The Tim and I

After the excitement of my trip to Sydney to meet with the other WorldVision marathoners, you'd have thought that the following week would be something of a let down. Not so. The past week has had some seriously big ticket items - firstly, I got to meet the wonderful Rev Tim Costello, CEO of WorldVision. Secondly, we had the 'Red Dog' movie fundraiser and thirdly, donations and funds raised passed an incredible $15 000!!

Me with Tim Costello  

Tim has, of course, been very visible this past week as he tries to bring the world's attention away from the stockmarket and on to the huge humanitarian crisis that has engulfed the Horn of Africa. He stopped off in Perth on his way there and I was very lucky to get to meet him at the WorldVision office - what an authentic and truly inspirational human being he is.

The movie fundraiser was very well attended and we raised over $1400 towards the total which is now sitting at $15 058!! A huge THANK YOU to everyone who donated prizes, who came and watched the movie (sniff, what a weepie) and also, of course, to everyone who has contributed to that incredible pool of money since December.

Oh and the running! It's almost been an afterthought this week. But I've managed Week 1 of the Revised Novice Supreme pretty well. The long run this week was 8km. I've hired a treadmill for 6 months and it's been great - we have had an unseasonally wet winter so I've been doing most of my weekly runs inside. (Not such a tough endurance athlete then, really. Don't like to get wet or anything) Fortunately, Sunday was sunny and clear. It was so lovely to be running outside and around the bridges again and I am happy to report that it went well EXCEPT for some disturbing niggling in that naughty left illio-tibial band again at the 7km mark. It's ba-ack. My heart sank when I realised. But, instead of running the last kilometre I channelled Gerard the sports physio and stopped and walked.

There's an upside to all this though. In the Women's Classic this problem showed up at the 3km mark - at least it didn't show until the 7km this time. And - GUILTY! - I have been slacking off with those ITB stretches and the strengthening exercises Gerard gave me. It was kind of annoying to have to stop at 7km as I felt I could have kept running and running but I learned that particular lesson the hard way once before when I tried to push on through. So it was back to the icepacks and anti-inflammatories. Back to the stretches and leg lifts. And back to feeling that particular combination of terror and excitement that is the realisation that the marathon is a-coming. And awfully quickly too.

But I can't let it get overwhelming. I just have to keep focussed on each step (literally), take each week as it comes and not get too far ahead. Just take it one game at a time. (Thank you, Bull Durham.)