Eureka Stair Climb 2009

Sunday 22nd November we headed to the city very early on a VERY wet day.  It had rained all the past night, and it was still going in the morning.  I was very glad that I was doing the Eureka stair climb… and not the Olympic Dream run!!!

Though it wasn’t the best day to be climbing the tower… at first we couldn’t even find the building… it was hidden in the clouds!

 

We picked up our race kits and team “Are we there yet?” were ready to go!  Looks like Carli didn’t get the message about the white top and black shorts! lol  Actually it just happened by co-incidence.

We raced through the first part of the hallway and up the first flight of stairs… until we were out of sight and then decided to stick to the game plan!  The stairwell was very hot, and there was hardly any air in there.

There were a couple of drink stops along the way up… and the time seemed to go quicker because each floor was one flight of stairs… not like when we trained and each floor we went up half a floor, turned, then up again… it made the numbers seem to go by quicker each floor.

While we were hard at work climbing up the stairs… Kel and the boys were outside taking some photos… during the short time when it wasn’t raining!

Some weird gold bees on the side of the building?!?!?

 

 

 

A nice shot of the city across the Yarra.  Notice the clouds at the top of the buildings!

The boys posing for some nice brotherly photos!

The best part of the stair climb was when the concrete stairs turned into red carpeted stairs! We knew we were close to the top.

Then the finally step out across the finish line into the very nice cool air!!!

We did it in 16 minutes and 33 seconds. (Don’t mention that the winner did it in 9 minutes!!!)

And our team came 7th! Not bad hey!!!

When we first got to the top, I thought that they had frosted glass up there!  I thought it was a bit of a waste of the view! lol but then realised it was because we were in the cloud!  It did part a bit so we could see a bit of the views from up there.

Oh and I almost forgot to mention my moment of fame (? maybe ?).  While we were up the top of Eureka and got to spend a bit of time trying to enjoy the scenery (pretty hard when you are surrounded by cloud) there were some fire-fighters being interviewed for the fire brigade channel (some tv station that gets shown in all the fire stations).  We were hanging around behind them while the interview took place.  Then Sunday Sunrise did a weather cross up there and I was standing behind the weather guy while he read out the weather.  (It was at 9:30am, for anyone who was watching).  Only problem was that none of us had phones with us, and it was shot live, so there wasn’t even time to get someone to tape it for us!

So, that is one more thing I can cross off my list… and I can probably say that I wouldn’t be entering Eureka next year… I think its best as a once in a lifetime experience!

Corporate Games 2009

Saturday 21st November was the Australian Corporate Games.  This year I entered the 5km running event.  Last year I did the 10km and managed to set a new pb of under 50 min.. but this year I wanted to focus on the shorter distance…especially since I haven’t done any distance since the marathon, and the Eureka stair climb was on the next day.

It was a humid morning for the race, which was one lap of Albert Park Lake.  I could see one girl in front of me, who was in 2nd place so I tried to keep with her.  I hardly even saw the girl who came first.  The 2nd place girl slowly started to get away from me, but luckily nobody else came to overtake me.

It was a hard race, and I ended up with a pb of 21:56.  There was a lot of motivating myself with talk like “if I can do a marathon I can do this”, and “think of all the stair training, must have helped heaps”, and just “keep going, its soon over!”.

Here is a photo from the medal presentation…

and here is the medal…

50 flights at 55

For the last couple of weeks we have started our training for the Eureka stair climb by using the stair well at my work – at 55 Collins St.  There are 50 flights of stairs there, so it is a pretty good place to train.

We did it in 10 minutes today.  It is such hard work… according to my heart rate monitor my heart was beating at 90% of it’s maximum!

Flashes of Tom and Carli on the stairs.

Try not to get dizzy as you look down 50 flights of stairs!

And here is the building were we will attempt to climb up 89 flights of stairs! Only 17 more days until we do it.

Race Day Wrap Up

Saturday night me and Carli stayed in Melbourne so we wouldn’t have to get up so early on race day.  I didn’t think I would get much sleep, but I must have fallen asleep at some stage because I woke up after having this horrible dream.  It was so lifelike!  It was about us getting ready for the marathon, and going out for breakfast and then looking at the time and it was 7:30am and the race was supposed to start at 7am so we rushed back to the hotel and had to quickly get changed.  Then I woke up, and was so disoriented! I looked at the time and it was only 2:30am!!! It seemed like that dream went for ages.

Our wake up call was for 5:30am.  We were out the door by 6am and we got a cab to take us to the MCG.  Check in our bags and a last minute toilet stop and we were on our way to the start line where we met up with Tom and Aggie who very kindly came an hour early for their race so they could see us off at the start.

Before we knew it we were jogging along past the start line and getting a nice rhythm by the time we made it to Flinders St station.  The first half of the race we kept a very nice pace at 6 minute kilometres.  We stopped for a drink at each drink station, and even got some gels later on in the race.

It was the most beautiful day you could ask for to go for a run, especially when running along Beaconsfield pde in St Kilda, with the blue skies, the perfectly flat water, and a gentle sea breeze.

I loved meeting and chatting with some of the runners… there was the group who flew out from NZ just to do the marathon and were going back the next day… the ladies with Chinese writing on their backs who told us it said “Fast Wives Club”, a running group they started in Shanghai (this was their 9th marathon).  The Spartans are a group of people who have run 10 or more Melbourne Marathons.  One guy I chatted to was running his 31st marathon!!! 

We would pass people, then have a drink stop and end up passing these people again later on.

The volunteers at the drink stands were fantastic.  The crowds who gave us a clap and a cheer really spurred us on.  At one point we ran past a group of builders who were sitting there on a break just watching the race.  I revved them up, saying “Aren’t you going to cheer for us??”

I was on such a high for the last 8km or so… knowing that we were close to the finish.  I just had a really fun time. 

Somewhere along St Kilda road I saw Will (my uncle) and Norma.  They thought they had missed us, but we were still plodding along!

We had to stop a bit at the end to stretch the legs out.  But that meant we were able to finish with out any injury, and to finish strong, with a smile on our faces :)

Heading up Flinders st toward the MCG we saw Tom and Aggie again, who had finished their half marathon.

Turning toward the MCG I gave a quick phone call to Kel to say that we were nearly there.  They had been starting to think they had missed us!  Coming around the corner and we could hear the music getting louder.  The crowds were bigger and we were amongst the 5km walkers as well now.  We headed up the ramp to get onto the MCG into the bright sun and green, green grass. 

 

We ran the home straight, past our family and friends who came to see us cross the finish line. 

And then we did it!  We crossed the line, in a time of 4 hours, 41 minutes.

It feels fantastic to have achieved that goal that we have been working toward all year… to do something that not many people can say they have done.  I feel like we can do anything that we set our minds to.

(See more ‘official’ race photos and video here: http://www4.marathon-photos.com/)

 

Stay tuned for the next instalment…

Racey Trace climbs Eureka!

Last minute jitters

Not long to go now!

Bags are packed, all the training has been done, all that is left now is to run the race!!!

I am excited, nervous, slightly worried about my still sore calf, hoping that I haven’t forgotten to pack something.

I went for a run around the MCG and past the start line on Thursday.  They had already started setting up.

 

I heard Rob de castella talk yesterday at the expo at the MCG.  It was good to see all the runners, and get a bit of last minute advice.

OK, time to go now… next update it will all be finished!

One Week To Go!!!

This week I did a nice Tan run at lunch time, which I haven’t done in ages.  I was a bit unsure how my calf would pull up… its been sore all week.  I did a long warm up walk to start with, and started of with a slow jog before getting to the Tan and having a bit of a stretch.  Then I set my watch and started running.  About half way around I started thinking how I was going at a pretty good pace… and when I crossed the finish line, I stopped my watch looked down… and … nothing! My watch was dead!  Crap!  So I walked around for about 10 seconds trying to get my breath back and then looked at my watch again and it was going again, and the time was still ticking over! I quickly pressed stop, and it said 17: 41… and my pb is 17:30! So I was very close to a pb.  Not bad considering I haven’t done any speed work for ages.  Probably shouldn’t have gone so hard with a sore calf though…

Saturday morning we did our last ‘long’ run… just a nice 9km run around Eynesbury.  It was nice to go back to somewhere we started our really long runs (1st time we ran more than a half marathon, back in July).  We took it easy, had a good time, but did have to watch out for those pesky swooping magpies!  -Don’t worry Carli, I’ll protect you :p

I think we are ready for anything now!!!

We finished the run with a stop in at the Eynesbury club house for a celebratory brunch. Nice!

This week I will be taking it easy, eating very healthy food (especially after pigging out at Sam’s birthday party), doing lots of stretching, getting a massage on Wednesday night, and icing my leg to make sure everything is in tip top shape.  I will start loading up on the calves during the week too!  Not hard for me to do though… I love my potato, rice and pasta!!!

And I must try very hard not to go racing for trains or trams, or running around with my boots on!

Here is a sneak peak at what we will be wearing during the race – a bit of a dress rehearsal for me to try out my new top.  Plus it will help anybody out who is going to go down and cheer us on… look at for a green top and black pants.

 

[Photo taken by Josh… oh and yes, I will be wearing shoes for the marathon!!!]

And here is what Carli will be wearing…[taken from our adventure run to the great unknown!]

Fundraising

Help me raise $2,200 to purchase a walker for a child with Cerebral Palsy... we are almost half way to our target!!!

Andrew Wilson, a good friend from work, is a very talented photographer and has made the following offer:

If you buy any photo from his portfolio for $50, he will donate $40 to the Cerebral Palsy Education Centre.
 
Photos will be printed up to A3+ size high quality Ilford Smooth Pearl Photographic paper with Archival ink.

Select anything from http://www.redbubble.com/people/andrewwilson/art
But order direct through me, not website. (This way the web site doesn't get any of the profit)

Thank-you Andrew for your very generous offer!