LATEST UPDATE

It's now October and I don't know where the time has gone! I went to Sydney with girls from Step into Life, Chelsea to run the "City to Surf", a 14km run from the city to Bondi Beach. This was a picturesque run which I completed in 1.16 hr and includes "Heartbreak Hill" which I managed to run all the way up.

I then did Tough Mudder, a 20km assault course invented for the British Special Forces, fotos are on Flickr!

Jack was selected to ref at the Nationals (Boys 13/14 Youth football) and was only 1 out of 4 chosen from Victoria. He was flown to Coffs Harbour in Queensland and had a great week there in beautiful weather (whilst it was rubbish here in Melbourne!) He won Ref of the Championship whilst there!

Yesterday he had to attend a presentation at Aami Park Stadium and was awarded with "Young Referee of the Year In Victoria"!!!

Will has decided to do World Challenge next November with school. He will go to Vietnam for a month and help build a school, teach English to under privileged children and do a bit of sight-seeing.It costs $6,000 and  he is supposed to raise most of that himself , so he has got himself a job! It's at a new frozen yogurt cafe in Mordi called "Yo My Goodness!" and he is enjoying himself there. He has just come home from a 3 day camping trip to the Grampians.

I ran the Melbourne Marathon at the weekend and managed to knock 2 minutes off my time in the Gold Coast, coming in at 3.48hrs, which I was pleased with. The run was 42km all around Melbourne and ended up with a lap around the MCG - pretty cool! I have recovered even better than last time as well :)

Sam has finished football for the season and managed to get lots of shifts working at Bunnings during the holidays.

Gold Coast Marathon

Friday 5th July, Sam, Will and myself headed to the Gold Coast for the first time. Jack drove us to the airport and we flew with Tiger Airways (cheapest airline over here).... never again! Two hours delayed going, 3 hours delayed coming back!

Hired a very nice car at the airport and drove to Southport where our apartment was. Lots of roadworks and traffic very slow since they are putting in a new train system ready for the Commonwealth Games in a few years time.

Saturday morning I woke early and watched the 10k runners head past our balcony (we were 10 mins walk from the Start/Finish line). When the Boys finally awoke, we spent the day at Wet and Wild water park. The Boys had great fun on all the big slides and I relaxed on a lounger resting my legs for the next day.

The marathon started at 7.20am on Sunday and weather conditions were perfect - 11 degrees to start with and 20 degrees by the end. I started with the pacer who was to bring you in at a race time of 3:45 hrs and I managed to stay with him till 26km. Then my quads started to hurt because I had never run that far before at a 5.15km average pace. So I slipped back a bit but still managed to finish in 3:50:55 hrs which I was so pleased with since my goal was to come in at 4 hours. I was more pleased with the fact that I came 28th/201 in my age group!

In the afternoon we drove the short distance to Seaworld and went on a couple of rides, saw a couple of shows before returning back to the apartment. We met my friend Nicole and her family for dinner in the evening to celebrate our triumphs! Then Sam and I stayed up till 3am to watch Andy Murray win his first Wimbledon title - very nerve-wracking!

The next couple of days we spent at Dreamworld and Movieworld doing some scary rides. Not quite the same as Florida but we had lots of fun:)

April's Update

Well, a lot has happened over the last four months and I can't believe it's been that long since I updated the blog. So thought I'd better get back into it, though sometimes there's not much to write about. So here's a quick summary...

I qualified as a Personal Trainer beginning of December. I now work for a franchise called "Step into Life" working at four different venues - Mordi, Chelsea, Brighton and Oakleigh. We do outdoor personal training (no gym for me!) and I either work as an assistant trainer (if classes are big) or take them on my own. I now get up at 4.30/4.45 am to do a 6am session and have 2 sessions every evening.

Mum and Dad came out for Christmas, lovely having them with us.

Jack passed his driving test and bought himself a car!

The Boys had 7 weeks Summer holiday! The weather was fab and they made good use of the fact that we only live 5 minutes walk from the beach, visiting it every day.

Jack started Deakin Uni and is studying Sports Management.

February I did my second Olympic Distance Triathlon, this time in Geelong. Knocked 20 minutes off last years time, most of that in the swim, so was very pleased.

April - had a flying visit home (5 days on UK soil) for my Nephew's wedding and to celebrate Mum's 80th Birthday.

Goals for 2013:- July - doing the Gold Coast Marathon (my first). Training is underway but hard going, 27km being my furthest distance so far. Still have 12 weeks to go though. Sam and Will are coming with me to this and we are having a few days holiday afterwards and visiting the theme parks.

August:- Sydney City to Surf, a 15km run from Sydney city centre to Bondi Beach, including a run up Heartbreak Hill (don't like the sound of that!)

September:- Tough Mudder - a new and very popular 20km assault course at Phillip Island, Melbourne, running through lots of mud, jumping in ice-cold water, getting electrocuted - yes, sounds fun! Check it out on Google!

November:- Shepperton Half Ironman - yes! We're going back for more!

But my BIG goal for 2014 - 10 of us have just managed to secure a place in the Melbourne Ironman on March 23rd next year. OMG! What have we done? This involves a 2.5 mile swim in the sea, a 112 mile bike ride along the Eastlink (motorway) and a marathon (26 miles). Hoping to do that in 14-15 hours, but will just be happy to finish to be honest within the 17 hour cut-off. I was a volunteer at this years event and it is totally inspiring, can't wait to do it myself :)

So, that's the latest updates and fotos on Flickr (just to the right there).