The countdown is on...

Thursday 26/10/06:
Had my final "maintainence session" with my physio this afternoon. Think she is just as excited as I am about Sunday's HM! Then again, she has put a lot of work in to me this year - to my shins, then hamstring, then lower back, calves and pretty much the rest of my legs! Today she mainly worked on my calves, which are feeling 100% better than this time last week, but still a tad tight. Apart from that, she reckons I'm as good as I'll ever be!

After that I headed into the central city to collect my race pack. Registration and the Expo opened at 12pm today and goes thru till 7pm on Sat, but I figured I might as well get in early. Also, I had to be at a meeting nearby later on, so it worked out well. Even so, there was a bit of a queue. Below are the contents of the very exciting race pack - which includes a Coolmax Adidas t-shirt (they're the major sponsor) lots of information, goodies from Cadbury and a Power Bar, Nivea, Elastoplast and Anti-Flamm samples and of course my race number and transponder. I am very impressed that on the back of the race number they have printed an area to fill in your emergency contact details, any medical conditions, etc. I have not seen this before, but think its an excellent idea. On the front there is also a panel to fill in that says "My motivation is........" !



The plan today was calling for a 15min jog. I decided to do this in the PM while Courtney was at gymnastics, as per usual. However to make it worthwhile, and to give the legs a stretch after the massage, I decided to add a bit of extra walking as well.

Brisk walk: 10mins
Easy paced run: 18mins (3km)
Brisk walk: 12mins

It was a fine, warmish night and quite pleasant to be out, but I have to say I think my body has definately got used to running in the morning. Even though the pace was easy, I felt a bit sluggish. Still, I guess all of those AM runs are a good thing when it comes to race day, as most events are in the morning.

Finalised race morning transport with Rob today too. He and his neighbour will be collecting me at 4.45am!!!!! It is approximately a 20min drive into the city at that hour, but we will have to find parking that is open and available at that time and where the car is able to be left for several hours. Then it will be a short walk to the wharf to catch the ferry, as the start line is on the North Shore in the quaint seaside village of Devonport. The ferry is the quickest, easiest way to get there from this side of town and they put on 7 special charters for the event, starting at 4.30am and running every 10-20mins till 5.55am. Its about a 20min trip over to Devonport, then a very short walk to the start line, but we want to leave ourselves plenty of time to hand in gear bags, etc, so plan on catching the 5.25am one, which is also the largest boat. They have allowed ferries for approx 4500 people, with extras on stand-by! There are over 10,000 entrants this year between the full marathon, the half and quarter marathons and there is also a 5km walk. Both the full and half marathons reached full capacity weeks ago and were closed off, as they are limited to how many can go over the Harbour Bridge and how long they can have part of it closed off for (its not normally pedestrian at all.) Only the full and half marathons cross the bridge, which is what makes this event so special from my point of view.


Oh and heres a bit of a "happy snap" that should have been in yesterdays post, but I only just got my photos from Melbourne downloaded tonight. This is my sister and I drinking Bellinis at the Brass Razoo in Mornington on Sunday night!