Zone Athletics - school

Today Ela went with a bus load of kids from her school to the Zone athletics carnival. After coming 2nd place in the school final of girls (8yrs) 100m, she had qualified to attend at Sydney Olympic Park Athletics centre. She was so excited about it and when she heard that the girl who had come first from her school was not going because she was sick, Ela was even more convinced that she could win.

We bought her a new pair of running shoes (they were needed!) and gee'd her up to do her best. She was sooooo nervous the night before she hardly slept and she woke up saying she felt sick in her tummy. I kept telling her it was butterflies and nerves and it was normal and we waved her off on the bus at 7.30am. When we arrived at the stadium to watch, there was an enormous din and all the schools in the area were already chanting.

Ela's race had 4 heats and Ela was up in the last of these. She was in lane 5 and ran her little heart out. Whilst she didn't place this year, we kept reminding her how proud we were for her to even reach the Zone since she was running against girls in the year above her. It was a bit emotional afterwards but luckily she had her cousins Sophie and Lulu cheering her on and they helped cheer her up.

Sports Carnival

Today it was school carnival and Ela was very excited about it because they were having a mini olympics. Complete with parade, torch and even dancing (warm-ups).
This year the school decided not to award positions - so it was fair to all. Can't say I agree with that but for Ela she did get the opportunity to really compete as kids who were turning 8 this year from year 2 could compete with the stage 2 kids (years 3 and 4) and compete for a place in the zone finals.
Ela did awesome, winning her heat way ahead of the others and then coming 2nd overall in the final! Well done Ela. She is still to hear if her time is fast enough to go to the Zones but either way she was pleased as punch (as were we).
It was a freezing cold day so the kids had a lot more fun than the parents watching!

The 9 km Bridge Run

Well today was the big day - Alex and I had been training for the past 6 weeks since we completed the Bay run (7km) for our next big challenge, the Bridge run. An iconic Sydney event where runners start in North Sydney, run across the harbour bridge, across the Cahill expressway, down Macquarie st, out through the Botanical gradens to Mrs Macquarie's chair and back to the Opera House. We didn't think that another 2 kms was such a big thing, and we ran close to 9kms in our last few training runs.

However I hadn't factored in 30degree heat, a half hour wait to get started - standing in the blazing sunshine and not enough water stops enroute. That combined with hundreds of walkers and people pushing prams, meant that a nice steady jog was out of the question.

We first saw our support gang around the 4km mark and I honestly felt that soon after that I was ready to give up. Luckily I had Alex gently coaxing me along, but by the time we eventually crossed the finish line, I was totally 'over' running in all shapes and forms! It was gruelling and not at all enjoyable!

All the kids could do was ask where my medal was and if it came with a goody bag and then proceeded to argue over who was getting which. In the meantime I was swooning on the side of the road under the Opera House steps trying to get my breath and stop myself from vomiting!

Don't suspect I'll be trying that again in a hurry - although the best bit about it all was that I managed to raise $1500 for The Red Cross, my charity of choice. Thanks go to all my family and friends who supported me both financially and mentally.

Ocean Swimming

Mark has been biten by the swimming bug. Today was the great Bondi to Bronte challenge. Check out the video here.

We dropped him at Bondi beach with his goggles and  swimmers on, and drove round to Bronte. I couldn't believe the size of the swell. The tall ship (in the distance in the photo) was heaving from side to side and I looked out toward the cliff wondering what on earth must be going through his head as he swam round. The waves were pounding the shore and you can imagine my relief when I saw him run up the beach (centre of the pic in the long swimming shorts) towards the finish line.

He finished the race in a mere 35 minutes and placed 52nd out of 410 in his age group. In all there were 1930 people who gave it a go - it was a sight to be believed.

A harbour swim

Mark's latest escapade involved swimming across Sydney Harbour to cockatoo Island (from Balmain Baths). He and his partenr in crime Chris used this oportunity to get into shape for some longer swims coming up, including Bondi to Bronte and Coogee to Wedding Cake Island (and back). It was a fun morning for the kids - even if they couldn't tell Mark's orange clad head from the throngs of others, they still shouted 'Go Mark Go'!