Dover Half Marathon

Last Sunday saw the most glorious blue skies and 500 runners take to the country lanes between Dover and Deal for the Dover Half Marathon. Whilst I was slogging it out on the hills in the sunshine for 13 miles, Indie competed in the junior 1500m race and did very well coming in at 8.5 minutes and placed third in her age group.

Stripey Andrew 1.41.14

Paul 1.50.20

Rob 1.50.50 (never run further than 7 miles before this half marathon, so how can that be?!)
Zoe 1.53.23
Chantal 1.57.04 (like to stay at the back to check my friends are doing ok!)

Canterbury 10

Well, it's been a while since I have blogged on, but I am back and yes, we are all still alive and well. My excuses for the lack of posts, 1. Christmas 2. Builders and 3. Two nasty colds....

First race of the year was today's Canterbury 10 mile run race. A week ago I was still not well enough to run, but Chris has fed me spices and garlic all week and I was feeling fit enough to give it a go despite the lack of decent training (also caused by the 3 things above!).

Plodded round, knowing I was probably going to do a PW (personal worst) but managed to run the whole thing, keep a consistent pace and vaguely enjoy it. It's a nice course and was a lovely day weather wise.....

Chantal 1hr 29 (not quite a PW)
Paul 1 hr 19 (10 mins off his PB so steroids obviously working)

Next race is in two weeks - Dover Half Marathon, so fingers crosses I don't catch any more lergies and can do a bit of training for it! India has also entered the junior 1500m race so watch this space....

Hello From Down Under

Quick update from South Western Western Australia, yes that is what this region is called! Drove down to Margaret River yesterday after packing up and leaving Busselton.

Quick report from Sunday's Ironman race, Chris did AMAZINGLY well (as requested by me due to the cost of the trip!). Weather conditions were perfect, warm but overcast. We hadn't had much sleep as Kofi had woken us all at 1am and that was that for the night. By the time we got the start area at 5am, that was all forgotten. The day was already long!


































The swim start gun went off at 6am, mass start of 1000 competitors swimming the length of the 2km jetty and back down the other side. Chris came out of the water in 1 hour 3 minutes, setting the scene for a day of PB's. He cycled half the 180km bike course with bestest mate and ironman mentor Simon, finishing the bike in 5 hours and 31 minutes. He looked strong heading out on the run, and finished the marathon 42.2km in 3 hours and 53 minutes.

Total time 10hrs 28mins, knocking 47 minutes off his Ironman PB.

Simon also did brilliantly, (but don't tell him as he is big-headed enough already), finishing in 10hrs and 57 minutes, only walking the final few metres of the 300m finish shute as he had Seb n' Sid in tow. Also a massive PB and as chuffed as Chris.




UK friend Bryan was competing in his first Ironman and did really well finishing in 11hrs and 47 minutes, running up to the finish with Matthew and Luke. Indie and Kofi enjoyed having their mates from the UK out in Oz with them for a couple of days and it was nice having Nanette as well as Shilpa around for the long Ironman day.



We all met up at about 9.30pm back at the beach flat for race chat and chill out.....all the three boys were so, so happy with their day's work, as they should have been. Us three Iron-widows were really pleased for them all, and secretly a bit glad it was all over at last!!

We are now in Margaret River for a few days, it's still cloudy, but hey, better than back home so I am not not moaning! Off to a historic winery this morning for lunch and a bit of wine tasting.

Off to Ironman Western Australia

Chris' 40th birthday in May seems so long ago.....but the time has finally come for him to 'enjoy' his present!

We leave tomorrow night for Malaysia to spend the weekend with Simon, Shilpa and their boys in Kuala Lumpur. On Monday, we fly onto Perth where we hire a big car to get us and the bike down to Busselton. We will finally arrive in Busselton next Wednesday. Chris' Ironman race is on Sunday 2nd December, starting at 6am. If you want to track his progress or our friends Simon Cross, Sam Pritchard or Bryan May, you can via Ironman Live. http://ironmanlive.com/ Remember the time difference, hopefully Chris will be well into the marathon by the time the UK is waking up!

Good luck Chris - love Chantz, Indie and Kofi xxx

Turbo Dad

Last weekend before we head to Oz and Chris got the whole family involved in his last minute training......

My Little Darlings

HELLRUNNER

Along with 2500 other runners, I competed in the Hellrunner race last Sunday at Longmoor Army Training Camp in Hampshire. The weather has been pretty dry recently so I think the course was probably alot more managable than it could have been. It was however still 10-12 miles (they won't tell you long far you have to run, part of the charm of the race or something) of trail running with lots of steep sandy slopes, muddy banks, huge muddy puddles, the odd rock, The Bog of Doom, the ravine bog and an extra bog for luck. Wading through freezing cold stinking black sludge past your waist, lovely! Paul and I ran as a team, which really just meant he had to keep waiting for me every now and again to catch up.....he did beat me across the line by 1 second...but to be fair I think his victory was somewhat unintentional. (Paul 1.55.47, Chantal 1.55.48)



Meanwhile Chris spent the weekend doing hardcore Ironman training, an 88 mile bike followed by an hour's run on Saturday and a 1 hour bike followed by a 3 hour 10 minute run on Sunday. Quite sensibly, he had refused to take part in Hellrunner due to the high injury risk, and judging by the state of some of the competitors in the first aid area, this was a wise decision.

That's the final race for me in 2007 and Chris is now only 3 weeks away from his Ironman in Western Australia....