it next year, this lovely event is going to be a staple on my running calendar.

Melbourne Marathon

What a positively terrific Sunday.  I had plans to go to Melbourne to watch the runners in the races, the Marathon, the Half Marathon and hopefully pick out friends who were running.  I would have desperately have loved to have entered one of the races, but it wasn't to be.  I didn't particularly want to stay up in Melbourne overnight as I have a weekend up there coming up next month.  And despite staying at mum's the night before, the first train from Geelong on a Sunday came in after the races had started.   So it wasn't to be.  I might not have been running but I made a great cheer squad.

However I didn't see any of my friends who were running, neither the Warrnambool & Surrounds 12wbt crew, or the 12wbt Runners Connect group.  I did however see my very good friend (except he doesn't know that we are friends!! tee hee) the wonderful Steve Moneghetti fly past heading to the finish line.  Check out the length of the stride.  I barely shuffled 10 inch paces at this stage of the half!  He obviously didn't get the Runners Connect memo though - peace signs arms up in the air when you cross the finish line! ha.

I think the reason I missed so many of my friends running was because I had my head buried in the app.   Hey Cat, I took this screen shot from one of the times I was checking your progress.  Cool huh?  I could see your little stick figure running.  A huge congratulations to you too for completing the marathon.

So yes, you could key someone's bib number in and see where they were up to on the route.  So basically you'd know if they were getting close to finishing.  So a few times I popped a bib number of one of my friends in only to find they had finished the race, darn it!

So another reason I wasn't going to run is getting to meet up with these ladies.  Now those who know my crafty self know I do digital scrapbooking.  Well Sharon here (of ksharonk fame) was the first digital designer who gave me a gig on her creative team way back when.  Esther (who you will recognise in the black from my USA travel) got a gig too.  We came as guests and simply stayed.  So I've "known" Sharon for a long long time but never met.  When we found out her husband would be running the marathon ... great work to the D-man, wanting to finish in 4 hours and he finished 3 hours 59 mins 59 seconds!!!! ... well we knew this was our chance.

Esther had been gallivanting about on another overseas holiday and was flying in that morning, so kudos to her husband for not whisking her away home as soon as the plane landed.  We found each other amongst the crowd.  Oh Lordy Lord, amongst 30,000 runners and family members and general public, it was bedlam, but find each other we did.  Not so the car when it came time to leave after the D-man finished and slightly recovered (he was kind of speaking Alien speak at the end of the race, not making much sense at all !)

But finally we were headed back to Albert Park to their hotel and once the D-man was upstairs resting, we went down to the lounge area and talked up a storm.  It was like we had known each other forever, which we kind of felt like we had, we had just never met Sharon before.  It was terrific.  And so happy that she was in "Sharon Green" too!  So that was definitely the highlight of the day.

So train to Geelong and then drove back 2 hours home here.  Exhausted but oh so happy.

Now I just have to work on my subliminal messages to try to convince the D-man he needs to do more Victorian races so we get to hang out again!!  :-)

A huge congratulations to friends who were running, I had you all on my list and was checking your progress regularly.  I think I will have to bite the bullet next year, despite the fact that the crowds out there running would have terrified me.  I have the City2Sea coming up, that might give me a taste of a big race!

Such s beautiful day

What an amazing day it was today.  I needed to do 7km on my plan, as there's no way I was going to have a chance to do it on Sunday, so set off in the beautiful sunshine.  Actually I wanted to test out my new sunglasses.  I have just been using my ordinary every day glasses without really thinking about it and there's always a blind spot where you just can see if the sun hits them a certain way.  One of my running friends mentioned getting "polarized" sunnies.  Okay so that may have been obvious to some people, but I had no idea.

So my fave shopping site Catch of the Day had a sunglass sale recently, all different brands, but some were marked polarized.  So picked these ones out, all of $14.99!!  They are Columbia brand.  Who knows.  El-cheapo but honestly today was just so different.  Bright glary sun but no blind spot.  Thumbs up for the glasses!

My run was very slow today.  Still a twinge on my right hip so took it easy.  Plus ended up stopping three times as people wanted to have a chat.  It was good actually, there's a house in town where two Golden Retrievers decide they want to escape their yard (an easy escape because the gate is always open) and come running with me.  Makes me feel responsible when I tell them to go home and they don't, particular if I get to the highway, once I ended up doubling back just to take the darn dogs home again.  So anyway yep on cue they run out but the lady was out mowing the lawns on her ride on.  She stopped to round the dogs up and I told her they usually follow me and once all the way to Hamilton Highway and I was worried that they would have been hit by trucks.  She was aghast at the thought.  Errr lady, CLOSE YOUR GATES.  I didn't say it but I'm sure subliminally she heard it.

I also got stopped by one of the fellows from my work who beeped me and then did a u-ey and pulled up at the park as I was approaching.  He told me I was looking great coming down the highway (I stood a bit taller at that comment and almost did a chest thump!) then he asked how far I'd run.  Told him I was at 5k and still had another 2 to run.  The look on his face when he said "NO SH!T !!" and he was exhausted just thinking about it.  Let me tell you in my head I was jumping around doing cartwheels and high fiving myself at that stage. ha!  So nice when people realise yes whatever distance, you're out there and it's an effort, at times a REAL effort.  But way cool to have been told that.

On my way back in to town.  How beautiful is that sky.

Last night we went to the opening of the Warrnie Art Show.  We go every year.  Mike loves it and I love catching up with one of his old friends who paints and exhibits.  A lovely elderly gent who I adore and give a lot of cheek to and he laps it up  ;-)

What can I say, Mike has resigned himself that I've embraced the selfie generation!  

Tomorrow I am heading down to Geelong for mum's birthday.  So an early two hour drive, and our clocks going forward tonight for day light saving.  I think that means it's time for bed right now!