Half Marathon/Gold Coast

PICS:
* Hilary and Skye, 2-07-11 - I will msg you this one
* Just before heading off to half marathon at about 4.10am 3-07-11
* A new maroon sports bra shot at also about 4.10am on race morning!
* I got a guy to take a pic of me post race with t-shirt and medal. Pity about the finger coverage on lens!
* In apartment with race completion t-shirt and medal not long after I got home, (Surfers apartment) after my coffee on the way back to apartment!

BTW, - if doing a half marathon or long distance race singally, - in Orchid Ave you may hear partying all night, some vigorous fights. Either go with it and 'harden up' or stay somewhere a bit quieter and enjoy more sleeping time :-) !

Start Of Recent Holiday Pics And Talk! 1st-19th July 2011

Howdy all, I think there will be a few photos here as I have two cameras to download them from. It was a topz trip!!!

I headed out of Perth for Brissie and the Gold Coast 1 July. I met up with Hilary 2nd July and picked up my race pack. 3rd July was half marathon race day. 4th July was spent checking out my old fav places on the Goldy!

5th July I headed up for Airlie Beach to stay with my Aunty and Uncle and was lucky enough to be in their apartment! 6th July was spent lunching then jetskiing around the Whitsundays with a fab bunch of awesome people. 7th July was spent sea kayaking leaving from Shute Harbour with another great bunch! 8th July was spent chillaxing around Airlie Beach with my relatives and farewelling my sis and her husband who had to unfortunately move on from their honeymoon. 9th July I departed Airlie Beach...headed for Sydney via Brissie!

10th July I spent checking out the shops, checking out Circular Quay and Darling Harbour and being enticed by some eateries and wine/cocktail bars at Darling Harbour ;-)!!

11th July was more of the same after a good morning walk! (I didn't organise myself to be up early enough for a run, then shower, then checkout!) Late that evening at 2350hrs infact I ended up in Christchurch where it was an awakening 4 degrees with a small antarctic blast present! :-)

I stayed overnight at the Sudima Hotel, (the nearest one to the airport). Then after a good but too short type of sleep, then great coffee the next morning I was on the plane at 9am headed for Invercargill! I was greeted in Invercargill by my Mum and my sis who had made it back there from her honeymoon! Awesome to see them both. Now it was 1 degree, stronger Antarctic type blasts were present with some snow, rain, sleet in the mix as well! After a bit we had a fantastic lunch, - even a wine with it......and another awesome coffee, - Invers can put it on sometimes!!! That evening it was a great family catchup! 13 July I had a bit of a sleep in, then my sis and I went to visit Grandma who lives 30km away, - my older sis happened to be in the area at this stage so as a family we all went out for tea that night!
14 July was the prep day for Mum and Dad's anniversary dinner that evening with a few others. My sis and I spent the day casually prepping for that, (however Dad ended up cooking the delicious steak so it was an easy day!!!) Great night!
15th July I did a couple of jobs, then a casual 4km jog/run to my sisters! I can see why running with gloves as well as a beanie is a good idea here! I saw my older sis and my Grandma again that day.

16 July younger sis and I were headed for Queenstown. We caught up with a cousin for brekkie, then shopped, caught up with mates, all the normal fun stuff and had some wines in the room that evening! 17 July we caught up with a couple of my younger sisters longer term mates, (I've known them longish term too but know through my sister). It was another great day.

18 July I headed for Christchurch to stay another Uncle and Aunt and more cousins before heading back to Perth yesterday. Really good to see everyone here too!

1st pic is me in the now 'guest room' at Mum and Dad's.
2nd pic is of younger sis and her hubby at 'Coffee Club' in Airlie Beach.
3rd pic is myself at the 'Airlie beach........beach'!!!
4th is the 'Portside Whitsundays' Holiday apartments view from across the road!
5th is 'Portside Whitsunday Office', where my Uncle and Aunt work. They live in a nearby apartment.

More pics coming very soon without all the talk :-)

Pip

JUST A BIT MORE DETAIL HALF MARATHON REPORT

OK, the race started at QLD 6am, (4am Perth time). That meant I got up at 4am QLD time, (2am Perth time). Then had brekkie, got changed, walked out of apartment and down a couple of blocks to catch the free shuttle to where the race started!

Brekkie was 2 rice cakes, half a low sugar/low fat carton iced coffee and water. I chose one of the cheapest apartments on Orchid Ave to stay in. However all evening there seemed to be a few guys having a mega fighting match, (lots of abuse, swearing, smashing stuff, abuse etc). I was fearing walking out of the apartment complex to even get to the street at 4.20am! That and nightclub music and race nerves kept me awake, (don't think I would have even got one hours sleep the night before the race)!

All had luckily settled down by time I had to leave apartment complex. I had a 5 mins walk through the main nightclub area of Surfers at 4.20am. Luckily it was populated though with lots of drunk people rather than isolated seedy feeling so all good!

Made it to bus stop and to race start area by 5am. Then mission to was check 'left luggage' in after taking off jumper. COLD now! Then visit loo a couple of times before lining up for race. I decided to line up just in front of 2 hour finish tag. There were 1.24, 1.30, 1.40, 1.50, 2.00, 2.10, 2.20 pacers.

I was nervous, the morning was cool enough, (not cold).

The race started off well. I felt my comfortable sustaining pace was somewhere between the 1.50 and 2 hour pacers. I maintained that till about 11km. Then started to feel buggered so my running slowed. At just on 15km the 2 hour pacers passed me. I kinda tried to catch them but had hit a wall. My main focus was to keep on running, - not stop! While the last 6km were a real struggle I managed that and my net time was 2.03.05. Gun time was 2.05.32 which was just 6 seconds behind Melinda Gainsford-Taylor's gun time so I discovered today, (if only I concentrated enough to spot her!) Melinda is an ex Aussie 100m-200m Olympic Sprint champ but has now retired, had children and is in her late 30's but decided to try a long distance race.

Lesson: - long distance racing requires long distance training :-) But am happy with my result!

GOLD COAST HALF MARATHON QUICK UPDATE

I'm at an internet cafe with limited time so I will do a more detailed post later. I've announced my doings on facebook too :-)

Gun time looked to be 2 hrs, 5 mins, 31 secs. Net time I'm guessing will be 3-4 mins faster. So I didn't make the under 2 hour goal but have still smashed my previous PB by about 13 minutes.

I was feeling great and keeping between the 1.50 and 2 hour flags nicely for the first 11km or so feeling very accomplished. Then I felt myself fatiguing and slowed a bit. Then the dreaded 2 hour flags caught me at the 15km mark and I was very tired. I tried to keep up but just wanted to walk! However the mental toughness to keep 'shuffling' along the final 6km was there!

To be fair I've been slack with long run training, - infact hardly ever run anything over 12km tops in one go! Will put photos up soon and I still remain nicely at my target weight of around 61.5 - 62kg!

Talk soon!

Pip :-)

'BRIDGES 9.6km RUN PB' - 49 mins, 26 secs

OK, I'm stoked with that right now! A frivilous goal for a few years has been to go under 50 mins. A few weeks ago I got that run down to 51 mins flat which was awesome at the time and I hadn't beaten it since. To finally beat 51 mins and to go under 50 mins feels totally amazing! It was for sure a hard core run but it felt great at the end and I powered when needed ;-) 1 week tomorrow till I leave for holidays. And in 9 1/2 days I hope to basking in my half marathon glory ;-) More soon!!! xx

WELCOME POST

HELLO AND WELCOME!!!

Now what to say and where to start with keeping it relatively brief, (lol)??? First new blog posts are always fun!

OK, I'm Pip, I'm a Kiwi but now live in the Perth Hills region. I've been living in Western Australia for 6 and a half years now. Am almost 31 now, (wow, - where does time go???)

Most of my readers will know me from 'Achievement Blog' where for the last few years I have mainly documented my struggles with my weight, struggles with overeating, feeling slightly 'inferior' to how I wanted to. And while I did work hard to make good ground to where I wanted to be numerous times..............I seemed to undo it just as many times and found it hard to get past the belief of............'this is how it is'! However I did make noteable progress over the last 3 years by gradually lowering my 'cut off point' for re-bounding weight gain and it worked a treat. Now I'm at a level I'm happy with weight/body fat% wise and in a range I intend to maintain.....but not go on about it so much. I'm sure little quirky updates will surface occasionally though!

So this blog is designed to share my current hobbies/passions! They are:

* Photography. OK, since my early teens I've always loved taking photos of my doings and scrapbooking them or putting them into albums and writing captions about them. I got a film SLR camera for my 21st birthday as that is what I wanted. I've had a few digital cameras since. I'm not the most technically minded person and my skills currently are pretty much 'point and shoot' but I really want to expand on this. My intention is to buy a new digital SLR type camera set, do for a start a good photography beginners course somehow, maybe buy a new suitable laptop to help. Anyway I really want to broaden my knowledge with photography, graphics, making albums that look like books and the like. It will be a strong side interest that will lead to 'who knows what'!

* TRAVEL. Overseas travel, holidays and adventure is something I've always wanted to be involved with! The odd luxury holiday/cruise full of indulgences will be awesome and is on my 'to do list'. However I want some of my travel to be adventure and somewhat educational based as well. Capturing the awesome aspects of my travel by photos/videos/digital means will be awesome. Here goes a bit of a list of travel things I want to do during the next few years:
- Visit a few regions of Canada for some hiking, cycling, kayaking, sight seeing and catching up with a couple of people I know and taking many pictures!
- Cycling and wine tasting at Champagne in France, - maybe a cycling tour
- Hiking in Spain
- Going to Vegas, Canyons, Visiting New York
- Visiting either Thailand or Vietnam for an active pursuit such as a hiking/cycling tour.
- Going to Hawaii for adventure and relaxing
- A cruise in Alaska someday sounds magnificent - plus much more!

* SPORT AND RECREATIONAL ACTIVITIES
I love sport and make it my business to keep at least relatively fit by committing to various workout standards each week. My main activities include running, cycling, swimming, triathlon, gym work and some resistance, hiking and just keeping active in general. I would like to expand on this and from time to time look at ways to improve my performances. I enjoy watching sports, (team on individual) on TV.

* WINE
Anyone who knows me will know I luv wine! A good thing if it can be kept in moderation, - more of a challenge if not! I enjoy most wines highly but tend to go back to NZ Sauvignon blanc, Margaret River Sem/Sav, Adelaide Hills have awesome Chardonnay and Shiraz, NZ Pinot Noir rocks and NZ sparkling varieties.........hmmm! Learning about wines and cellaring is something I find interesting.

* FOOD
I enjoy going to markets, trying to make beaut dishes with fresh produce. I'm not so much a dessert person. I like trying to focus on awesome flavour and presentation. Some of this may come through on this blog.

OK, prob enough from me for a first post today but I will be back soon with more :-)

Pip