| June 27, 2008. Friday |
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It's been nearly a month since Sundown, but the post-84km running blues still exist. I have only run about six or seven times since the race, mostly 5ks and the longest being 10k. I decided I needed to give me legs a break after all that battering. I've never done this before, not run for more than three days in a row. I'm excited to find out how it feels to come back fresh. Well, hopefully fresh, that is. Cos I've still been swimming, cycling, and doing loads of the elliptical trainer in the office gym. I crank up the resistance, select the hill programme and bang out the highest cadence as my legs can move at as possible. Built up from five minute intervals to 10, 15, 20 and yesterday I did a 45min whack. Tis quite good actually. I can monitor my heartrate by gripping the handlebars and my legs do feel like it's getting a good workout. But I wonder how that translates to the running motion. But I will find out next Sunday, when I run the Gold Coast Marathon. :-) No PB expected, just a whole load of fun and soaking up the sun, sand, sea and scenery. Surfers' Paradise, here I come!! Haven't been back there since I was there with the parents when I was 12. We used to have a house there -- the upside-down house my dad built on a plot of land he bought -- but we've sold it off already for the money. Anyway I'll be putting up at the Holiday Inn there, a couple of hundred metres from the beach, so I'm not complaining. Thanks to Tourism Queensland for the trip! Right, I wonder how it will feel running 42km after having raced an 84. I remember how I used to have jitters before a 42. But after a training run takes me to the 50k mark... that really puts in perspective a 42k race. Still, the pace will be much faster and uh, it's a race. But for Gold Coast I'm just treating it as a 42k holiday stroll by the sea.... Leave the panting to October's Nike Women's Marathon. ;-)
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| June 22, 2008. Sunday |
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As you may have read, I've come away pretty much empty handed from winning the Sundown Marathon three weeks ago. Yeah, big hoohah and all, he said she said they said we said... no, no, no, I say, you say,... whatever. At the end of the day, the rules didn't say, and that's a fact. The next time you want to offer a business deal as a prize, state the conditions clearly so. Wait. Rewind. Let me say that I never did complain about the prize, or rather, the non-prize. I was pretty much fine with letting it slide. Had lunch with J, heard her pitch, felt extremely flattered but knew who I was going to stick with. No problem. Till a colleague told the bosses and they found it juicier than a piece of Morton's meat. So, story ran, photoshoot and all. Unfortunately, no one will ever know, from the article, that I didn't want to make a fuss of it in the first place. Anyway, what's done is done. Articles were well-written and fair. Everyone had a chance to say whatever they wanted to. I've made my decision. I'm not settling for second best . A holiday? I didn't win a holiday. I won a trip to Berlin to run the Berlin Marathon, which registration has already closed for. You could call it a priceless prize. But I won't push it. Thank you, but no thanks. In all fairness, the $3,000 worth of products was not mine, but they offered it, so I took and I gave away to the Special Olympics. The football team has been playing with boots kept from falling apart by masking tape. They need it much more than I, my colleagues or my mom does. Hope you like the new kicks, guys. And then comes Nike. A trip to run the Nike Women's Marathon in San Francisco in October, as a mark of support and recognition of my win. Bloody hell, sponsors don't come better than this. They didn't have to do anything, but they did something. A huge thing. From the bottom of my heart, thank you to the swoosh. Am I sore I came up with an "empty" victory at the Sundown? Not one bit. And not because I still get a schweet trip to SF, my favourite city in the whole world. But, because I did win, and in the words of George and Ira Gershwin, "They can't take that away from me."
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| June 10, 2008. Tuesday |
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Phew. It's been a pretty great coupla weeks. Last weekend was spent in Bali, the previous one was spent running 84km and the previous one was spent racing the Bintan Tri. Loads of beaches and sunsets and sunrises... Loads of achy breaky legs and sweat and tears and adrenaline highs. Yeah, it's been a great ride, baby. Just got back from an easy 30km spin. Been pretty active since the Sundown Ultra, boogie boarding (and trying to surf), playing tennis, going to the gym a bit and running on the beach in Bali. But I think my body's not ready for the full on craziness of training seriously again so I'm just gonna do whatever I feel like doing. Yaye for golf lessons tonight! Here are some snapshots from the past coupla weeks gone by:
Anyway, I've got loads to say but no time to say it, but here's the first version of my story that eventually got edited and was in last Saturday's paper. Hope you like it. *********************** TO HELL AND BACK ************************* NINE hours is more than enough sleep one needs in
a day. You could fly to Sydney within that time, or watch the Lord
of the Rings trilogy.
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