Who'd be a sardine?

We've just been watching an AMAZING David Attenborough program about the life of sardines. The photography was incredible. Thousands of teeny weeny sardines trying to avoid being eaten by dolphins, seals, gannets & whales - all at the same time. I will never look at a sardine quite the same way again. In fact, looking at the schools of sardine reminded me of the Gold Coast 1/2 Marathon today, which I ran in a Personal Best Time of 2hrs:2mins:56secs. I am So Happy!! I am a champion!! Yippeeeeee. I have some photos but have not yet downloaded them and am now too tired to do so. Sorry. The only photo I have is this one of me with the winner of the full 42km marathon, William Chebon Chebor of Kenya.

He ran the 42kms in 2hr:11min:58secs. It was his Personal Best (like me - but that's where all similarity, unfortunately, ends). It was a hellishly hard run. I was trying to push a bit harder & was doing really well until the 16km mark when I began to feel really, really tired, and I still had 5kms to go! Those last five K's were seriously Hard Work. I was in tears by the time I crossed the line 'cos I thought I'd stuffed it. Honestly, the pain is intense. I know there are many, many people who have been through much worse - and they have crossed my mind as I run & contemplate how much I hurt. It's what pushes me on I think. Of course, now I am going to have to do the bloody run again next year, just to get sub-two hours, aren't I? Is this possibly like childbirth? It hurts like bloody hell but the high you are on afterwards makes you happy to give it one more go? Hmmm... The best bit about today was that mum drove up from Mullumbimby to watch me cross the line. I was So Tickled Pink. It was wonderful.

Here's a pic of me being a Brilliant Nurse, taken at age 25 years & whilst working in the orthopaedic ward (I think) of Royal North Shore Hospital. Oh heavens.... I was never destined to become Director of Nursing was I?