The Bus Of Shame

On Monday I met with the lovely Aditi of Inspired Adventures and fellow Perth marathoner Holly 'I Ain't Riding No Bus of Shame' Ord (more on how she got that pithy nickname later). Aditi was over from Sydney to meet with us and have a chat about how it was all going.  It was an opportunity once again to think about the last six months and just how this whole crazy marathon thing started.

How did it start? Well, I'm glad you asked. It actually started in November with an email from one of my oldest and dearest friends, the lovely Elaine. Elaine had just started working for WorldVision and sent an email to all her contacts saying that WorldVision were looking for people to do the New York Marathon whilst raising $10 000 for the SEE Solutions project. Given my exercising history, I suspect Elaine meant for me to pass this email on to others but instead I took myself completely by surprise when I heard myself think 'I'm going to do that'.

Funnily enough, only a few weeks previously I had decided, quite out of character, that I was in need of a physical challenge and had chatted to some fellow school mums about maybe doing the City to Surf. We'd even met for coffee to discuss; which was just as well because that coffee suddenly morphed into 'currently in training for the City to Surf' when asked by Inspired Adventures about my running experience to date. To my non-running self, 42km and 12km couldn't be THAT much different. (Oh, what a sweet, naive, little couch dweller I was back then!)

Secondly, I had been a supporter of WorldVision for a long time and, like many people, was a big fan of the work they do. Being connected in to the legal profession and the private school network, I figured that I knew enough people who would be both willing and able to support the fundraising and donate to such a great organisation.  (As it turns out, that was the easy bit; I clearly had no idea how generous people could be (see below!))

Sometimes these things pop up and for some reason, even though it comes completely out of left field, it's obvious that it's meant for you. And even though sometimes I wonder WHAT THE *&^% AM I DOING?????, I am really glad I took this on; I'm certainly going to miss it when it's over. There's something nice about having a really huge but tangible goal to complete. Even if it does involve running a ridiculously long way.

Speaking of running a ridiculously long way, I've mentioned before that the 'Non-Runners Marathon Trainer' emphatically states that first time marathoners should not set a time goal (even if I do secretly dream of beating Katie Holmes' 5:29:58). Unfortunately, the lovely Holly has recently drawn my attention to the Sweep Bus, a.k.a. the Bus Of Shame.  The sweep bus follows the marathon route at a 6:30:00 marathon pace, allowing runners who've had enough to drop out. Check out some YouTube footage of the Bus here.  If you're slower than the bus, the roads re-open and you have to continue on the footpath, sorry, sidewalk to the end. The Bus Of Shame has been giving Holly nightmares and frankly, it's freaking me out a touch now as well. So, even though it's against the NRMT rules, I am hereby setting myself a minimum goal of 6:29:00. Because I'm with Holly - I Ain't Riding No Bus of Shame.

Even if this guy ran the marathon slower than 6:30:00 I suspect he wouldn't actually fit in the Bus of Shame

My shins seem to have healed up ok but it certainly knocked my confidence a bit. This weekend is the 10km Women's Classic at Burswood - that will be my longest run since my shinjury - so I am looking forward to seeing how the legs hold up.

And, finally, to end on the happiest of happy notes, donations to WorldVision are now at $10 211.00 with donations coming in every day, a fundraiser that hasn't even happened yet and some promised donations from some lovely cynics who just want to see me cross that line in November (fair enough!) I'm excited enough to aim for a new target of $15 000. And a HUGE thank you once again!!

Is Shinjury A Word? (If Not, It Jolly Well Should Be)

First, great news on the fundraising front -  the donation-o-meter is now at $7991.00, an absolutely amazing amount!! (Don't worry, I can count! $1070.00 of that has been raised off-line and so doesn't show up under the 'Donations So Far' counter at right.) The half way point was passed only a few weeks ago and since then almost $3000.00 has come in. Unbelievable. When you think about what the SEE Solutions project can do with just $100.00, an amount of money like this is going to do some serious good. Hoorah!

And tickets are ready to go for our 'Red Dog' movie fundraiser. It's on Friday the 12th of August at 9.30am at the Cygnet Cinema in Preston St, Como. $30.00 includes the movie (obviously!), champagne and nibbles and well as the chance to win some great door prizes! We will also be having a raffle and selling tickets for that on the day. The lovely Dee, my friend and official Novice Supreme physiotherapist, has kindly offered to organise the ticket sales for me so if you would like some, and I do so hope you will, please give her a call on 0427 2727 32.

This week's training was ... ok. My shins have been misbehaving; it felt like there were metal plates jiggling up and down on the outside of my lower leg. It's no doubt from overuse (and trying to pick up the speed a bit as well) and it's meant that I've had to walk for parts of my training runs this week. Disappointing. But, this didn't feel like the kind of pain I should push through and, since injury is Enemy Number One of the potential marathoner according to the 'Non-Runner's Marathon Trainer', I thought I'd better be Sensible. I didn't want a shin injury (a shinjury, even).

It was in this spirit of shin-saving cross-training that I went for a 6 hour walk along the last part of the lovely Bibbulmun Track with my father-in-law today, instead of the 5km 'long run' scheduled for this week. We walked from Ball Creek, which is out past Mundaring Weir (looking kind of empty and sad) to Kalamunda, about 21km in total. It was a beautiful day, sunny with a cool breeze and we managed to keep up a fairly decent pace over some fairly decent hills. It was hard work but no sore shins (sore just about everything else though). 

No-one who knows Tom needs to ask who this is

Morning tea at the 5km mark. This humble apricot slice powered us through 16 more kilometres

We worked really hard today but at least my shins got a rest from pavement pounding. I hope they appreciate it and behave themselves this week as I get on to Week 4 of the Novice Supreme (Expurgated Version) and this week's 9km long run in particular. 

By the way, one of my fellow Perth marathoners, the lovely Holly Ord, is running for Cure Cancer. She has set up a blog, 42km's Closer to a Cure, and a recent post contains a wonderful description of the New York Marathon route. I got excited (and slightly terrified) as I read it. You can check it out here!