Guess who did a FUN RUN!?

I think I'm always gonna have trouble with that... Fun Run...  I'd be happier with 'Amusing Walk'.

Me attempting my very first 'selfie' with Madam Lash.
The tongue helps...

Last Sunday (21st July 2013) was the big day.

My first 5km Amusing Walk.

I trained for it by taking several very UN-amusing walks around my neighbourhood in the couple of months prior to the event.

Madam Lash said I need to put hills into the training walks as the route of the Amusing Walk would most likely include some hills.  I live up a small hill, and my whole neighbourhood is a series of slightly undulating undulations, so that was relatively easy to do.

See? Nice and flat...

Having already checked out the route posted online by the organisers, and having noticed how flat  it was, I didn't see the point, didn't tell her that,  but I added in the hills anyway.  I mean, I live in the area, I would know  if it was hilly, right?  We go for semi-regular drives out there... if there were hills I think I would have noticed!  After all, this is the Hunter Valley,  not the Hunter Hilly.

Turns out that I don't pay as much attention to the geograhical properties of my home as I thought...

See all that lovely flat land in the above picture?

Well, it ain't so friggin' flat!

These are the elevations that I had trained with...






aaaaand this I what I ended up with on the day...

But you know what?

I didn't care!

Oh sure, when I looked up and saw that first hill stretching away, I nearly died.

Voice said 'there is no freakin' way!'

Madam Lash who was literally beside me every step of the way said,  'Come on, you can do this!'   she said  'You've trained for this!'   and 'This is why we did intervals and incline training!'

And so I just did it.  Voice slowly got drowned out by the rasping sound of my own breathing, and by the constant encouragement and positive words from Madam Lash, when I looked up I was at the top, and the view was simply so stunning that I forgot to listen... and there was Madam Lash bouncing around with excitement and I'd like to think  pride, like she had just swallowed a pot of jumping beans!

The biggest hill was behind me, and it was all down hill  with only a couple more smaller ups  from there.

I managed to keep a steady pace throughout the walk, and the only stop I had to make was when I thought I had something in the back of my shoe, other than that I was determined not  to stop for anything.

That was until we hit what was probably the 3km mark.

We had come across a lovely couple here on holidays, from the US I think.  They were there happily doing their Terry Tourist thing, you know, happy snapping all over the place... Madam Lash asked them if they'd like her to take some pics with both of them together, they declined, and we continued on.

The conversation had turned to how I have a habit of walking without anything but my phone for music  and my keys.  No, I don't take water with me, yes I know I should, but it gets too heavy and I can't be bothered to carry it, using a cross body bag makes my neck and shoulders ache so I just don't carry anything.

We had just begun to discuss the benefits of a Camel Bak, when the next minute, there is this almighty racket!

Car horns blaring, girls screaming, engines revving... I got a little nostalgic for my old neighbourhood...

We looked up, and through the trees saw a gorgeous little black convertible come tearing toward us at a great rate of knots.  But it wasn't the car that got our attention, it was the occupants.  There were 3 of them, at least 2 were of the female persuasion, and the front seat passenger which thankfully was one of the girls  had decided to moon us!

A moon though the trees.
I can't very well show you what we actually saw can I?

There she was, in the front seat of a convertible, knickers pulled so far down they were probably in the laundry basket, bent over with her quite nice  bum pointing in our direction, and slapping it repeatedly as they all screamed 'Woo-Hoo' multiple times whilst hurtling down the road going probably 100kmph.

Well, I'm pretty sure that the looks on our faces would have been priceless.  There we were, the four of us, the Tourist Couple, Madam Lash & Me,  all standing there with our jaws on the ground... looking at each other in amazement, then we just burst out laughing.

I turned to the Tourist Couple and said something along the lines of  'No trip Down Under is complete without having seen the wildlife.  Welcome to Australia!'

Madam Lash asked the official photographer who had only been a few metres away from the action, if he had managed to get any shots.  He must've been in his own little world, because he didn't even hear them!  After we described the event to him in detail, I'm confident that he will pay more attention to his surroundings next time.

Needless to say the final 2km although uneventful, went past quite quickly thanks to our new topic of conversation.

From a field of 520 in this event, I came 520th, or as Madam Lash likes to say Reverse First.  I like that.

But I don't care where I came, or where I will place in any others that I do in the future, oh yes, there will be more!  because that isn't my motivation.  This was a challenge that I set myself, to prove to myself that I can do it, that I'm not the person I was a year ago.

Now for some gratuitous shots of me being awesome.

Doing my best to look like I know what I'm doing, almost at the finish line.

The end is nigh!  At this point I was sobbing - I was about to actually finish!

She's the magnificent, marvellous, mad Madam Lash!

I got a medal - It's going straight to the pool room...

Home, showered, shampooed and settled onto my throne.
I posted this picture on FB with the following hashtags:
#pyjamaday  #igotamedal  #earnedit  #nottakingitoff