The One About the First Fundraiser

A huge THANK YOU to everyone who came to the first fundraiser last night! We raised almost $400.00 - hoorah! Not bad for a first effort and an easy, low-key event. Perth is in the middle of an extreme heatwave at the moment and even though the days are pretty unbearable, the nights are balmy and still - and  perfect for an outdoor movie. There was just the faintest of sea breezes so Helen and Josh's garden, complete with Luna-worthy movie screen, (or as Josh likes to call it, 'the White Trash Somerville') was a great place to be. And the hotdogs, popcorn, lemonade and Sally's brownies went down extremely well.

First, we watched the 'Seeds of Hope' DVD which follows Hugh Jackman's journey to Ethiopia to see the work of the SEE project in action. It's a great documentary and not just because it features the lovely Hugh; the story of Dukale, the Ethiopian coffee farmer he meets and works alongside, is pretty inspirational and a wonderful example of what can happen when people living in poverty are given that 'hand up' to empower themselves. (You can see short films of the other projects that are supported by the SEE project on their webpage. Click on the SEE project link under the Websites heading at right!)

A short interval for coffee (fairtrade, can't have anything else now after seeing 'Seeds of Hope')  and cake and then we were on to the main feature 'Run Fatboy Run'. I love this movie and think it's brilliantly funny - although make sure you're not eating during the blister scene.

Some photos of the festivities:
 


Random movie-goers









More random movie-goers!







And even more random movie-goers. Thanks for bringing all your lovely chums, AK!





Me with my Mum and Dad



Tex and Raoul make themselves comfortable



The screen (and Raoul's head ... and Tex's right knee ...)





Angus taking in 'Run Fatboy Run'





I took more photos but I'm not sure I've worked out how to use the iPhone at night and all the others were either blurry, over-exposed and/or featured children with spooky shiny eyes. Creeeeeepy.

The support and the opportunity to show the DVD and talk a bit about why I'm running for the SEE project has given me such a boost. Even though we are in for another week of brutal summer weather (I know I am moaning about the heat in every blogpost but it's Really. Freaking. Hot. here, people!!) I am planning to get up early to get my runs in. It's really going to be the only time when it will be cool enough. So, please, for your own sakes, give me a wide berth if you see me. Because I will be cranky. Oh, yes. I will be cranky.

The One Where I Navigate the Work/Life/Running Balance

Oh, work. I had forgotten what a time drain you are. Fitting in my runs has proved a bit challenging over the last two weeks and my running shoes are wondering if they have said something to upset me. I only managed two of the three runs allocated for Week 5 of the Couch Potato to 10kms app and now, I'm on Week 6 and it's already Wednesday and I haven't done anything yet! With a busy schedule and week of high temperatures forecast, I'm wondering just how I'm going to get it all done. I'm going to have to run tonight (after a 36 degree day - bleaggghhh), Friday and Sunday to complete the week and make sure there is a suitable gap between runs. (Navigating the work/children/life balance is tricky enough but I am SO not a hot weather person and am just hanging out for autumn.)

It's become obvious I need me a new schedule and that Hard Decisions were called for. First realisation, I had taken on too much work-wise once again (Character Flaw #164: overly optimistic relationship to time). By cutting back on an external project, as of next week I will have two days where I don't need to be anywhere so I can spare the students the sight of me in running shorts and run after school drop-off at 8.30 on Tuesdays and every second Friday (when I haven't done the Cottesloe walk, of course).

All my marathon books advise doing some cross-training in conjunction with running so I thought I would also start incorporating some post-teaching lunchtime swims. UWA has the most beautiful outdoor pool (open to the public also) and, as I said last post, I'm pretty useless after a solid morning of teaching. A swim will be a great wind down and an opportunity to increase my fitness.

So, at this point, the proposed new exercise/running schedule goes a little something like this:

Monday - swim; Tuesday - run & pilates; Wednesday - swim; Thursday - rest day; Friday - run; Saturday or Sunday - depending on the myriad of sporting and social engagements of my children - run.

That should be a good lead up to the Round the Bridges Run on April 10th. After that, I know I will need to add at least an extra day of running in. But for now, this will be challenge enough.

On a different note, I was bit excited to see in my reader stats (which I most certainly do NOT check obsessively, no way) that someone from Ethiopia read my blog. How cool is that? I've chosen to believe it was Haile Gebrselassie checking out his competition. Haile, known as Geb, is the guy who has recorded the fastest marathon time EVER. He completed the 2008 Berlin Marathon in 2 hours 3 minutes and 59 seconds. Amazing stuff. Dear Ethiopian reader, if you are NOT Haile, please don't tell me. I simply do not need to know.

The One where I Consider a New Use for the Urn in the Staffroom

This week, I completed Week 4 of C210K without incident - no sore knee, no lizard brain, no changing pre-training plans, no Freaking.Right.Out. - hoorah! And, even stranger, I was actually looking forward to my training sessions. What's happening to me?!! All this and the first week of school as well. 

Up until now, I've enjoyed running early-ish in the morning but with my childrens' schooling making a reappearance, I've had to have a rethink about when I am going to fit in my training. We need to get up just before 6.30am to get everything and everyone ready for school and for me to fit the programme in beforehand would mean getting up at 5.30am. That can't happen if I am expected to be pleasant to people during the day as well. So this week, I ran on Tuesday and on Friday after school drop-off and on Sunday evening once the sea-breeze had come in.  Adorable.

But of course, I'm not back at work yet. Which is all about to change tomorrow. So, I am going to have to be more creative about fitting the three lots of (roughly) one hour training. I've decided that my best bet will be to run at lunch-time. Although I am not keen about running in the hottest part of the day and the potential for students to laugh at the sad, cellulitey (is that even a word?) old lady trying to run, there are several advantages that I can see - firstly, this semester I will be teaching classes three days a week at 10 - 11am and 12 - 1pm. I am generally incapable of doing anything other than low-level admin or checking email in the hour after I come off a solid morning of teaching so a run will be a good use of that time. Secondly, I am pretty fortunate to work at UWA, conveniently located next to the Swan River, a quite gorgeous spot to run around. I'm yet to work out where the showers are (never having had the need to know before) but UWA is pretty well stocked with those kind of facilities. If all else fails, I figure I could always turn the hot water urn in the staff room off, wait for it to cool down and use that.

My fellow runner, Mike Edyejones, the 'Muffintop Marathoner' has written a great post about the guilt he was feeling raising money for an international project, when closer to home in Queensland, they have experienced such devastation over the last month and need our help. I had been thinking similar thoughts myself. You can check out his post here.

If you haven't already heard, our fundraising movie night 'Run Fatboy Run' is on Saturday the 26th of February. We have had a great response so far and there are only 10 tickets left so let me know soon if you'd like a ticket. Have a great week!

The Quick Post Where I Just Tell You About Our First Fundraising Event

As part of the fundraising effort for the NY Marathon, my lovely friends Helen and Josh have offered to host an open-air movie night in their large and lush Fremantle backyard on Saturday the 26^th of February.  The movie is ‘Run Fatboy Run’ which is about the charming but hapless Dennis Doyle (Simon Pegg) who leaves his fiancée (Thandie Newton, as if) on their wedding day only to discover years later that he really loves her. To win her back, he decides to run a marathon in the hope of making her realise that her handsome, wealthy fiance (Hank Azaria) is the wrong guy for her.  It’s a very funny film. I also plan to show the 30 minute ‘Seeds of Hope’ DVD starring Hugh Jackman, which details his trip to Ethiopia with World Vision to see the work of WorldVision’s SEE project in that country.

Tickets are $15.00 adults, children free (although the movie is rated PG 13, FYI!) and we will be selling popcorn, hotdogs, soft drink and coffee & tea.  

This is our first major fundraiser so it would be wonderful to see you there. If you’d like a ticket, just let me know and I will send you them by email. We have room for only 50 people so first in, best .. um, viewing spot!