Melton Waves Fun Run

I entered the Melton Waves Fun Run on Saturday. It was a 7.5km event. We ran three laps around Hannah Watts park and the golf course, then the finish was down High Street.
I tried to pace myself at the start and even then my legs felt so heavy. I really had to push myself to keep going. There were some kids along the bike track who were giving high fives and cheering on the runners.

After the first lap Kel told me that I was the fifth female. That pushed me on and every time I passed another female I knew I was that much closer to getting a good result. I still stopped to get water each time I passed the water table, and the gap increased a little bit, but in the end I think it paid off, because I overtook two other girls so I was running in third place. I stuck to the number two girl closely, but didn't overtake her. We did a whole lap like that, then once we were on High Street and I could see the finish line and made a sprint and overtook her.

There was only one problem... that wasn't the finish line! I ran to the line and the marshalls told me to turn down the other side of the street until the finish line banner (which was hidden in the trees!). So I had another 100m sprint to the finish line, but I still managed to stay in front!
I was a bit delirious at the end, I thought I could almost pass out. But I was so excited that I came second! That is my best result so far!
My time was about 36:25.

Halloween

After Kel's Horror themed 30th birthday party, he has been collecting lots of horror / halloween stuff. He keeps talking about having another party... even bigger and better than the last one. He didn't quite get around to it this year, but I did come home to a different site when I got home from work on the 31st October.

There were huge cobwebs around the carport with gigantic, black, hairy spiders, complete with glowing red eyes. There was a scary looking black cat in my garden, and a raw, red hand sticking out of the door. I opened the front door and was greeted by a life size skeleton hanging in the door frame, then my two little ghosts jumped out at me from behind a black sheet!

This photo is very freaky, Sam wasn't too happy with the costume and I think he was shaking his head. Causes a great halloween photo effect though!

The boys had even carved out mini pumpkins with tea light candles in them, and we had some pumpkin soup for dinner.

We got a few trick or treaters this year... mostly young teens rather than kids. Some of the girls were funny, they were freaking out at all the decorations.

Mary Mary Quite Contrary...

How does your garden grow?

In toilet rolls

So far we have (from left to right) sunflowers, Kent pumpkin, spring onion and lettuce.

The hard part now is stopping the bugs from eating them.

The inaugral Caroline Springs fun run

On Sunday I entered a 10km fun run at Caroline Springs (to celebrate their 10 year anniversary - I can't believe it has been that long!).

I was envisioning a fun run with about 30 people in it... but it was actually really well run, and there were around 100 runners.

I hadn't run at all since the half marathon (unless you counted a couple of times I had to run for the train). But it was funny how the mind works... because I could tell myself "it's ONLY 10km!... when prior to June that was the furtherest I had ever run at all in my life!

It was a very hot and windy morning, and I was so tempted to stop at the 5km mark. I really had to push myself to keep going.

I finished with a personal best of 52:45 (my previous time was 55 min).

It was a really good day. They had Bob the Builder there. Sam was so excited... but he ended up bursting into tears when Bob got too close. In the end we did get a photo.

Colouring Comp King

The other weekend we headed down to the new Eynesbury estate. They were having a big launch day with lots of freebies. Free bbq lunch, jumping castle and showbags.

Josh entered a colouring competition. He spent ages on it. Sam had a go too. There was a pretty good chance he would win something... they had 8 prizes, and you had to be there to collect your prize.

So we waited around until the end, and heard them call out seven names. Josh was complaining that he didn't win, when we told him there was one more to come, and they called out his name! He was so excited. He got to run up the front and grab his prize... a matchbox car.

Melbourne Marathon

October 19 was a date that I had been counting down to on my calendar at work. It was the date that I became one of those crazy people who decide to run a half marathon (21.1km).

I was really doubtful that I would be able to do it, especially after hurting my leg. But I did! With a final time of 2 hours and 22 seconds.

It was the best feeling running onto the MCG!!!

Me and Carli (a runner who is crazier than me and manages to talk me into these things!) were sprinting, racing each other to the finish line. (she beat me by 2 seconds). We actually turned up late for the start. So there were only a couple of people running with us, and we couldn't see anybody else. It made the start easier - in that we didn't have to walk at the start, or jostle and dodge people... but it did feel really strange not having that big build up. In the end we caught up to everyone, and that was very satisfying.

When we got up to the 10km mark we were asked to move to the side and this motorbike with a camera came along, and there were two Ethiopians and a Kenyan who were doing the marathon. They were just sprinting along! So that might be my 2 seconds of fame (depending on whether they were zoomed in on the runners or not). And to think that they started half an hour after us!

Sam's 2nd Birthday

This year Sam had a Bob the Builder themed birthday party. Sam loves Bob and Wendy... and it is actually nice that he likes something that Josh wasn't really that into.

This is the cake... Sam thought it was fantastic, though he did run off with Wendy just before the party started!

Here is our traditional family birthday photo...

A photo of Sam opening one of his presents. He actually wasn't very interested in presents at all, until the end of the party, when he finally got the hang of it!

And this is a photo of Sam's new Firetruck bed (with Bob the Builder doona cover)