Fundraising

Help me raise $2,200 to purchase a walker for a child with Cerebral Palsy... we are almost half way to our target!!!

Andrew Wilson, a good friend from work, is a very talented photographer and has made the following offer:

If you buy any photo from his portfolio for $50, he will donate $40 to the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre.
 
Photos will be printed up to A3+ size high quality Ilford Smooth Pearl Photographic paper with Archival ink.

Select anything from http://www.redbubble.com/people/andrewwilson/art
But order direct through me, not website. (This way the web site doesn't get any of the profit)

Thank-you Andrew for your very generous offer!

Two weeks and counting!

Yesterday we did a 20km run… the start of our taper. 

I haven’t had any photos lately… just been running around Melton… I think we have probably covered the whole town by now!

I didn’t post anything last week, but we did a 32km run then, and I must say, I felt a lot better about it the second time around!

The new shoes are going great!  They even have mud on them now… well and truly worn in!!!

Here is a photo from last week, taken by Tom.

Note to self: don’t run from one end of Collins st to the other with boots on… I ended up hurting my calf.  Luckily I was booked in for a massage on Saturday anyway… got a good working over – painful – but good!

I think we’ve got almost everything the weather can throw at us covered now!  We have trained in wind (and practiced our drafting), the cold (so numb I couldn’t feel my hands), the rain (we worked out it’s not so bad, its just hard to get started!), and the sun (most weekends I have gotten sunburnt… I really need to find a good sports sunscreen).

We are feeling ready for the marathon… and just want the day to arrive!  We have been training for this day pretty much all year.

Bring it on!!!

One month to go!

We are getting close to the end now. One month to go, four weekend training runs until the big day! This weekend we are doing a 10km run, then another 32km next weekend.

Then we begin the taper with a 20km run, then a 9km run, then the marathon.
I'm starting to doubt whether we have done enough... should we fit in another 32km run? Should we have gone up to 34km? or 36km?But I have to just trust the training plan that we started with, and be happy that we have stuck to it, and so far (touch wood) we have come through it injury free.

We are so close now that I can imagine the race and I am sure that we can do it. I can't wait to be lining up at the start line with the atmosphere and excitement in the air. And then to look forward to seeing the MCG getting closer and closer and knowing that we are almost finished. And the best bit... running onto the MCG and crossing the finish line!

I thought I might take this opportunity to answer a few commonly asked questions:
Q. How far is this marathon?
A. This marathon (and all standard marathons) are 42.195km long (or 26.22 miles).

Q. Where does it start?
A. Batman Avenue (150m north of Rod Laver Arena entrance); You can find the entire course here. http://www.melbournemarathon.com.au/

Q. Where does it finish?
A. We finish by running onto the MCG

Q. How long will it take to finish?
A. We are guessing that it will take around 4.5 hours.

Q. What do you do all that time?
A. We chat, I listen to music, look at the scenary, try to maintain good running form

If you have any other questions, let me know and I will add them in.

Our other goal of the marathon is to raise $2,200 for Cerebral Palsy,
to purchase a walker for a child to help them be mobile. So far we have raised close to $500, but we have a long way to go.

If you can help out, we would appreciate any donations, big or small. They will really help us keep going when we are out there running the marathon - especially in that last 10km!!!

To donate, you can click on the link on the right. Or if you prefer to deal in cash, just see me or Carli.

New Shoes!!!

I finally got myself some new runners yesterday.  My last pair have gone through about 600km… maybe more.  I was tracking how far, but kind of lost track when I stopped using the Nike Plus all the time.

I got entry to the Adidas Centre in Mulgrave with a 40% off voucher.

I got a pair of Adidas SuperNova Glides.  They felt so comfortable as soon as I put them on.  A key feature was that they had a wider toe section, so I’m hoping that will stop the blisters that I have had continuously for as long as I can remember!  It will be good to see if my knees feel better too.  They have started to feel sore after the long runs.

32km! A new record

Firstly a catch-up… Wednesday night running group we did 14km again.  Something we noticed… at the start of the run we are at the back of the pack, always feeling like we might be left behind.  But when we get to the last 5km or so, we are still going strong and steady while the others seem to be flaking.  By the last km we are overtaking people and end up near the front! 

Saturday morning -  we went for our long run (yes I said Saturday!).  Since it was Father’s Day on Sunday and I would be required to help out with breakfast in bed and all that sort of thing, we did our long run on Saturday.  It felt really weird – there was a whole different vibe!  So many more people around, more cars around and it felt like a rush the night before to get ready.

I planned half of the run, Carli worked out the other half.  We parked the car at the swimming pool and did three courses from there, the first was 7km – up near Navan Park, then 5km around Kurunjang, then 5km around West Melton.  Each time we got to stop at the car for a quick drink.  We also had a gel (this time we had the choc flavoured one… have to say that banana strawberry is still the favourite).

Next we headed down Melton South for Carli’s 15km loop down to my place and back.  It felt really strange running toward my house but knowing that we weren’t on the home stretch yet.

We did really good time – and finished in 3:48! Much better than our 30km run a couple of weeks earlier! 

World Wide Festival of Races

I have just registered for the World Wide Festival of Races. It is a virtual race with people from all over the world, on the 10-11th October. Since this lines up perfectly with the Melbourne Marathon, I thought ‘Why Not’? (Though there is only an option for 5km, 10km or half marathon – can I register for the half twice???).

It’s interesting to see how many people from Australia have registered (12)… it is mainly made up of people from the US or UK. I am the 599th person to register.

We even get a virtual goody bag at the end of the run!

I heard about it on the Running from the Reaper podcast which I listen to (a guy from the UK who ran in the London Marathon). After seeing a couple of photos that he took of the canals that he runs along, I got inspired to create this blog.

Fundraising – Hand made cards

My second idea for fundraising is selling hand made cards.  Originally I planned on selling muffins, but our oven had other ideas (the glass in the oven door exploded, so the insurance company is organising a replacement).

I have made a heap of Father’s Day cards to sell, after getting an idea from Leah’s Kaszazz card party.  The card is based on a black apron idea, with two themes… one for the home handyman, and the other for the BBQ lover.

I have taken them to work and to Josh’s school to sell, and just ask for a donation of what people would normally spend on a card.

I also have a birthday card and new baby card.  I even got an order for a custom card!

So far we have raised $474.19.  I really liked the person who donated $42.19 (ie $1 for every km we run!)

I also made 20c so far from adSense ads lol! Guess that idea didn’t exactly work! It was worth a try though.

We have a long way to go to reach our goal.. anybody got some other ideas we could use???

22km loop the loop

Our Sunday run this week was quite a loop the loop… check out the map:

If you follow the numbers like a dot to dot you will see what I mean!  It was a good idea though coz we could leave the drinks at one stop and come back there a couple of different times.  I have an idea of doing a four leaf clover type run one week (drop all the drinks at a central location and do four loops in different directions from that place).

I didn’t get any photos from this run… and there wasn’t really anything that stood out as exciting or interesting… it was a relief though to be having a step back week, because my legs felt really heavy.

I was a bit of a smart alec this week though when talking to people and saying that we ran 30km the week before and we were taking it easy this week and ONLY running 22km! lol Oh how far we have come in three months!

The countdown is on, with only 5 Sunday training runs to go before the big day.