Deja Vu

We got hit by a storm on the weekend. The warnings from the weather guys were pretty clear - don't go anywhere unless you absolutely need to, make sure all loose items are away from the wind, open a window on the lee side of the house so you don't lose your roof. We stocked up on candles and gas, and spent a very quiet Saturday watching the wind swirl around the house and wondering if the rotten pine tree on the reserve edge would come down across our roof. Nothing happened. We didn't even lose power.

There is another storm heading towards us now - with torrential rain due today and tomorrow. Oh joy! Hopefully we will come through that one as easily as we did the weekend's storm. We are lucky though - in a reasonably sheltered position and high enough that we won't flood - although Saturday's high tide in our little inlet was the highest we had ever seen. You have to feel sorry for those who did have damage, be it wind or flood related. I am not sure I could cope with the aftermath of a major flood - just heartbreaking.

So, deja vu, another storm. And deja vu, another half marathon this weekend. A group of us have rented a house in Taupo and will head down on Saturday morning, with the half marathon on Sunday morning. I'm taking a long weekend so Rupes and I will head back on the Monday. I'm sort of looking forward to it - it will be fun with the whole gang there, all doing their event their way. Strong competition between the runners, so whoever comes in first will have bragging rights for the Sunday night recovery dinner! As for me, I'll just be concentrating on hopefully beating my time from the last half marathon, and finishing in one piece. Please cross your fingers for decent weather!

In other news, Katie cut her paw quite badly last weekend. So, she spent a night on the bed with me Sunday night so I could keep her from licking her bandage. I didn't get a lot of sleep as Toby had to be there too, and decided that running around the bedroom at midnight with a pair of Rupert's undies was fun. Grrr! Katie had stitches on Monday, while Toby spent the day with our neighbour's dog, so he was worn out from running around, and she was worn out from being sedated. She now has one of those collars so she can't lick her paw - another couple of days and the stitches will come out and we'll be back to normal. Well, what passes for normal in our house anyway!

On the infertility front - hmm wasn't that the original reason for this blog?? Well...there is no news. We've been trying on the appropriate days, but with no result. I think our pregnancy last year was really just a one off miracle. I am almost resigned to the fact that we will never have a baby (not our own anyway). Still a lot of hurt and sadness there, especially with my "due date" coming up on the 4th August. Imagine if the baby had stuck around. I'd be huge by now. And ready to give birth (or have a C). Hard to think about really, and I think I'm going to be a bit sad until the 4th is over.

I Did It!

It was a beautiful morning. Clear and crisp. The start of the racing today was delayed by about half an hour which made me a little anxious, but soon enough we were off. There were 1350 people walking/running today - doing either the 6km, 10km, or the half marathon.

It was tough. Really tough. Especially heading down to Northhead and seeing all the runners coming back the other way. Nice to see Rupes and Murray near Narrowneck Beach, but after that I was pretty much on my own. I really just put my head down and went as well as I could. I did a little jogging (less as the event and time wore on, and my body wore out). Probably the hardest part was back along Takapuna Beach to the finish line, though going up and around Northhead was pretty tough too.

My aim was to finish in 3hrs 30mins, and not to be last. Even with a very brief toilet stop my time was 2hrs 58mins 38secs. And I wasn't last. So, all in all a good day.

And now I am very tired. Very sore. Everything from the waist down hurts. But I did it - my first half marathon (and quite possibly my last!)

All the friends did well too - Rupes did a personal best of 1.52.50, Murray beat him at 1.52.30, Nicole did the 10km in about 57mins and Cindy in about 55mins. Excellent. And the breakfast almost made up for the pain!

Almost Ready...

We had a very cold weekend. Snow in places that hadn't seen snow in years - and some really nasty rain/hail downpours. A few of us had been going to meet at Takapuna to do a practice run/walk for next weekend's half marathon, but we all decided to stay home! Had a very lazy day, playing on my computer and organising my Itunes, then friends over for a lovely dinner on Saturday night. Rupes cooked roast pork followed by baked pears - very nice, especially with a couple of glasses of wine!

Sunday morning started off the same way, lazy and cold, but the weather cleared, so I decided to get out there and train. The most I have walked so far is around 12.5kms and I was getting nervous about the half marathon being just days away, so decided to really go for it. 23kms and nearly four hours later I staggered home! The first 15kms or so were actually pretty good, and then my hip started to ache. And it just steadily got sorer and sorer. But, I got through it, didn't give up (not that I could as I had no way of getting home) and am surprisingly ok today, just a bit of soreness, and a general weariness.

Luckily our lovely neighbours invited us over for a spa and roast chicken, so that was really nice - and the spa definately helped ease the aches. The other good thing is that the course I chose to do (for those who know me, I walked from home to work, then around the lake, then back home) was very hilly, in fact about four times as hilly as the actual half marathon race on Sunday.

So the upshot is that barring major accidents, viruses, or training injuries, I am ready for my first half marathon. I'm hoping for a time of around 3 hours 15 minutes and intend to walk most of the way as running/jogging seems to aggravate some of my old injuries. I'm a little nervous, but at least I know I can do the distance, even if the last part of it is a major slog!