City2Surf here I come!

Time to look into getting some cheap flights to Sydney! Although if I want
to actually get there I guess I better not fly Tiger hey. Why am I heading
up to God's country you might ask? Well I've just signed up and paid for my
2nd City2Surf in Sydney. It's not till August, but I like to plan ahead and
get in early. I was pretty excited because I've also qualified for the SH1
group - in English this means that for the City2Surf in 2009 I finished in
sub 75min (67min actually). Hopefully now it means I can avoid the 'many
thousands and thousands' of people and perhaps improve on my time. I
remember last year I was dodging and weaving for a good 12kms and even at
the end there was no room to run in a straight line. I'm also part of the
Flight Centre team again this year, running along in a nice little Flight
Centre singlet, and the bonus of being part of their team is that they
provide food/drinks (lovely cold beer) and free massages at the end. Do you
think they can get free flights as well?

Don't forget to donate if you can CanToo Sponsorship

Week 1 - long(ish) run

Of course the first long run day it had to rain! I also don't think the 'several' glasses of wine with my mates last night was such a good idea.

Training today was at 7.30am at Albert Park lake and we were all off for a nice 8km or 50min run.

Lucky I wore my skins, because damn it was a tad chilly! I used RunKeeper to track my time/pace and map data - I like it heaps better than the other one I was using 'iMapmyrun'.

The rain was quite nice actually, once we started running it was nice and cooling. We headed down Kerford Rd towards the Bay and then along to near Catani Gardens and back.

I got close to 38min which was pretty good. But I need to start slowing down as the distance gets longer. Looking ahead to the 35km run in a few months is a bit scary, no way I can do the same pace for that distance.

It was pretty cool after the run as well, we did some stretches and our CanToo guys provided a big thing of Powerade, snakes and some muesli bars. The team from Adidas came to give us a chat about runners as well. Next Wednesday is the 5km time trial.

The sore toe held up as well. Tad tender now, but not to bad.

26 May - First Training Session

I was a bit nervous turning up, not knowing what to expect, how many people there would be, and I really hate that feeling. I'm the sort of person who doesn't like feeling out place and not knowing what is happening.

First day training and the meet and greet was at 6.30pm near the rowing club on Albert Park lake. It was dark and I couldn't see anyone near the rowing shed. Crap! Finally I saw a girl walk from inside and she pointed me in the right direction. It was a smallish group, all filling in health questionnaires and introducing each other. The CanToo founder Annie Crawford was down from Sydney to meet us and our trainer Nick with a few other staff and support were there, buggared if I can remember their names yet though.

It's all pretty well organised, we got a little show bag with a training singlet and some wrist band sunscreen - very novel! Virginia (my flatmate) has taken one to her work to see if they can use it for their marketing as well. After our introductions and some chit chat we headed down for the first session. A slow jog round to the Carousel then 3x1km intervals with a 400m rest in between each one. It was an awesome night for a run, the view around the lake towards the city with a clear night sky is amazing! There were quite a few CanToo groups running, I think the other groups were training for the Run Melbourne in a few months time.

One thing I really enjoyed was the team atmosphere, everyone was supportive and cheering each other on and was felt like a really great group to be part of. I'm really sure the next 20-weeks is going to be alot of fun. Now I need to practice my 'planks', core strength is important!

Fundraising link up and running

My fundraising link with CanToo is up and running. If you would like to support Cure Cancer Australia and help me raise my target of $2,000 please visit the link below:

https://www.cantoo.org.au/sponsorshipform.aspx?PageID=18

Search for "Matt" and click on "Matt Wright" and follow the steps to make a tax deductible donation, just in time for the tax man!

Please forward the link to the fundraising page and/or my blog to any friends who you think would like to track my progress and donate to a worthy cause.

Cheers, matt :)

INJURY!

After the Great Ocean Road half marathon I was a bit tight in the calves and had
a sore toe. I thought nothing of it. After a few days the pain will subside
and
all will be ok! Well I was wrong.

Back track to Thursday and I was still limping around with a bloody sore toe. How can a toe be so sore. It was only when I walked and wasn't a sharp pain, just that annoying dull pain. So I took myself to see a Physio and he has referred me to a sports Doctor. Tomorrow morning I'm off first thing to see if I need a scan. Although it's feeling better now, hasn't been sore for days. Guess I better get it checked out just in case it comes back. The physio said it was most likely a dislocated tendon in the big toe.

Tomorrow after work is the first day of marathon training with CanToo - either way I will be rocking up! Whether I can run or not - this will not be the end of me!!!

Chocolates from Cadbury arrive on the 4th!! The first of the fundraising will begin.

27/5 - UPDATE the toe is ok, x-rays didn't show anything wrong and the doc said I can run on it as long as it doesn't get worse. Touch wood!

Fundraising - will it be hard?

'FUN'-draising - it should be fun right? So how on earth do I achieve my minimum goal of $2,000 to such a great charity. To reach my own goal of finishing the marathon in one piece, running and alive!

I jumped on Google, and when you do a search for 'fundraising ideas' there are so many different sites and so many ideas. There are companies that I think you pay, and they do it all for you. Then of course there is the usual Cadbury chocolate boxes, but you can only sell so many chocolates right?
It says that 1 box of chocolates gives a profit of $28, there are 48 pieces of chocolate in each box. The only thing I hate about these things is the size of the chocolate, they are so much smaller than the ones you buy yourself and now they cost you $1.20, price hike or what! $1 was so much easier.
I also found 'Trolley Coins' which seem like a good idea, but how many people will I know that would want a trolley coin? I might still give it a go though. They seem interesting and different.
Another idea I thought of was to see if I could get a corporate sponsor, a company who wants to branch out, get it's name out there. They could sponsor me for charity and in turn we could design a hot running singlet with their colours and logo and I can run advertising their company - would that work though? Would anyone be interested? I might dig deeper....
My friend Mark said he would host a Pilates class for me, he is an instructor and has done something similar before, 20 ppl in the class @ $20 each is an easy $400 straight up!

So many options and so many ideas, but putting the ideas into action and making them work is another thing - wish me luck!

The beginning

I must be crazy! I'm about to sign up to do my first marathon. It's only 42.2km, so how hard can it be right?

I've been running now for about 2-3 years, just for fun of course. Entering funruns here and funruns there, running with friends and slowly building up my distances as I find it easier and more enjoyable. In August 2009 I ran my first half marathon in Ballarat with a team of 4. Cameron, Laura, Travis and myself did a few long training runs and then headed up to Ballarat with our team t-shirts ready to pound the pavement. It was harder than I expected, not physically - but mentally! It was draining, the feeling of running for close to 2 hours straight. I didn't run with any music, it was just the sound of me huffing and puffing and the occasional cheer from the crowd who ventured out from their warm houses to see why the road was closed around their precious lake.

Jump forward to May 2010 and I've since completed 3 half marathons and a team triathlon, the latest and greatest I have done is the most recent, the Great Ocean Road half marathon. From Kennet's River to Apollo Bay, right down the Great Ocean Road with the most breathtaking views I have had the privilege to see on a run. Finishing this half marathon made me want to run a full marathon all the more! And sitting on the bus back to Lorne next to 'talking Terry' who just did the full marathon was very interesting and inspiring.

SO IT'S TIME! I was lucky enough to see a facebook post of a friend who is also keen to do the marathon in October and has found an organisation that trains people specifically for certain races, and they start training for the Melbourne Marathon next week. 20 weeks of training on Wednesday nights and Saturday mornings. Gone are my Friday nights on the town with my mates, the bottle of wine with dinner and here comes the 7.30am training EVERY week, the beginning of Winter and freezing cold mornings. What better way to see in a Saturday morning than running.....constantly.....and running some more. I can imagine the steam coming off everyones shoulders and the cold breath from our panting. But it can be done right? Motivation is the key - a goal is required! I can do it!

The training is free. FREE? Nothing is for free these days. So there is a catch, but it's a pretty good one. The training is run through a not-for-profit organisation called 'CanToo'.

"Can Too is a program where professional coaches will train you to run or swim an endurance event while receiving professional team coaching. You have the opportunity to reach your goal in a supportive, fun and sometimes crazy environment, while raising money for Cure Cancer Australia Foundation"

I have to raise a minimum of $2,000 and the crew at CanToo will train me over the next 20 weeks, preparing me to pound the pavement and make it to the end - alive!

Sounds easy right? Well I still have to train, I need to motivate myself to complete this goal, to think I can do it and to show everyone else that I can do it. With 2 goals - Survive and raise money for charity.

So begins my thought process for fundraising - so many ideas are floating through my head right now, what is the best way to do it? My first step is to blog my progress, write about my experience and training and share my road to achieve my goals!

Thanks for supporting me :)