Karen and Kate's journey to Ironman and beyond

865 our of 875 participants, adjusted time 4:59:58. 

It's 2pm here.  What a day it's been!  Another marathon, this time pretty far out of my comfort zone in faraway Spain. Anyway, just to put on record that I have finished, around 5 hours, my slowest ever but that isn't always what necessarily counts. It was very hot for a winter trained kiwi with the official temperature reaching 27 degrees, but some of the street thermometers saying 31, I sure felt it out there.  I took salt capsules every hour and drank more water than I ever have, and made full use of the sponges provided, a wet hat made all the difference on those long exposed stretches of road.or winding around the narrow, airless, cobbled streets. I will write up more about it when I have found food and had a rest...in that order.  Some evidence though..after the finish My girls wanted me to carry a kiwi, this little guy was attached to my hat, a few people recognised it as a kiwi but most called it 'animal'.

And I'm at last resting with my feet up.  Its 3pm, the pedometer says I have walked 23017 steps and I believe it completely.  First thing this morning, a sensible trip by taxi to the registration point across the city. The taxi driver was keen to help but seemed slightly misguided, after a few miss-starts and being turned back by armed police eventually he stopped outside a building he described as "sporta pavilion". Hmmm...didn't look good, no signs, no cars in the carpark, one person walked in the door as I watched, they didn't look like they were getting ready for a marathon.  Inside there were pictures on the walls, including one of some feet in water apparently being nibbled by small fish, say what?  After a couple of women walked in carrying gym looking bags...aha...beauty salon/gym?!  Am I being given a hint here? Outside, a chat to some wonderfully helpful and armed police provided hope.  They huddled round the piece of  paper, they ummed and arrrrrhed o

The diabetes conference in Barcelona is over, it was a great experience but now it is time for another of the important things in life, running. I am now in Zaragosa after an excellent train trip, who would think you could cover over 350 km in less than 2 hours?  Zaragosa from what I have seen so far  is quite different from Barcelona, first thing is the temperature is 31 degrees, but it seems much more open and fresh and quite a pretty city in the middle of very harsh looking landscapes. As usual I have laid out my running gear in the hotel room and come to the conclusion that everything is there (too bad if it isn't at this stage) and it is now time to go on the hunt for food.  The supermarkets are fascinating, food is quite cheap by kiwi standards but I’m getting a bit tired of the bread based products, preserved meat, and cheese (not so much the cheese of course). I have really been looking for a steak, perhaps I might find somewhere that serves such an alien food ite

Not sure if Karen will see this before her big run, But i thought I would send good luck and have fun in Spain wishes. Thinking about you and just enjoy the experience.

5k run this morning, didn’t think I was going to, too tired.  It's meant to be wind-down before the big run on Sunday, but I'm trying to figure out how to keep the legs run-ready, and get used to exercise in the heat, plus manage the practicalities of getting around a strange city without missing out on rest altogether.  I’ve had three runs since I got here, walked a LOT of km to and from the conference venue, and not done a lot of resting.  Ah well, as always, it will be interesting to see how things go on the day.  Perhaps chocolate croissants will be the magic antidote. Rest.  Not happening.  I now realise that Barcelona is testing me and might finally have found me seriously wanting in the party-hard department.  Saturday night...concert 1 street over until 4am, revelers till daylight, Sunday night...ditto, just fewer revelers.  Monday night...more of the same.  Tuesday night, ahhh...it seems quiet.  Off to bed when I felt sleepy (ok folks, 8pm, still not acclimatised

Well it seems like another concert night here in my small patch of Barcelona.  The same pattern as yesterday, the tuning of instruments and occasional song fragment have been making their presence known for a couple of hours but things seem to be kicking up now.  Streams of people are pouring down the streets, I look down from the 5 th floor and it seems like an unending river flowing towards the big square just one building away.  So probably another very early run tomorrow, which isn’t a bad thing, I don’t have much time to get myself used to even the slightly cooler temperatures present in the morning before the day heats up.  I didn’t have any ill effects from yesterdays run even if it was longer than I had intended. My muscles seem to be in good shape, nothing hurts so perhaps the heat is helping keep them soft and stress free.  I’ve done a heap of walking, like to the conference venue, in search of food, and to follow an interesting footpath or set of stairs.  Walking back

My first morning waking up in Spain, somewhere in Barcelona to be as precise as I can. Friday morning I was in Auckland, Friday evening I walked countless miles around the 3 airports in Singapore (4 hours of walking...lots of points for the Feetbeat challenge) and Sunday morning...here I am. Actually waking up is a bit of an exaggeration, after 2 days of travel with next to zero sleep I seem to have lost the habit, I’m waiting for the desire to kick in again, probably will in the middle of a prolonged session at the conference which starts today.  There was also the minor fact that last night was some sort of concert just a street away, I went and had a look and got caught up in these rivers of people walking to the event, I stayed and listened for a while and when they got onto popular American songs, in English, I went home and went to bed.  And listened to the music and roars of the crowd while I read, then read and listened to the revelers walk, stagger, crawl home. Then as so

Cleaned my office today so Kate can take over my space while I'm away, we are a bit crowded at the moment with so many projects on the go.  I put the 'stuff' associated with the bigger things I'm working on into separate piles so it is all ready for my immediate attention when I get back, wow organisation! Am I now actually ready to hop on that plane though?  No. I have a list.  Some things are ticked off... like email accommodation to confirm arrival time... ethics application to supervisor... pre-pay parking... print off necessary bits of paper... check conference times, but lots of things aren't done yet. Like deciding what clothes to take for a 6 day long conference, and making final decisions on what to wear for the marathon.  Like finding the various cords and leads and chargers and now strangely essential bits of electronic equipment.  Like setting up the Skype and making sure everyone knows how to use it so I don't end up in isolation for the two weeks

The plan was to meet about 5.20 at Kentish Carpark to leave punctually at 5.30 pm and drive out to the end of Coe Rd and do a circuit from there looking at the options. It was suggested to bring your head torches if you have one. We would run 6-7kms and estimate will run for about one hour to be back at Kentish by about 6.45 - 7 pm. No problems I thought, a little run on the road planning the new route for Ironmaiden/Steelman event. I can do that. But what I had not planned for was the run around Casterways and hills, cowpoo and mud. The daylight had gone by the time we finished. I was climbing over barbed wire and crawling under electric fences. My new trainers were covered in a lot of unmentionables and have been out side for a few days trying to get rid of the mud. I saw this comment on a web page and thought , how true a saying.  If I stayed in my comfort zone I would be sitting at home watching TV, instead I was out having an amazing time. The run was all off-road. It

I went for a run along the waterfront towards Duder's Beach, beautiful evening, slight breeze, I wore a running skirt.  Now these things are becoming more popular, if you are a bit sensitive about the close fitting lycra pants look then a skirt can hide a multitude of sins. There is at least one supplier really promoting them, check out this NZ brand Kori Kita .  Mine is nothing so flash, just a black stretchy skirt with attached little black pants underneath.  I have had mine sitting in a cupboard for a while now, to my recall it was only ever worn once before.  This once was over the top of a pair of old compression pants on a night bush run when no-one could see me, but this time I threw caution to the wind, and exposed more than usual of my winter coloured legs to the world. It felt rather nice.  Breezy even.  I ran for a while, enjoying the freedom, marveling at how I allow myself leeway while running that I wouldn't allow myself usually, I mean, would I wear a stretchy

DPT team member Lama has now got his own fitness premises out the back of the same block of units the Diabetes Projects Trust offices are in in Otara.  He invited the rest of the team around to have a look and we were all suitably impressed, not sure if he was so impressed with us.  It opens officially on 1st October. Kate demonstrating how not to use the hangy uppy thingys The boss...Lama Some of the DPT team inspecting the premises Isi demonstrates the smart way to lift weights...without the weights  I can do this...I can...I know I can... The flying Ang And what...do I do... with this?

I wrote this blog a week ago, but my Internet has been off so its a little late. .. My daughter Sophie said she would like to do a half marathon with me so I found this one in Dunedin. But when I looked at the route the full marathon went from the Albatross colony all the way along the coast and back out on the other side to Port Chalmers. So I booked the full Marathon.  Sophie has great plans but no training so it was great that she actually borrowed  a friends car and was there at the end cheering me on, and then took me home. I completed the marathon. Wow it was great. The road went along the edge of the harbour .  It was a beautiful day and the sun shone. It was a quite run and most of it I ran on my own, but talked with a few people. I came in at 5hrs and 20 minutes. A little slow but I can still walk so that's good.

29+ km run on Sunday morning, seaside, road and bush, a beautiful day with the odd patch of drizzle, a light breeze, pleasantly cool.  I had my fellow Te Puru runners to chat to for some of it to make the distance go faster, we were excitedly speculating about what the result was going to be from the latest America's cup yacht race.  In fact, everything was pretty much completely the opposite to what I expect to get in Spain in less than 2 weeks time.  So I have all my excuses lined up for any sort of poor marathon performance on the 29th... like...going from kiwi winter training to end of summer race day... jet-lag... missed the start time because I couldn't read the instructions... no-one to talk to... got a cold. Yes, I've got a cold.  The whanau are all terribly healthy at the moment, I can't even blame them for passing the scratchy throat and running nose on to me.  Here's hoping it has gone away by the end of the week so I don't have to be the type of lo

Just in from a 15km run in the dark in the pouring rain.  Well, it didn't start out that way, it was still daylight when I left home, slight drizzle, nothing too much to worry about.  I headed off to Beachlands along the coast, knowing it was going to be an easy run for distance rather than a strenuous hill effort. By the time I got to the end of Beachlands the rain was getting heavier, by the time I turned around at the half way point the light had faded and I needed my headlamp on.  By the time I got back to the Beachlands shops I could barely see because the it was raining so hard, I was running through puddles up to my ankles in the dips in the footpaths, and starting to feel a bit disillusioned with my silly lot. Around this time I started noticing the smell of peoples cooking, perhaps the rain was keeping the smell closer to earth but I got more than my share of casseroles, frying, and other less easy to identify and less appetizing food smells.  It didn't help to be so

The coolest thing, just had a call from Andrew at Boost coaching , I have actually won a swimming lesson! This was a competition that came through the Ironman people, seems that these things are actually worth the effort sometimes, what a wonderful and useful surprise. Now those who have followed us on our journey to Ironman and beyond know that swimming...for me...ranks right up there with cutting grass with nail scissors or trying to convince a 2 year old that spinach is a better option than chocolate.  Kate goes to her swim club and rockets about in the water with apparent pleasure and piscine grace, I swim under sufferance, I swim with a distinct lack of enthusiasm, I swim to get to the end of whatever torturous length has been set.  I was last voluntarily buoyant in April, that was the King of the Bays harbour swim on the North Shore that Kate inveigled me into. The wetsuit has been bundled up in a drawer since, for all I know the moths might have carried the dratted thing away an

Wednesday I went to Christchurch to the Diabetes nurse Symposium, it marked the conclusion of one part of our amazing journey.  Karen and myself had signed up for Ironman 2012 and as part of that wanted to fundraise for something meaningful, preferably to do with diabetes. The Christchurch earthquake happened about the same time and we both immediately felt that we would like to give something to the staff at the Christchurch diabetes center, the Board of the Diabetes Projects Trust agreed. It took us two years to complete our Ironman due to the event being cancelled the first year. This visit to Christchurch was the ideal opportunity to pass over the money raised. I presented a 5 minute presentation on what the Ironman was all about and then handed over a cheque for the $1500 our wonderful supporters had donated. They are planning to spend it on something special. Thankyou to everyone who donated. We were really glad we could do something to show our colleagues and friends dow

The Mangere Community Health Trust  Diabetes Eye clinic  still hold our precious golden croc trophy.  We need to address this terrible wrong and reclaim our trophy, and our pride...hopefully... So the challenge is on again, 9 September, the Auckland Regional Public Health Feetbeat workplace challenge, walking, walking, walking for 8 weeks.  The trouble is, what happened last time is likely to happen again, Kate and me were so busy swimming and cycling getting ready for the Rotorua half Ironman that we didn't have room in our busy days for much time actually on our feet. We dragged our teams back, it's a problem when you are too busy training to walk.

It has taken a couple of years, but Kate has just today flown down to Christchurch to take our fundraising cheque to our colleagues working in diabetes down there. Massive thanks to those who made a donation, and continued to offer encouragement and support over what turned out to be a very long journey. Kate has also taken a short presentation about the journey and it's reasons, for which she asked to access my photo collection. Hmmm, could be a worry, when I looked at the accumulation of pictures there was a big focus on unhealthy food, plenty of weird clothing combinations, and masses of photos of sweaty progress and finish lines which all looked very samey after a while. Speaking of finish lines, Kate has a marathon this Sunday, the Dunedin course looks amazing, I wish I was there too, instead I will be slogging out 30km around South Auckland roads because my own marathon in Spain is now less than 4 weeks away. I see this next marathon as the real start of the Ironman proce