City2Surf - the largest race in the world

City2Surf was, as expected, AH-MAZING! I didn't realise but it's the biggest foot race in the world! Not just little old Aus, but the world!!! This year there was a record 80,000 people who ran the 14kms from Hyde Park to Bondi Beach. You can only imagine what 80,000 people look like all waiting around ready to run. They have a clothing donation for charity as well, so you can wear your warm jumper at the start and just before they fire the gun, you take it off and throw it to the side of the road. I tell ya what, the site of thousands of jumpers and shirts being thrown together was pretty cool. You end up with stuff in trees, on light poles, fences and all sorts of places. Little girl guides come collect them all after the start, although I can only imagine 4 guides on each others shoulders trying to reach the ones at the top of the tree.

 So the race - well the weather was perfect, bit chilly but blue clear skies and the sun was shining. I was feeling pretty tired cause the prostitutes were keeping me awake all night. My friends live in Darlinghurst and their street is prime pimping location. All night I could hear car doors, clip clop of high heels up and down the footpath and arguments with potential clients. Starting the run was just like trying to get out of the full cinema, pushing, shoving it was crazy. The whole course is basically an uphill battle from the start, even before you get to the dreaded "heartbreak hill" there are hills galore. I remembered it from last time though so it wasn't a shock this year. One of the great things about City2Surf is the spectators, people hire bands for their front lawns and bring lounges outside. Some guys even painted their bodies blue and called themselves the smurfs - they deserved my high five as I ran past. Last year I came in at 67min and this year ws 63min, so I was pretty stoked with the improvement. Might've helped that I was in the red group at the front this year.

 We went to the CanToo area after the race and fed up on muffins and snakes and bananas. No beer though :( I love having a beer after a race. After we were done it was amazing to see the bright orange CanToo singlets running through to the finish, heaps and heaps. It's a very big "movement", almost like a cult haha.

 Well it's back to training tomorrow, some more sprints - and of course it will be raining, every Wednesday it rains! I don't think I remember a Wednesday we haven't been wading in puddles around the lake. Maybe tomorrow can be different. Then onto Saturday, another 7am start and bringing the KMs up to 28! Since I did C2S I missed the 26kms so I hope the 28kms goes alright. I just need to keep practising with the energy gels, chomps and water intake cause I still think I struggle there.

 On another note, the trivia night is coming along well - if you want a table you better get a booking in. We have some great prizes that have been donated, the latest one is a 3-month platinum membership from fitness first and 50x 5-day guest passes. And tonight I'm picking up an Endura prize pack from the post office, but I have no idea what is in that yet. A big thanks to Anna Encio and Rob from CanToo for their donations as well :) I just wish I could drink some of the 7 magnums of wine we have.

Long runs are getting long...

Oops, I've missed a bit hey. Last Saturday was the longest run to date on our training program - 22km! This was only 6 days after doing the Run Melbourne half marathon and Wednesday night training. But I think I was ready, recovered and up for the challenge. I prepared in advance by getting some gels and a water bottle holder for these longer runs.

It was all going well, Steve and I took off on the route down the usual beach way towards Elwood, past Elwood down to Brighton and to the Life Saving club before turning around and heading back, all up 22km. It was a beautiful morning for a run though and a light wind which was something a bit different for the beach this time of year. There was only one issue - by the time I got back to St. Kilda everything went pear shaped. Let me just say this and not go into details. The gel, the orange flavour one - well it didn't agree with me! There was still 5km to run back to home base and there was no way I was going to make it. So the last 5km I drank ALOT of water to rehydrate haha. Not the most pleasant experience in the world, but I guess now I know - stay away from citrus! This weekend I think we're doing 24kms so I'm going to try some Gu Chomps or similar, little lollies filled with carbohydrate goodness. For every hour of running we need to consume 200grams of energy and about 600ml of water. That means 2 packs of Gu Chomps for a 24km run @ $5 a pack! This is becoming an expensive sport.

On Sunday after the run Luke and I went to FootPro to see Simon and get some new shoes. They do an awesome treadmill video analysis of your running style in your current shoe, barefoot and some good shoes so you can see the difference. Very interesting..... I walked out of there $360 later with custom insoles and a new pair of Nikes.

My runkeeper has been playing up lately on the old iPhone, so I read some forums and found out it could be because I had the old software version, so I downloaded the new one and it said "do you want to sync your contacts" - I probably should've said yes and after that all my contacts in my phone were gone :( I was able to recover some from messages I'd sent, but most are gone for good.

FUNDRAISING: Well thanks to everyone for buying all my crap and donating online I achieved my $2,000 target, so now in CanToo terms I'm a *Fundraising Star* - that means nothing to everyone else, but to us it is the highlight of everything, you get the orange shoelaces and the cap and no pressure to fundraise, more focus on training. But having said that, more donations are always welcome :)

TRIVIA: Trivia has been organised as well, for those that don't know Luke and Kate from the half marathon group and me are organising a fundraising trivia night. It's on Friday 3 September @ the Richmond Town Hall Hotel 7.30pm. We have some cool prizes so far and hope to get some more. Movie tickets, bottles of wine, BBQ pack, Magnums of Champ and Wine, Doona and pillows, cutlery set etc. Either way it's going to be a fun night. Although I didn't plan it to well cause the day after we're doing a 32km run!! So there goes the alcohol and late night for me and anyone from my group :(

This weekend we're off on 24kms and then it's City2Surf in Sydney :)

To donate please visit - https://www.cantoo.org.au/sponsorshipform.aspx?PageID=18

Run Melbourne Run

Well it's the end of Week 8 and what a week it was! Such a busy week at work with so many things to do, briefs to finalise and all the other 'important' stuff that a public servant does haha. Wednesday's training - hmmmm what can I say - I was going to skip it all together. I was sitting at work and checked the BOM and saw this massive rain front coming across Melbourne, due to hit right when we start our training of course. I got home and was about to drive down the lake when the rain was pelting against my balcony window and it was so windy. I persisted though and drove to training, it took me 30min to get from Toorak to Albert Park, the traffic was hideous. Not many of us braved the weather and poor Nick (the Coach) was still off sick. We had another coach for the night who took us for a good warm-up run and then over to pit straight where we did straights and curves - basically run at 70% to this point, then run 90% to this other point and rest a bit until you get back to the start - do that until you start spewing or you've done it 10 times. It was good until the damn sky clouded over again and it started raining, it was so cold I could feel my nipples sticking through my shirt, chafing away as I ran - ouch! 

On Friday I had my first appointment for a root canal, let's just say that I hate dentists and leave it at that. Saturday I had a bit of a sleep in, no training for me on Saturday so I'd booked my flatmate V and I to go kayaking and abseiling for the day. It was a great day, I learnt that my flatmate is no good at steering a kayak and gets a bit confused with left and right haha. But we made it down the yarra rapids in one piece, saturated and cold. Abseiling was fun as well but damn cold, my shirt was a bit damp and I forgot my jacket, getting in the car and putting the heater on was the best thing about it.

Cut to Sunday 5.15am and my alarm is going off to get up for the Run Melbourne half marathon. I met the Can Too guys at 6.30 and we did a quick warm up and then went up to the start line. Annie Crawford, the founder of Can Too was there doing it with us, it was great. From my group there was 2 of us plus our 2 mentors Kate and Nicole. I ran with Kate the whole way and it was a pretty cool course, especially along the yarra and around fawkner park. Luckily the rain held off and it was pretty sunny all day. We finished in 1:48:08 which was pretty good, my sore foot didn't get any worse thankfully (although it is today). Can Too has a great spread of food and champagne afterwards, makes me want to look forward to our race in October - although thinking about doing that track again is a tad daunting and very very scary!!! 42km is so far when you've just done 21km - I know why it is all mental thoughts to get you through to the end.

FUNDRAISING: Well it looks like I've hit my target, well I will very soon. I'm just waiting for a cheque to come in from Entertainment Books and I will be over the line. A total of $2,000 so far!! A big thanks to those who have donated, bought the chocolates, entertainment books and handbag hangers and to work for the money we raised at the morning tea - it doesn't mean I have to stop here though - if you would still like to donate please use the link and search for my name. Maybe together we can raise the target to $3,000?

18km in the wind

The temperature on my phone Saturday morning at 7am said 14 degrees, I seriously thought there was something wrong with it, no way could it be so warm in the morning. It was dark and winter - it must be under 5 degrees? Fast forward 15min after downing a brunch bar and banana and I found out that it was indeed under 14 thanks to the gale force winds.

Nick (the coach) was away so it was just the crew with Nicole this morning, we all decided it would be better to follow last weeks route and extend it by 2kms so we could keep out of the wind. We were due to run down the esplanade to Brighton and back, and my god - I'm so glad we didn't, the wind would've ripped right through us. There was one time when we came round a bend and got blown backwards a bit. Overall it was a pretty good run though. Graeme and I ran an average 5km p/hour run for the 18kms. I tried taking my water bottle holder with me, but I had to empty it after the first 200m as it bloody kept leaking all over my leg! Not the most pleasant experience in the world, if I was 80 I wouldn't know if it was the water or my bladder, but then I don't think I'd be running at 80 haha.

I went to Costco today, damn they didn't have Brunch bars, but I did find some bulk party pies for my fundraising morning tea next Friday and a 1.8kg jar of Jelly Belly jelly beans!!!! I just finished counting them ALL - yes I washed my hands, but I counted them on a chopping board with a knife to seperate them, I had to keep track every hundred though, and might I say - it's going to be a touch competition!!! I think I will sell guesses at $2 each at work during the week and see if I can add to my fundraising using that method.

Friday night was the first Trivia planning night as well, with the help of Virginia my friend and housemate. It was just Kate and I though as Mr Mollison had a "prior" engagement. He can put in the hard yards for the next one. So we drafted our email to send to some companies to try and get some prizes donated for either a silent auction or door prizes. I'll let you know how we go.

I really want a jelly bean! Next weekend is meant to be the recovery week with a reduction in KM's to 14 on Saturday, but I won't be going to that, I've entered into the Run Melbourne half marathon on Sunday so I will be Pounding the Pavement for that one - I really just want the medal haha.

I found this YouTube clip of CanToo as well - take a look Click HERE.

And as always, if you read this and you are able to sponsor me, please CLICK HERE, I only need another $700 and then I become a fundraising star and I can focus on training rather than fundraising.... here's hoping! Together we can beat the big "C"

Check out facebook

m@

When your bed is empty and cold you go for a run

I think I woke up around 3am freezing my arse off! It was lonely and cold with the sound of the wind outside so I laid in bed trying to get back to sleep with no luck, I was thinking about someone in particular and checking to see what time it was in the USA, maybe they would be on facebook chat? But sadly not :(

It was absolutely freezing when I was getting changed but I think that was just my bedroom, maybe it was the presence of my ghost. I didn't have to use the squedgee to see through my windscreen this morning thank god, so I made it the lake in one piece and was able to drive at more than 40kms per hour. Maybe my car is starting to dry out finally. You see the old Calais leaks a 'bit' of water on the floor and is now starting to sprout grass, I call it the "Rice Paddy".

It wasn't actually that cold this morning, had to leave the gloves in the car for a change. This mornings run was a good 16kms down to the tan, up to Flinders St, across the river and down to Punt Rd bridge return. There was heaps of other CanToo'ers on the same track, it was great! Everytime you run past someone in the CanToo singlet you hear "Go CanToo" - it feels awesome to be part of such a big team and to it's great to give support to the fellow runners who brave the early mornings like me to do the same thing. The run itself was good, I felt good. I had a banana for breakfast which normally makes me a bit acidic in the stomach (over share) and I downed one of those Up & Go VIBE drinks. I think I need to start taking some gels with me though, around 10-12kms I started to feel a big sluggish like I had no energy. Of course I did, but the old body didn't think the same thing. Some of those little PowerBar lollies from woolies would've done nicely or a Gu gel. I love the chocolate ones, no water required, just the chocolate flavour Gu - dee-licious!
I found my old water bottle holder as well, sans water bottle though. This week I need to make it my goal to get a new bottle and next weeks run I need to try and run with it - last time I used it I just remember it bouncing up and down like those little dog things people put on their dashboards. Annoying to say the least!
The fundraising is still going ok, at last count I think I was up to about $1,300, that includes $400 from selling chocolates at work (lots of chocoholics at Treasury and Finance) and about 17 entertainment books sold now as well. Jarvo and Luke are starting CanToo training for the half marathon on Wednesday night and we're going to plan a trivia night for a fundraiser, we might as well host one as the last few that we've entered we have come last in - very brainy lot of friends haha!! I got a book for my birthday though "Organising a trivia night for dummies" so that's my read for tonight.
Well you might be thinking what on earth that pic of the dog has to do with running? I saw him at a cafe in Toorak last weekend, he was asleep with his head on the table for ages, it made me think that is the way I feel after doing a long run - exhausted that I could just go back to bed, oh and the dog was just gorgeous.

Where ever you are in the world, I hope you have a good one :)

14km

I saw Sex and the City 2 last night, I didn't actually mind it although I didn't get home till after 11pm, so waking up at 6.45am to go for my training run was a bit painful. I could hear the rain outside and my trusty iPhone told me it was only 5 degrees!! But I persevered and by the time I drove to Albert Park it was a pretty clear morning (but still cold). Driving there was an effort though, my car leaks water and the passenger floor fills up like a puddle which creates condensation inside the window, plus it grows grass as well - so I took the squeegee from the shower so I could see.

We ran 14km today, from the lake down the esplanade to the kiosk at Elwood and back, nice morning for a run, a little bit drizzly at times but watching the sun come up was a pretty good way to start the day and the rainbow over the bay on the way home was good to see as well. Tina and I stopped for a photo from Nicole as well, so we will have to see how that turns out, it was at the 8 or 9km mark so we must've looked a treat haha.

Well we are about a 1/4 of the way through training and it only gets bigger from here on. I think next week is 16km and we keep rising till we peak at 35km!

Fundraising is going pretty good as well, at last count I'd sold about 14 Entertainment Books which I get $13 from each one, $670 in donations and I've got to bank $220 from chocolate sales. It's the end of the financial year soon (as Foxtels tells us all) and any donations you make you won't have to keep a receipt for a full 12 months to claim back, so please dig deep and donate for a such a worthy cause. Click here to donate, search for Matt.

Time for a well deserved brunch with my friends now :) ciao

Running in the Rain with a glass of wine

What a week it was!! I did a fair bit of running last week, and boy was it damn cold. Wednesday's session was absolutely freezing, the wind was coming through my new long sleeve top like no tomorrow. We did a bit of a warm up jog then proceeded with 8x400m sprints with 400m rests in between, but these rests just meant a 'slow' jog. It was a pretty good session though, albeit for the freezing weather. I really need to invest in some light gloves, my hands felt like an eskimo.

Saturday was a 12km run from the lake to the St.Kilda marina and back, was a beautiful morning for a run except for the big fat grey cloud over us that decided to piss down for most of the way home, it was blue sky over the bay, just not over us! We finished it off with some sprints as our 'cool down' or to stretch our fast twitching muscle fibres I think... Some weird voodoo stuff must've been happening down by that lake because we saw sawn off chicken feet scattered around the lake - bizzare! I had a 'few' good reasons to race str8 home after training, one of them was to pack my bags and get picked up for our weekend in Rutherglen for the Winery Walkabout tour. Our combined group all wore big colourful ties with words on them like 'I'm 2 sexy' and 'Kiss me' (mine was Kiss Me), I bought them for $2.50 each and decided that I would let everyone know about my goal to raise money for Cure Cancer Australia and whatever they chose to donate would go to the cause, I gave up the $$ I spent buying them and donated that as well. I ended up making $90 which will go towards the target of $2,000. We even chatted to some waitresses at Hog's Breath and sold them 2 spare ties. The rest of the weekend was a blur, I have unexplained bruises, we lost our friend and flatmate Virginia, I got denied access to my bank account for putting in the wrong pin - let's just say this weekend will be ALOT quieter.

I've made up for my bad behaviour with 2 laps of the tan with Lukas, he and Kate have signed up for the half marathon through Can Too as well. Let the training begin!! Although with how tired I'm feeling now I don't think training tomorrow is going to feel that great.