I am an Ironman!

 Mum and Dad arrived 3 weeks before the Ironman, so I was still in full training, though tapering on the long runs and rides.

March 23rd finally arrived and we were blessed with near perfect weather. The dreaded water was calm - hoorah! I stood at the back on the beach and waited for the other 2000 competitors to go in before making my entrance. It was the right thing to do, and I got into my rhythm fairly quickly and wasn't too bashed around. I was so excited that the day had actually arrived and I was pumped for anything! I excited the 3.8km (2.4 miles) swim in 1.30 hrs, a 15 min PB from my pool times! To say I was estatic was an understatement! 

Jumped onto my bike and headed out on the 180km (112 miles) ride - two laps of the Eastlink motorway. It was easy heading out coz we had a tailwind, but after the turn-around point …oh boy! I lost any gain I'd made on the way out, cycling into the headwind. The second lap was even worse since the wind had picked up. However, I came in at my estimated time of 7 hours so was pleased with that.

Coming off the bike and into the run, your legs are usually like jelly coz you're using different muscles. My long training runs had not been good due to the increased distances on the bike. However, I felt great and powered out on the 42km (26 mile) run. This was a one - direction run (rather than laps) and I had friends out there from the start to the finish - it was awesome! You have your name on your bib so even people you don't know are encouraging you by name. I ran the first half with a Japanese guy and the time whizzed by, having someone to talk to. I'd thought that if I could get to the halfway mark and still feel good I would be happy. A lot of my Step into Life members were out there cheering me on at Chelsea and at Mordi I had the family waiting and the SIL Mordi crew. I was powering along, doing 5.30 min k's - unbelievable!!! I felt so good and I was loving it! The last 10 k I had one of my friends running alongside me and we were chatting the whole way, it was so good.

By now it was dark (I finished at 8.38pm) and as I headed to St Kilda I could hear the music pumping out and could see the finish chute. Couldn't stop smiling! My goal was to finish between 13 and 14 hours and I came in at 12:56 hrs!!! Mum and Dad were there and my gorgeous boys and I crossed the line to the famous voice of Mike Reilly saying …"Caroline Morgan… You ARE an Ironman!" One of the best days of my life!

Even more amazing was the fact that I pulled up so well afterwards. You'd never have known I'd done an IM the next day - most I had was a sore toe! And I was starving! For 3 days I isn't stop eating, having burnt up 10,000 calories on the day!

 We have been here for nearly 4 years now, we have just sold our house in the UK and will probably get Citizenship in September. Hence, this is a good time to end the blog of "Morgsinoz".

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).

Shepparton Half Ironman

Well, the weekend of the 18th November had arrived! After months of training it was becoming a reality. The last 2 weeks we had been tapering, which means decreasing the long hours of training but still maintaining enough to not lose your fitness. It's a strange feeling, not being able to train as much as normal and I actually found I was so much hungrier, even though I was doing less exercise.

Saturday morning we had to register and put our bikes into the bike compound. Our bikes were easily the least expensive and sophisticated there amongst some that were worth $20,000. Then we went for a quick dip in the lake, that was literally so brown you could not even see your arms in it! Never swum in anything like that before! It wasn't that cold though, which was good.

Slept quite well Saturday night, always a bonus and woke up at 4am. Still calm, I managed to eat 3 Weetabix and a banana, giving it enough time to digest before the 7.10am start. Calm right till the off and the first 200m of the swim. Then when the next two waves of people came past, I lost it a bit and was seriously wondering what on earth I was doing, trying to survive amongst the 1,200 other swimmers. But once they had all passed me by and there was just a handful of other slow swimmers left, I got back into my rhythm, determined to finish. When I came out in 55 minutes (there was a one hour cut-off) I whooped for joy, as if I had finished the whole thing :)

The bike went according to plan, 90km (56 miles) in 3.5 hours. It was made up of 2 laps in an oblong, 2 sides I had the wind behind me and I was flying at 30km/hr but the other two were tough going struggling into the wind doing 20km/hr.

The run was made up of 3 laps of 7km and took longer than normal - 2:11 hrs but I managed to keep running the whole thing whilst others were walking. At the end of each lap you were given an Ironman wristband to show you had completed each lap and I still haven't taken them off! Finally, after 6:42hrs, I crossed the finish line, completely estatic and emotional! I came 853rd out of 1,200 entrants so very pleased with myself. And more to the point, felt great afterwards, a slight pull in my hammie but that was all. I have barely ached and today, 4 days later, have just run 10k. So all, in all, it was a very successful weekend and we are all still on a bit of a high from it :)

Kona Ironman World Championships

British girl Leanda Cave (33) has just won the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii !!! Caroline Seffan (who won Melbourne IM) came in second, 1.34mins behind her :) Leanda also won the 70.3 Half Ironman World Championships a few weeks ago!

It's been ages since I last blogged but nothing exciting has really happened! Sam had all his hair cut off which was rather sad, first time in 8 years. The Boys have just had two weeks holiday which they enjoyed by sleeping in, playing on the xbox and seeing their friends!

Chris went to Singapore for a week but wasn't that impressed with it. Lafha (Living Away From Home Allowance) has now finished, so we have decided to apply for Residency. This will bring the cost of Uni down and means the Boys can decide where they want to live when they are older. It doesn't mean we are staying here permanently, but at least till the Boys have finished school.

My weeks consist of studying (I am now halfway through my course) and training for the half IM in 5 weeks! I have been training really hard, this morning I was at the pool at 7am and swam 2.5km. Tomorrow I am cycling 100km and running for an hour. On Thursday I ran past Cathy Freeman (twice!!) - Australia's 400m gold medallist in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games :)

We went to Lorne for the weekend recently. Chris took part in a 120km ride which included 10km up a very steep hill. We rented a nice house and Will took 3 friends along with him (Jack and Sam were working.)

The footie season has now finished so Jack has just got himself 2 new jobs. One is at a restaurant by the beach in Mordi (waiting and bar work) and the other is reffing indoor soccer. Sam tends to work Tuesday evenings and Sunday at Bunnings so they are earning lots of dish! Sam passed his "L's" test last week so I will have to start taking him out to practice. He was sooo pleased with himself!

We have one of Jack's friends staying with us at the moment from the UK. Jack is over in Australia for 6 months playing cricket and is the guy our Jack spent his famous cricket days with at Christmas 2 years ago :)

Think that's about all for now :)