Mothers Day Classic

Getting up for Mother’s Day Classic last Sunday - I was very excited but it was dark, it was cold, and I was very nervous as I hadn’t gotten any faster and I hadn’t lost a single kilo!  I just hoped I wouldn’t embarrass myself. 

But then I got there and the atmosphere was fantastic - it wasn’t just a fun run I really felt like I was part of something important.  I started talking to others in the crowd and heard the statistics - 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer before the age of 85 !  And I heard so many stories that reminded me that I am so lucky that it is the weather and kilos that are my biggest upsets for the day. 

Sarah lost her aunt to breast cancer and discovered that she too carried the breast cancer gene giving her a 95% chance of having breast cancer herself; so at the young age of 27, Sarah had a full mastetomy to avoid that diagnosis later on.  27!!!! 

Dawn was in her early 40s when diagnosed and found telling her diagnosis to those she loved harder than finding out herself.  Di, diagnosed at 62, now worries about her 3 daughters and her new grandaughter. 

Cheryl, diagnosed at 31, before going through full chemo and radiotherapy had to make life-changing decisions regarding fertility and her future as a mother. 

And 7 year old Matthew lost his mum 9 months ago to the disease…  

So I hit the pavement with renewed vigour and was so proud to be supporting such a wonderful event and important cause.  I went back to the assembly area afterwards and just took in the atmosphere - it was amazing - emotional but so inspiring!  Next year I will definately be there again and will be encouraging more of my friends and family to join in the Mother’s Day Classic - let’s help raise the funds so that the researchers can find the answers to this terrible disease. 

Congratulations to the organisers for a fantastic event and for giving such a true and important meaning to Mother’s Day! 

As I am still new to the whole regular exercise thing I am still getting on top of all the sports equipment you need.  I have the new runners - apparently these Brooks runners will make me as fast as a leopard!  And I have ordered the Mother’s Day Classic Brooks sports top which is made of some special fabirc that will  by all accounts draw the sweat away for my body (none of that sounds very ladylike but makes me feel sporty) and I have invested in 5 pairs of sports socks (even sports socks lose their pair in the wash…).  I also have the new running  pants which the saleswoman promises are very flattering (lycra pants flattering - yeah, right!). 

But let’s talk about the sports bra …. I decided that after 4 years it really was time to reinvest.  So the other weekend I went off to review the latest range and try some on ….  Oh my goodness… I am still recovering!  The first one (and only one for that day) I tried on was like a full suit of armour and took me a good 10mins to get on only to discover it really didn’t sit well and was a bit uncomfortable (and I am uncomfortable enough while running without having to add to it!).  But this is where the problem started - 10mins to get in to the bra, near impossible to get out!  I thought they were going to call for the jaws of life to remove me from it grips.  Eventually I had to call in the salewoman to help and when finally free, red in the face from the the embarrassment and more so the effort, I redressed and went home empty handed. If a bra is hard to get out of in the change room, I imagine it would be impossible to get out of after a run when you are tired, hot and sweaty (not that I will be sweaty in my new Brooks top!). 

It took me a week to rebuild my confidence and set off this time with my sister for back-up.  I eventually found a comfortable sports bra (though I did have to try plenty on) that was easy to get in and out of.  So my advice to you all is, sports bra shopping is a team sport, allow plenty of time and always take a female companion with you as it is not as easy as you think and many of them are designed so that you have to buy them because you can’t actually get them off!  Hope you are all looking forward to the big day - not long to go now.  And don’t forget to get people to sponsor you - if they can’t come on the day the least they can do is sponsor you for putting in the effort.

I am getting really excited for the Mother’s Day Classic already. I did fun run last weekend and now realise just how caught up in the crowd and excitement you get. Fun runs certainly seem to act as a great incentive to keep up the training and speed up the pace or increase the distance. And with my mum being a breast cancer survivor and knowing the terrible statistics(1 in 8 Australian women will be diagnosed before the age of 85!) I am especially happy to train with a purpose of supporting breast cancer research.

Last weekend at the fun run, I am sure I ran faster than normal and I was actually able to speak while running which is a new thing for me - generally by at least half way through any normal run I am unable to speak coherantly hence I have never found running to be a very social activity. I always wonder about “running groups” and the like - people would think I was very shy as I generally have to keep all my energy stored for getting myself through the distance and not use it to chat and make friends. But after last weekend I can now see that at some stage in the future I may actually be able to start some social banter while pounding the pavement. And hey, hooray daylight savings is over - it was getting very dark in the mornings which was making it increasingly difficult to get out of bed let alone see where I was going while running.

My big tip for everyone wanting to start running is to get a training partner – you don’t necessarily need to go with them each run but you do need to check in with them to confirm your progress each session. My friend and I made a commitment to each other that we would get fit enough to do the 8km Mother’s Day Classic and set ourselves some goals along the way. With kids, work, kinder and everything else that happens during the week we only get to go running together once or twice a week so on the other days we phone each other with our progress and support each other with our successes or make excuses for each others’ disappointments (eg. “well it was just too hot and at least you are out there having a go!”). I also have a personal trainer called Barney (my Golden Retriever) who runs too fast all the way towards the beach and then on the way home, when he has realized that we aren’t going to the beach, he drags his feet with disappointment and in turn makes my run (mostly uphill on the way home) all the more difficult. Still, Barney is very happy for all the runs and I am sure the vet will be happy to see he has lost a few kilos. The only down side – picking up his pooh and then having to run with it until I find a bin! That at least acts as a short goal for me along the way – “just keep running until you can get rid of this hideous mess”!! (By the way, no dogs allowed at MDC… sorry Barney!)

Until next time, keep running (or get running) and may your dog only pooh right next to a bin.

Hey thanks for all the feedback last week and glad to hear there are more of you getting out there and pounding the pavement in the name of a good cause - you can achieve heaps in 7 weeks in time for Mother’s Day Classic. My plan is to replace a few kilos from under my belt with a few km!

What is with the heat over the last couple of weeks!?? I don’t know about everyone else but it certainly effected me and my training – in fact the weekend that it was at it’s hottest, I couldn’t even run two thirds of my normal course and the walk home was a very long and hot one! And I just couldn’t seem to get re-hydrated enough before my next run – I am sure there is a means of doing this besides just drinking water but as an amateur I don’t know it and so just kept finding myself with a dry mouth and feeling terrible on each run (it felt like I was running with a hangover). On the hottest of the hot days when it was still 38degrees after work, my friend and I decided it was definitely too hot to run and so we walked 3km to the beach and had an evening swim and then walked home again – was so nice for a change and allowed us to still do some exercise.

At the best of times, running for me is a constant mind-game. I spend the entire time making sure that my iPod is loud enough that I can’t hear my feet pounding the pavement, or my breath straining as I go up the slightest hill. I am continuously trying to tell myself that the feeling that my legs are made of cement, that my shoe is rubbing or my calf is hurting, will all pass. I am constantly looking for excuses to stop and walk so I have to set myself short goals to keep myself going – “just run to the next street corner”, “just keep going another 5mins”, “you can definitely make to at least x as you did last time” – and when I succeed with these goals I set myself more short goals until I make it home. The mental game is often more exhausting than the physical one! But I have to say that in the hot weather I just could not win the mind-games. The heat certainly took sides with my mind, and my body gave up the fight and was happy to walk… Disappointing but I didn’t want to be like one of those marathon runners who has a muscle meltdown mid race (I know, I know – I am far from getting myself to that point especially on a 10km plod! But hey, try telling my mind that mid hot run!). Now that it has cooled down again I am back on track and some mornings I actually really feeling like going for a run (this is amazing for me!). In fact I am finding less and less excuses not to go for a run – so the pre-run mind-games are getting easier and now I just have to master the mid-run mind-games.

Until next time, may the weather stay cool and the mind-games winnable!

Firstly, I would like to introduce myself as very much a non-runner. I have always liked the “idea” of running and have often woken up from a dream where I have been running (usually away from something, but non-the-less running…) but just have never had the inclination nor drive to become a runner …. until now. Two months ago in a desperate attempt to lose some Christmas kilos and tone up, I decided I was going to start running and set myself a gradually increasing plan for making myself a runner. In the second week of January when I started my plan, I could only run 2 km and that was very hard going. But from there I have gradually increased my distances and the amount that I was running vs walking.

I decided 4 times a week was more than enough to be exercising - didn’t want my body to pass out with shock! I save my big run each week until the weekend and again like a true athlete I aspire to getting it over and done with on Saturday morning so that I can relish in my Sunday rest day and also so that I have 2 full days to recover so I can walk at work on Monday! And because of the hot weather and evening motherly duties I had to commit to doing my run/walk in the morning before work and before it got to hot (I am a bit of a fair-weather exerciser). I also liked the idea of it being over and done with for the day (mmm, not the words of an aspiring athlete, I know). So gradually I have built up - 4km one week, 6km, 10km and then on Saturday last weekend after 9 weeks of training I ran 15km!! I am still in shock myself. Again I say, I am NOT a runner. 15km took me a long, long time - 1hr and 45mins to be exact… That is a long time to be exercising but it also equates to a very slow mins per km rate. But that is ok - speed will come (maybe, maybe not…) Despite the hours I spend congratulating myself on being able to cover this distance, I know that I have a long way to go to become a “runner”… but perhaps in the meantime I have achieved “plodder” status.

So my training for Mother’s Day Classic has well and truely begun - I have only ever walked the course in the past but this year I aim to be able to do the 8km run or perhaps the 8km plod… With 9 weeks to go until the event you too can be running - if I, the non-runner can do it then anyone can! So my goal now - certainly not to run any further but rather to be able to go a little faster - make it all be over a bit quicker! See you all out there pounding the pavement! Happy plodding!

- Danni