The One With The Naked Marathoner - But It's No-One You Know

So, something big happened a few weeks ago at the 2011 Boston Marathon (one of the 'Big Five' marathons in the world, along with New York, Berlin, Chicago and London). Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya beat the previous men's marathon record held by Haile Gebrselassie by almost a minute. He covered the distance in 2 hours 3 minutes and 2 seconds! AMAZING!!  Unfortunately for Geoffrey (if I may call him that), his time isn't recognised as a world record by the International Association of Athletics Federations since the undulating but overall downhill Boston course does not meet the eligibility criteria. Bummer. If it weren't for the over $US200 000 prize he took home, I might even feel sorry for the guy.

On a sort-of related note, in that this happened at a recent marathon, and which I include because... well, what's NOT funny about a naked marathoner... Brett Henderson was spotted by police running without his pants on during the Flying Pig marathon held in Cincinatti, USA last weekend. Police told him to get in the car but he wouldn't so they tasered him. And then they charged him with public indecency. (Mental note to self .....).

This slow but fully clothed (soon-to-be) marathoner has gotten her training mojo back. The weather in Perth has been so beautiful lately with cool mornings and sunny days that it's not really a chore to get out and get back into it. And now we have moved nearer to school, I can get into a regular routine of running and biking to uni. I thought I would ride in, run home and the next day run in then ride home. That gives me my training hours for the week but doesn't take too much time out of my working day. This schedule, along with the swimming, will keep me going until early July, when the proper marathon training program, complete with long runs, kicks in. Yikes!

My colleague Tony Buti and I were interviewed by the lovely Lindy of UWA News yesterday. Tony is running the New York Marathon as well this year, except his chosen charity is Amnesty International, rather than WorldVision. You can donate to Tony's campaign here. And mine here! Tony has completed two marathons already and runs into Parliament from his home near the Hills on a regular basis.  While I aim just to complete my first marathon, he is aiming to do a sub 3:30. So I've just made him promise not to lap me on the New York course.

Some photos, courtesy of UWA News:

The official photo to accompany the article:

The photo where it looks like I might have said something to upset Tony:

And finally, the photo where I perform possibly the lamest quad stretch known to mankind and which undeniably marks me out as a complete novice:

Thanks once again to Lindy Brophy and UWA News for letting me put the photos on The New Walker!