$9000 and beyond!

Amazing friends, great family, local fame and the linen party that rocked.

The marathon is less than five weeks away. Am I nervous and excited? Yes! Exhausted, emotional and sick of sunrises? Yes. There are days when I’d rather stick pins in my eyes than run, then there are the runs that make it all swing back the other way and the moments when I think about what it will be like when I’m actually running the marathon. This is when I know a few sleep-ins aren’t worth it, this race is what I want to do.

Besides I can’t turn back now, too many people are behind me. A couple of weeks ago I surpassed my $9,000 fundraising goal and am now close to $11,000. There have been several amazing events and people that have made this happen.

The moment that I knew my target was topped was after the linen party organised and held by my great friend Kirsten. Her friend Jen is an agent for Lorraine Lea Linen and between her and Kirsten they pulled off an afternoon where not only over $3000 worth of linen was sold – of which 10% will go to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation (approx $320), Jen and her husband Ben are determined to match that amount. Furthermore, Kirsten organised raffle prizes from her workplace – the Chifley Alice Springs Resort, her family’s shops – Swank Shoes & Exotiq Homewares, along with a mattress topper donated by Jen, photography package from Chloe Geraghty AND baked cakes as prizes so that we could hold an ‘everyone wins a prize’ raffle at the party which raised $400. She had so many prizes that she held ANOTHER raffle and organised the tickets to be sold – raising another $320. Kirsten and Jen are both seriously amazing! The photos below are from the linen party afternoon which about 25 women attended (yummy food and sangria as well as fundraising!).

My parents through their successful brunch, sausage sizzles and donations from the people of Cowell and greater Eyre Peninsula have raised over $3000 in total. This is the community where I grew up and I have been overwhelmed at the level of support I have received!

Thanks to two more superb ladies there will be more money coming in! On the weekend Kristen (different person to Kirsten) and Ange held an Italian Feast style lunch in Melbourne which by all accounts was another success!

Recently an article about my 2013 London Marathon Endeavour was published in the local newspaper for Alice Springs – the Centralian Advocate. I was quoted in it saying I don’t think I would’ve taken on this project had I not been living in Alice Springs. I certainly meant it – once again I have been overwhelmed by the local support.

Without risk of waffling and overuse of adjectives, I’ll take this opportunity to thank all family, friends and strangers from near and far who have donated to my cause and the ACRF. Every dollar has gone toward Cancer Research and giving me great big fuzzy feelings. It’s not finished yet either! If you have been reading this blog and intended to donate, but haven’t yet or would like to now, you can do so at http://www.everydayhero.com.au/anouska_zerna it will help make my next 4.30am alarm seem even more worth it.

The linen party was too much for some…

Me caught carbo loading on M&Ms….oops

Healthier options to the M&Ms…

The lovely Jen with her lovely linen wares.

My rather large looking foot becomes a feature in the Centralian Advocate.

Small Business Love

One of the charms of living in a small town is getting to know the small business owners who you frequent. Not only is the service in businesses where you can interact with the owner so much better, they are also experts in their field and will reward customers for shopping local.

There are four Alice Springs businesses who have helped me out with my marathon fundraising by donating their services and I in turn donate the equivalent amount of money (a win as I would have been buying these things/using these services anyway). I have found it is an effective way to fundraise without asking businesses to donate cash which is hard for small business in particular.

For the last few weeks my morning cafe latte from Piccolo’s Cafe is not only delivered to my office but has come gratis and I have a spreadsheet (ok it’s a piece of paper with handwriting) tallying up the total I will pay to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation when its time for me to leave for London. It should be about $150 when the time comes.

Mmmm morning coffee delivered to me desk AND helping me fundraise! Note also the date in April circled on the calendar!

I recently visited Sylvester’s hair studio where I received my normal colour and cut at 60% off which equalled a $72 to the ACRF (and caught up on gossip both in the salon and the trashy magazines)

The after shots look more glamourous….having my hair done with Dahlia at Sylvesters Hair Studio, Alice Springs

Centralian Sports is top of the list for most athletes in Alice Springs due to owner Greg’s sound advice and eager willingness to find or order the right product in for you. On my recent visit I got gear-ready for the big race with a new top and long skins (compression tights) which I can’t wait for it to get cooler so I can actually wear them! He rang his supplier while I was there to make sure the new Asics Gel Kayanos will arrive in time for me to break them in. When I pick them up I think I’ll get another pair of Thorlo Experia socks too (air-conditioners for your feet). Greg gave me a discount on the top and skins which already totalled $120 and he says he will do similar for the shoes.

Mind the messy room and worn out mirror….me in my new top and skins leggings from Centralian Sports.

Earlier this evening I attended my weekly class at Eastside Pilates. These classes are probably the only reason I’m still even running! Here is where I admit that I’ve had a few injury concerns in the last couple of weeks and am experiencing the mental battle of knowing a break from running will help but am so into my program that it is hard to let go and skip even a couple of runs. Anyway the fantastic Deb gave me some extra help tonight with my sore hip. You can tell she really cares about her clients and loves the challenge of finding out the cause of their issues. Deb has also donated a ten class pass valued at $120 – yep another $120 to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.

In conclusion this town is full of great people who are more than happy to help – it really makes shopping local the obvious choice! Thanks again Andy, Zoe, Greg and Deb.

The fundraising warm and fuzzies

What I served for my fourth fundraising brunch

Yesterday was the fourth in my series of fundraising brunches to which I had 9 adult guests and 3 children who came along with their parents. It seems to be getting easier as planning the menu and prep is taking less time. With Bec once again by my side on the day we are like a well oiled machine – the guests didn’t have to wait near as long for their second course this time. We came up with the idea of producing a recipe book for all the brunches, I hope there is time to get it done because it would be a great momento and maybe something that could make a little more money for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation too. In the meantime I’m planning a MEGA BRUNCH (it won’t be scary, just think the word mega needs to always be spelt in caps) to be held at a local picnic ground. The idea will be to have more people (30-40) and a more casual help-yourself vibe but still serve up quality food. The challenge will be the lack of facilities and most things will need to be prepared in advance.

Aside from my brunches my wonderful family and friends have also been working hard on their own events. My two cousins in Darwin held their own brunch and raised $200. Friends in Melbourne are holding an Italian themed lunch. My parents are doing an amazing job with my Dad selling barbequed sausages in the main street of the town where they live both of the days this weekend and they are planning a brunch for next weekend for which they hope to get 30 guests, they’ve also been collecting donations. My friend Kirsten is hosting a Lorraine Lea Linen party and raffle at her house which is shaping up to be a fun afternoon. This coupled with support of some local businesses (more on this soon) and the generous donations directly to my everyday hero page is leaving me with a very warm and fuzzy feeling indeed. To gain so much support from often unexpected places leaves you feeling super nice.

Watermelon, cherry and rose salad with toasted croissant

Arabian buttered eggs. Very yum!

Good looking guests

 

Five down, eleven to go…

Completing a recent mini triathlon.

I’m finding it amazing how many people are interested in my training program and how my training is going, or maybe they’re just being polite, or maybe it is obvious just from looking at me that this marathon is pretty all consuming in my life and I have nothing else to talk about. Anyway to me the interest seems genuine so I’m going to take this opportunity to talk a little about the training I’ve been doing and what it is like. Don’t worry I won’t do a post like this every week, I can just imagine the responses if I did – “wow you ran a lot again this week” me “well in fact it was 3.7km further than last week” riveting stuff – but this may give you an insight into the committment it takes to run a marathon.

I have just completed week 5 of my 16 week program and today (Monday) is a rest day, aahhh. After 4 fairly easy weeks that weren’t made up of a whole lot more running than I was doing prior to starting the program, week 5 started to amp things up a little. Although I say the first 4 weeks were quite easy, I was still feeling a lot fitter by the end of them which goes to show the variety in a formal program is better than just running a basic 6-8km five times a week.

Week 5 went like this:

Monday: Officially a rest, but swimming is still allowed so I went to the pool and swam a steady 1100m, its nice to use muscles that you don’t use running.

Tuesday: 4 miles (6.44km) easy running, my training watch recorded that I did 4.09 miles (6.59km) in 36m58s at an average pace of 05:37 min per km. I did this run in the morning but normally on a Tuesday I train with a group and do interval sessions and hill work however, I also wanted to attend a pilates class on Tuesday night that I missed on Monday due to a public holiday. Pilates really helps my stiff runners hips!

Wednesday: 7 miles (11.27km) hills. We are a bit limited with ‘runable’ hills in Alice Springs but I did 5 runs up Anzac Hill coupled with some efforts on the flat and ended up doing 7.11miles (11.44km) with an average pace of 06:11min per km (its amazing how much steep hills slow you down!) in 1h8m32s. It has also been a lot cooler here this week and the difference is shown in a slower heart rate (as well as increased comfort!).

Thursday: A rest was scheduled and rest I did.

Friday: 6 miles (9.66km) with 2 miles at marathon pace. This is the first time in the program that I have practised the marathon pace, it wasn’t terribly successful with my average pace over those 2 miles about 25 seconds per km faster than I’ll need to do on the day which I’m pretty sure will be unsustainable over 42km!! My stats for the run overall were distance: 6.06 miles (9.75km) at a pace of 05:28min per km, time 53m20s.

Saturday: 3 miles (4.83km). Not too much to say about this one, fairly basic, pace was 05:30 min per km, time taken was 26m45s.

Sunday: Sunday each week is the ‘long run’ the thing that is unique to long distance training and needs to be planned for in terms of setting aside time, nutrition and behaving yourself on Saturday night. This week it was 13 miles which is nearly 21km so basically equivalent to a half marathon. I ate an energy gel before the run which is a first for me, it made me gag trying to get it down but seemed to stay in the right place when I started running. I set out by myself from home but later wished I’d joined a group who train on Sunday mornings (I saw them along the way) as I was out for 2 hours, which would’ve seemed quicker with friends. As the distance of this run increases it becomes a lot of time to spend alone in your own head space. I was happy that I kept a very steady pace for the whole run, which was meant to be completed at slower than marathon pace but I do tend to go fast to start and lose it later, so it was nice that I seem to be getting the hang of a long steady pace! Time taken was 2h0m10s at an average pace of 05:44 min per km.

This week (week 6) follows a similar routine with increased distances on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday and an extra mile at marathon pace on Friday. I’ll also do a beep test on Tuesday to prove I am getting fitter!

Exiting the pool at a recent mini triathlon

The recent Australia Day fun run in Alice Springs. Over 400 people turned up to run and walk the 3km. I got up extra early (4:45am) to run 13km before the race as I needed to do a total of 16km that day.

A change or weather and venue – it’s as good as a holiday!

Alice Springs shuts down in January. Yesterday evening we wandered down to the fish and chip shop to find it closed, half the cafes are shut up too and riding to work you could be forgiven for thinking you’d accidentally gone on the weekend due to the lack of traffic. A lot of people extend their Christmas holiday and spend January on the coast, their motivation being to escape the extreme heat. Up until Friday (Jan. 18th) every day of 2013 had been over 40 degrees Celsius including an eight day consecutive run of over 42.

I still wanted to hold a brunch in January though and bravely planned it for Saturday the 19th hoping that people would still come, after all we can’t all stay inside in front of the air conditioner for ever (I liken January here to the hibernation that happens in January during the northern hemisphere, just with opposite weather extremes). The brunch would be at my friend’s house who I was housesitting (they are amongst the lucky ones who have escaped to the coast) under the natural shade of the trees in their front yard. My brilliant stroke of luck came by way of a storm of Friday night and some rain lowering the temperature – it was a pleasant 25 degrees when the guests arrived.

Many of the thirteen guests were repeat brunch-goers so I must be doing something right! (either that or they had no where else to go due to said shut cafes) Although I had been for a short run early that morning, such was the calibre of the guests that I was feeling a little lazy amongst them. There was someone who is training for a half ironman, another for a five-day mountain bike enduro and a runner who will compete in this year’s Paris marathon and many had been completing hard training sessions before brunch. Bec was back at my side in the kitchen and together we sent out a seasonal menu of white peach bellinis, spiced plum and Anzac biscuit parfaits and a puff pastry tart with green and black grapes, goats cheese, pancetta and crispy sage accompanied with a fennel salad. We joked that Anzac biscuits are in season too with Australia Day coming up and all. There were minor issues with the tarts taking longer in the oven than I had hoped and some ending up a little soggy (the grapes make for quite a wet filling) but I was happy overall. The most important thing is that the brunch raised another $260 for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation, whoop!

I really do enjoy these events the planning, the cooking and seeing everyone enjoy themselves it’s a nice offset to my social life which is starting to take the necessary decline to fit the training in. I was in bed by 9.30pm on Saturday night, the alarm going off at 4.30am this morning!

Holiday Running

It’s well and truly 2013 with 14 weeks today until the marathon and I’m two weeks into my training program. It is HOT in Alice Springs at the moment and that is no overstatement. I’m enjoying the training so far and really getting into using my GPS watch and heart rate monitor generously gifted to me on my birthday by my beloved. Long runs on Sundays in this heat affect your social life – I started this morning’s 16km run at 5.30am to be home before 7am, it was already 27 degrees celsius when I started – early-to-bed Saturday nights are a good chance to demonstrate my dedication!

Two weeks away visiting family over Christmas and New Year gave me a good opportunity to run in different places and climates. A change is as good as a holiday and in this case IS a holiday. I took some pictures of my diverse running locations and managed to log 11 runs during my 16 days away.

1. Moonta Beach

After a long drive from the middle of Australia I kicked off my holiday with a run on the beach. Nice to have a different coloured sand between my toes!

2. Adelaide

I ran a few times along the River Torrens in Adelaide. It makes a nice change to see lots of other people out running.

3. Adelaide Boxing Day

Running on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas Day) was eerily quiet but ensured I actually had an appetite after Christmas feasting.

4. Linear Park

More riverside running.

5, 6, 7, 9 Somerset toward Burnie, Tasmania

I spent the second week of my holiday staying with my sister and her family in Tasmania. Green rolling hills! Beaches! Cool weather! Lovely.

8. Hills and poppy fields

Having started my official training program while in Tassie, I had plenty of hills to choose from on my scheduled ‘hill’ run.

Fields of poppies make a change from a desert landscape.

10. Somerset Beach

My nephew joined me for a run on the beach, he kept up really well for the first 2.5km, not bad for a 9 year old!

11. Unexpected Launceston

A cancelled flight saw me take my first scheduled long slow run in Launceston. I made the most of it, winding through the trails at Cataract Gorge and even across the suspension bridge (a favourite of mine when I was a kid). I saw quite a lot of Launceston in my 16km.

Raspberry Picking

My holiday wasn’t ALL about running, there was still time to smell the roses and pick the raspberries (6kg of them in fact) yum!

 

The London Marathon is like….

the entire population of Alice Springs plus 10,000 friends all leaving town at once and running toward Standley Chasm but not quite getting all the way to the car park. In 2012 there were 37,227 finishers and since its inception 882,946 runners have completed the marathon – yes it is big.

I have been getting asked a lot of questions about the marathon itself lately (and even someone who thought it was the New York Marathon I was running) so I thought it time to post about the Virgin London Marathon. I will be running a full marathon which is 42.2 kilometres or 26 miles.

The official story of origin is that the idea for a London marathon was conceived in a pub (I’m happy to hear that running and pubs DO mix). The Raneleigh Harriers Running Club met at this particular pub and two of its members had run the New York Marathon in 1978, returning to the UK raving about the experience and amazed how different it was to the UK marathons, where a handful of spectators and a few cows (possibly a badger too) watched 20 or so competitors trudge around country lanes. So two more of the club’s members decided to check it out for themselves and entered the race in 1979. These two men were John Disley and Chris Brasher.

On their return Brasher wrote an article for The Observer called ‘The World’s Most Human Race’. This is how it started: “To believe this story you must believe that the human race can be one joyous family, working together, laughing together, achieving the impossible. Last Sunday, 11,532 men and women from 40 countries in the world, assisted by over a million people, laughed, cheered and suffered during the greatest folk festival the world has seen.” source

The two men went on to put in the hard work to gather interest, sponsorship and convince the Greater London Council that the event was worth closing the roads for, to stage the very first London Marathon on 29 March 1981 in which there were 6,255 finishers.

That first marathon had the following six aims:

•     To improve the overall standard and status of British marathon running by providing a fast course and strong international competition.
•     To show mankind that, on occasions, they can be united.
•     To raise money for sporting and recreational facilities in London.
•     To help boost London’s tourism.
•     To prove that ‘Britain is best’ when it comes to organising major events.
•     To have fun, and provide some happiness and sense of achievement in a troubled world.

I particularly like the sixth one!

The good stuff
A huge success, the race has been growing ever since. A particular part of the marathon that has grown exponentially is competitors raising money for charity – in 2007, £46.5 million was raised making the London Marathon a Guinness world record breaker as the largest single annual fundraising event in the world. In 2008, that record was broken again when £46.7 million was raised. In total, it is estimated that more than £500 million has been raised for hundreds of charitable causes by London Marathon runners since 1981.

No time to watch the changing of the guard…
I’ve read the course for the London Marathon is ‘flat and fast’ although I’m sure this is not what will be going through my head at the 22 mile mark (the course is marked at every mile and every 5 kilometres) but I guess it gives me the best chance possible to achieve my 3 hour 45 minute goal time. The course passes the following tourist attractions: The Cutty Sark, Tower Bridge, the Docks, The Embankment, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace – might as well kill two birds with one stone and sight-see at the same time I guess (probably won’t stop to purchase a souvenir plate for the yet-to-be-born royal baby though). There is a great interactive map on the official website where you can learn all about the course and what both runners and spectators should expect. I’m anticipating that I may find the crowds overwhelming seeing as there were only 35 runners in my first marathon and not exactly crowds of spectators lining Larapinta Drive, I’ve read not to panic if you still can’t run clearly by mile 3.

Merry Christmas and happy training to everyone. I’m headed to cooler places  to enjoy some less heated runs , aah the luxury!

Information on the London Marathon was sourced from the official website www.virginlondonmarathon.com

This image was sourced from http://www.motoring.co.uk/car-news/motoring-co-uk-girls-to-run-the-london-marathon_40697

Ancient rocks, a sometimes river & alien-esque bugs – running in my own nature documentary

The Central Australian landscape is visually stunning and still manages to take my breath away (dangerous occurrence mid-run) even though I have been living and running here for the best part of 3.5 years. The weekend just gone had some particular highlights beginning with the final in a 5km race series held at Simpsons Gap west of Alice Springs. I nearly didn’t make it having pressed off instead of snooze on my alarm when it went off at 4.50am, luckily I awoke at 5.30am which left me with a chance (albeit slim) of making the start. Fortunately the traffic was good (it was pre-6am on a weekend after all), the race was a little late starting and I managed to get my shoes on at the start line. A humid 27 degrees (yep that warm that early) made for a challenging race but the adrenaline from my rush to get there pushed me along and I finished in about 24 minutes. Having run 5 or 6 races at Simpsons Gap I sometimes forget how amazing the landscape is with the backdrop of the ancient red rock ‘gap’ in the McDonnell Ranges.

The Alice Springs Running and Walking Club 5km Race at Simpsons Gap, December 2012

 

After a large thunderstorm on Saturday evening which dumped more rain north of Alice Springs than in town, we had a surprise flowing of the Todd River. An Alice Springs icon, the river is normally dry – a sandy river bed marking where it has flowed for thousands of years (I often find confused tourists looking for the river). They say if you’ve seen it flow three times you are a local and it certainly creates excitement in the town. While I missed the moment when the river came down, I went for a gentle run on Sunday evening to check it out (by now reduced to about half the flow of Saturday night). An evening run is a bit of a luxury made possible with the cooler temperatures that came with the rain (for the last month it would have been about 37 degrees Celsius at 6pm).

The Todd River in flow, Shell of a Central Australian Cicada

 

All this was to a background sound of cicadas. They provide a constant hum at this time of year that gives the illusion that the river red gums are practically vibrating. Operating on a seven year life cycle the large insects emerge from years underground, shed their wingless dirt coloured skin and become resplendent with cellophane like wings and a bright orange W on their backs.

I love that all of these natural phenomena happen around me and add interest to my training, much more interesting than jogging in suburbia!

Brunch Número dos

This morning I held the second of my monthly fundraising brunches and I’m confident to say it was another success! Not only did all the guests seem satisfied (and pretend they didn’t mind how long they had to wait between courses) another $250 was raised for the Australian Cancer Research Foundation.

It finally rained in Alice Springs! We had quite the storm last night with high winds causing trees and branches to fall and the normally dry Todd River to flow! It was still drizzly this morning so I kept the tables in under the verandah rather than out on the lawn (which also saved having to rake up all the bark and sticks after the storm). With a few Mexican flavours on the menu my housemate Jac teamed-with-the-theme and bought that through to the table decorations doing a great job. As it was darkish due to the clouds we put on the fairy lights – I got confused and thought it felt like a night time party and put on big jewellery and bright red lipstick before heading to the kitchen.

It was the first brunch for all eleven guests and I welcomed the attendance of some men! Thanks Doug and Ed. It was a diverse mix of people in a diverse mix of moods/states – some were feeling decidedly Sunday-morning-esque while others had just finished night shifts at the hospital. First up on the food front was ‘ugly granola’ my homemade mix of popcorn, chunky pastry, oats, hazelnuts, seeds, dried figs and spices served with a grilled rosemary-honey fig and Greek yoghurt. Then things got serious with a frozen bloody mary (everything should be served frozen here this time of year!!) followed by two types of tacos – I hope the wait for the homemade corn tortillas was worth it. Accompanied by a salsa of pineapple and beans, one taco had a filling of twice cooked potatoes, chorizo and jalapeños while the other had a fried egg, avocado, radish, chilli, spring onion, coriander and lime. Jac was chief tortilla pressing senorita and coffee maker while Kara helped with everything from chopping to whizzing up the cocktails (not to mention the mountain of dishes she demolished afterward), I can’t thank them enough and couldn’t have done it without them!

Next brunch is planned for mid to late January – maybe even Australia Day? I’m sure to find lots of food inspiration over the festive season and looked forward to feeling this tired but satisfied feeling all over again (bit like finishing a good run really).

Testing Times, Training, Triathlon and Toenails

Disclaimer:  This post will NOT contain pictures of my toenails, I promise.

It would be fair to say that running is my meditation. I tend to be someone who doesn’t spend a lot of time idle so for me going for a run is when I can mentally chill out. I know a lot of people don’t understand this thinking how on earth can sweating, puffing, burning lungs and screaming muscles be relaxing? I think it is the point at which you realise you are hooked. When I fractured my right foot in two places earlier in the year my boyfriend was worried about what the forced inactivity would do to my mental state. Would he be dealing with a rage filled lunatic climbing the walls? Luckily the exertion of hauling myself around on crutches proved to be a saviour – my upper body strength is appalling so it was quite the workout! However, I was filled with relief when I was given the all clear to run again. Five months on I can’t say the foot is completely back to normal but I can run!

My plan is to build on my speed and strength a little up until Christmas and start the long runs in earnest after that. It has been recommended that I cross-train for this marathon just to make sure that poor little foot doesn’t experience too much stress. The last few weeks I’ve managed to get out for a decent bike ride, a swim and 3-4 runs per week. The swimming whilst also meditative tends to bore me a little (I seem to be only able to swim at one speed regardless of how much I train) and I’m still a little tentative on the bike (my foot was fractured when I was hit by a car on my bike). This morning I competed in my first triathlon of the season and it was another big milestone for me to A. Be able to run competitively and B. Ride to race rather than slowly and nervously. An event held by the Alice Springs Triathlon Club, it was called a ‘tag-a-long’ and competitors were ranked and paired according to ranking – lowest was with highest, second lowest with second highest and so on – with the aim of creating a more even field. Being the lower ranked of my team I completed my triathlon first – a 300m swim, 10km ride and 2km run before handing my timing chip to my team mate for her to do the same. I’m not sure of my time yet but we finished middle of the field (2nd all female pair). I loved being back out there!

Bike leg of the Tag-a-long Triathlon, Alice Springs November 2012

I won’t go into detail about my toenails but considering their current state let’s just say I have no hope of holding onto them during this marathon! No sandals or open-toed shoes for me this summer.