Look what I have!

Went to Brisbane Road Runners this morning and ran a lazy 15kms, feeling really good except for some pain in my hips at about 11kms.  Crumbs!  What will I do when that happens and I still have 30 kms to go?  Eeeek!  Anyway, once at Road Runners, I discovered that I was due a Bronze Medal for coming 3rd in my age category in the 1/2 Marathon Championships two weeks ago!!  Being the natural-born non-winner, I hadn't stuck around after the event, assuming that there was no need, when in fact I was up for 3rd place glory!  So, as you can imagine, I am really, really chuffed!  Yippeee!  It wasn't even my best time - in fact, I actually ran my worst time but who am I to argue with the clock or the placings? 

This morning, whilst running, I found myself running alongside a man of about 55 and we started chatting about marathons.  As it turns out, he has run HUNDREDS of them!  Even more astonishing, in about 1996 he ran two marathons per day (yes, PER DAY) for 24 days in a row (yes, IN A ROW) across four deserts (yes, you heard, FOUR) in Western Australia!  I am still in shock and wish, wish, wish I had been better placed to ask him lots and lots of questions about that incredible feat.  He has self-published a book about it, but has now sold out so no chance of reading it.  I don't even know his name! As he told me this morning, running a marathon is all about what's going on inside your head and I know now that I will be thinking of him and his incredible feat in July.  He also advised that I run my last 5kms first, so that I have plenty of juice left for my last 5kms on 3 July.  I take that to mean, go out very, very, very, very slowly!  Now, to other things…  I found this amazing image whilst trawling the news.  Why is it that horrible disasters create such beautiful energy maps? Remember the one showing Cyclone Yasi?  This is the map, produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration of the tsunami.