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This half marathon started out as a crazy idea from one person, who, supported by another person, managed to convince me it was possible... and the effect was like dominos. Many others who weren't entirely convinced it was possible joined the crew and the result has been incredible.

Likewise, your contribution - in the form of a donation of any amount, advice, desiring to volunteer at Familia Moja, helping our association here in Geneva (particularly with writing business proposals, calculations etc, that are not my strong point!) and encouragement - ALL will lead to achieving something incredible.

We did it!!!

This morning there were butterflies, nervous laughter and a tingling of excitement as we stood in the crowd waiting for the countdown. While the more experienced went on ahead to make amazing times, especially for the first-timers!, Kylie, Simone and I had the nice idea to try stay just in front of the 2hr purple balloon pace-runner. Well didn't that turn out to be optimistic!! ;-)

It was really hard to try keep a steady pace with all those people and we ended up running faster than we normally would have, and thus got tired quite a bit earlier...eeek!


I can't believe during the trainings I was saying "so, we've done 16km, we'll just need to add on 5km on the day". We'll JUST need to add on 5KM!!! Those last 5km were horrible. The best thing was that it was on a loop so we passed Nanou, Corina, Vlassis, Christian, Anne-Marie and others as they were on their way back and that was super encouraging!

But really, that was so tough. We couldn't have done it without our amazing cheersquad who were the loudest in Geneva for sure and special mention to a couple of my students who made a completely surprise appearance! :-D

Not afraid of hills anymore!!

Simone and I passed another milestone today - smashed the milestone, even! :-D We ran around Cologny - and it was OK! For those who don't know - Cologny is an area overlooking the lake and if you want to go on a nice bike ride through the vineyards and fields behind it, you have to go up a BIG, looong hill. I would never in my wildest dreams have considered it before today, and we were both hesitating, but what the heck! Last run, may as well do something crazy and see how it goes.

And all in all, I was a bit disappointed. It seemed a little steeper when I did it on the bike. But I guess that shows how much training actually pays off :-D It makes the impossible, possible!!

Mark my words, do not let your memories of the past determine what is possible for the future!!

So the half-marathon is finally around the corner and it's been quite an adventure. My memories of pain, tears and near-death seem very faint and I'm almost wondering what all the fuss was about. Don't get me wrong, it's still not easy to run that far ;-) but when I think about the night when Vlassis suggested it and how I felt...(nausea!) well it's been a real lesson in realising that the limits we have are often so much in our heads and have nothing to do with what we physically can manage.

Watch this space this weekend!!

Taking it easy

Not much to report. Just went on a lovely easy run last night - although I have to admit, only 4 weeks ago I would have been complaining about how difficult it was.

Let this be inspiration to you all - it is in fact possible to learn to run, learn to enjoy it, and prepare a half marathon in less than 2 months ;-)

Only one or two more runs before the big one!!! :-D :-D :-D

The Geneva countryside on a sunny spring day :-)

What another fantastic Sunday run!!

Today we were almost all together. And we were accompanied by Helen on the bike who proved to have a real gift for preparing the refreshments along the way :-D She'd line them up along the path and then pick them up wherever we left them - great technique! ;-)

I really felt like running through some fields and trying to make it out to the countryside a little so we made our way through Jonction and the back of Carouge (where we got well and truly lost - well I got lost and the rest followed!) but we were saved by Vlassis' iphone, which got us back on track to Vessy through some lovely fields - and a very big hill! :-( Then up through bout-du-monde to the Parc La Grange where we cooled down amongst the flowers overlooking the beautiful Lake Geneva.

Everyone ran so well!! I can't believe we're actually ready to run this thing!!

Wednesday 21st April - The (ridiculous) injury

Did I pull a hamstring? ...twist my ankle? ...hurt my knees?

No, no, no. I managed to tear my upper abdominal muscles!! How ridiculous! Although it has turned out to be a rather practical injury for running purposes as I can't feel it while I run.

So how did this happen?

Corina and I went along again to the exercises with the Geneva Runners and I'd been feeling more than just a little sore after the exercises we did last Wednesday - I'd never had muscle pain that intense before, which surprised me a little -but I wasn't prepared for what happened next.

As Corina and I launched into our first "leap-frog" type jump of the evening, I felt an excruciating tearing sensation along near where my diaphragm is - I kid you not - I've never heard of that happening to anyone before either! Anyway after a good 10 mins of deep breathing until the nausea left, Corina (who had her own painful experience) and I decided to just stick to a light jog.

Funnily enough running doesn't hurt (thank goodness - what a lame reason that'd be not to be able to run!) but getting in and out of bed is near impossible. And when I try roll over in my sleep I wake myself up from the pain!!! And don't get me started on coughing and sneezing (in the height of hayfever season!) Oh, the pain! Yeah, go on, you can laugh. I have been ;-)

OK, I think I'm actually starting to enjoy this running craziness...

WE DID IT!! ALL OF US!!

16km from Geneva to Hermance and in less than 1h30mins. I wouldn't have believed it except that both Sim and Will had those fancy devices that calculate your speed, distance, etc.

The runners (Corina, Simone, Will, Marie, Scotti and I) were accompanied on bikes by our ever-faithful cheerleading team (Sylvie, Carlos, Hakan, Alison and little Charlotte), who provided us with the necessary bananas and fluids to keep us going.

Sim had a cold, so special mention for her. And Scotti and Corina, who charged ahead - wow!

As for me, it actually felt pretty good. I'd been dreading this day but again, I guess the regular training and the "altitude training" has done the trick. I don't suffer during the first 5km anymore... it kind of all feels the same, all the way through. Well, the hills engendered the usual groans, and those last 3 kms did feel A LOT longer but all in all, I imagined finishing this half marathon without stopping for the first time.

I even found myself grinning at the thought of May 9. Yes, I admit it! I'm actually looking forward to it!! I thought I'd never see the day.

NEXT STEP: stop running like a duck ;-) Someone, I think it was Will, had the guts to let me know that my "technique" was a little odd and that I tend to splay my feet out when I run - and looking at the video footage, it's pretty bad *winces*

I have to get some grace back into these feet, or I won't run out of embarrassment!!