The Simple Life...

I've been meaning to write. I like to write. It's nice when I have time to do it...

I'll start where I left off... World Champs. Needless to say, it was a disaster in the sense that I couldn't race. I wrote an article for Jock Athletic Ezine about my experience from the world championships here:
http://issuu.com/jockathletic/docs/jock_ezine_issue_10_v2
This pic with my dad and brother in the stands the night of the women's 10k... it was a long way for them to come to sit next to me in the stands... but I'm glad they did. The line up. Then part taking in a little bit of Korean Culture, the Korean bbq! Huge hit!

After Korea, I had a couple of Love Mercy speaking opportunities lined up. So Jony and I and Caity and Luke flew up to the Gold Coast, for Fortnum Financial Advisors conference where I got to share about Julius's life and tell the Love Mercy story to a room full of financial planners. From this night alone, they raised $22,000 for Love Mercy. I am continually blessed and blown away by people's generosity and willingness to support our work in Uganda. We then flew to Melbourne to share said story to a bunch of keen year 10 students at Maribyrnong Sports Academy. The kids are organising a fun run next month for Love Mercy called "Run with Purpose". These opportunities to share about Love Mercy and Northern Uganda's plight couldn't have come at a better time, post world champs, it reminded of me of what's important and why I'm running in the first place...

Jony and I had a holiday for a week in our camper van. There is nothing more relaxing to me than to drive along the coast, stopping in at cutesy little country towns, perusing through the little boutiques and organic cafe's that make places like Milton and Eden... no immediate plans, no firm destination, just to cruise in search for good surf and nice pubs to eat dinner at. We realised along the way that we like the smaller communities, as fruity as this might sound, we like the feeling of being "hugged" by a town. So we got all the way down to Bells Beach in Torquay, 8 ft off shore, amazing waves, like all Jony's Christmas's had come at once, fun to watch. We camped here for 3 nights, whale watched, ate meals at the local surf cafe and home cooked a few at the camping ground, watched Australia Versus Ireland in the Rugby at the pub- where I moronically donned a pair of green jeans which gained me the love of all the Irish supporters in the place but Jony almost disowned me, he said I'd renounced my Australian citizenship then and there. Ireland won, adding salt to his wound of my green jeans. 


Here's a little bit of my rants whilst we were living the simple life:


You know you're living in a camper van when...


You find yourself pocketing extra toilet paper from the pub ladies room
You brush your teeth daily in a beach carpark
You're reliant on the sun to be out to have a solar powered shower
Silence becomes your fondest playlist
You're so relaxed you consider rolling your own
Your hair smells a bit
Cooking organic porridge in the morning requires a nap afterwards
You're unsure if the yellow liquid in the drink bottle is your morning berrocca or the result of your husby's un-want of getting up in the night to pee...
You get overly excited at the sight of other campers doing the same as you
You wish you could live this simply forever and then realise you can take the simplicity home-  to be ok with just doing nothing sometimes... just being.

Because we've been away a fair bit since Korea, I haven't seen my family alot. Last weekend an email arrived in my inbox from my Dad, attached were newspaper articles he'd been collecting for me whilst I was away. All of the articles were on how other athletes deal with disappointments in their life and sport, how they put them in perspective and how they grow stronger and move forward. He'd been collecting these whilst I was away, he'd underlined and highlighted the gold. My dad is gold. Encouragement is truly oxygen to the soul.

So I wait...

I’m sitting in our apartment at the athletes village at the World championships in Daegu Korea, my foot is numb in a bucket of ice, and I wait. I’m waiting to see if it takes the injection I had last night to the joint that’s been bothering me and hampering my preperation for the past month or so. You don’t have to tell me, it’s less than ideal circumstances 4 days out from a World Championship race but despite this I’m taking heart in the simple fact that God has always, is always and will always be faithful. Reality is, I have a sore foot, but reality also is,  I’ve worked hard to get to this point so I’m resolved to fight till the end and either delight in or accept the result. I take heart in remembering how in times like these gone by, even though the experience has been frustrating, there always seems to be testimony to be made about how God has turned it around for good. To Him be the glory. Still. So I wait.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Romans 8.28

"You've got it"

                                                                    THE DREAM

It’s been 12 years since I first ran the qualifying time for the Olympics. This is me when I was 16 years old, in year 11 at school and lived for running. So much so, that when I got injured and couldn’t run at those Olympics, I almost lost the will to live… the words perspective and patience don’t exist to an ambitious 16 year old! So, after 12 years of riding the highs and lows that is elite running, the Olympic dream lives on and I have qualified again! And I'm excited! I'm running free, free of the fear of it not turning out how I have planned, because after 12 years, regardless of the feeling of disappointment at the time, the promise that it always works out for good has been proven true too many times!




                                                                THE TRAINING

The build up to this race was a month spent training in Laguna Mountain, California. It was the perfect place to get away and focus. I was up there with fellow Aussie athlete Ben St Lawrence and American runner Bobby Curtis, both boys also training to qualify at Stanford. Accommodation is basic, we stayed in scout-like cabins and had a common kitchen for cooking, a lot of athletes won't go to Laguna because it is so basic and not exactly luxury, but I like it for this reason, to train up there for a month you need to be able to rough it a bit, you need to be tough...my feeling was that I can't afford to be precious if I expect to run fast enough to make the Olympics. Jony joined us on the mountain after a few weeks, cooked some amazing slow cooked curries, and, as always was a calming and reassuring influence in fleeting moments of self doubt. Call me biased but I'm pretty certain I have the worlds most supportive husband.


                                                                 A FIJIAN WEDDING

It did however, make it a lot easier to train in the wilderness that is Laguna Mountain knowing that I was flying to Fiji for 4 days for my sisters wedding in the middle of the "mountain month". Jony and I flew from LA to Fiji for four days in paradise with my family and 50 of my sisters besties. We had such a great time and loved celebrating my sister and gaining another brother! It was only 10 days out from Stanford, so most of the hard work had been done. It was pretty hot and humid so I was getting up nice and early to run and totally loved running along the trail out from the resort greeting the employees "bullaaaaaaa" each morning as they were walking in. Most of the employees at the resort lived in simple huts along the trail I was running on each morning, I got desperate for water a couple of times so I'd stop in at a randoms house for a drink. I love the Fijian people, so laid back and friendly, they truly know how to relax and it rubs off onto you. We'll go back there.

                                            STANFORD  "JUST ANOTHER RACE"

The pictures above pretty much tell the story of Standord 10k- the start the middle and the end. I was reminded as I rounded the final bend towards the finish line how hard it is to run and cry at the same time. When I saw the clock and realised I was going to run the A standard, all this emotion just came bubbling up and there was nothing I could do to hold it down. I think I was clocked at 21 seconds for the last 100m... for the plebs, this is slow, a new born donkey would have beaten me in the last 100m. I was pretty nervous before the start, mainly because you don't get those sort of opportunities often and because I had been training so well, I had high expectations. My sister Gemma and my brother is law Chris were there to watch which was a boon! I ran into them coming in the gate as I was going out to warm up and gave them a high five and a "wooo weeee"! The best thing my coach Nic called out during the race was "you've got it!"- it was with 1km to go and we still didn't know if I actually "had it" yet because I was only just under target time- if he had of yelled out something like "you need to move along!" I think I would've tightened up but hearing him say "you've got it" made me relax and think "yeah! I've got this!". There's a lot to be said for claiming it and declaring it before it has come to pass.




                                                 RIDING HOME IN A PADDY WAGON

After the race, I said "goodbye" to Gemma and Chris and wished them "happy honeymooning"! and then attempted to cool down, (I think it was more of a waddle re the blisters I had on the bottom of my feet). Then begun an aimless and unsuccessful walk back to the hotel. Me and my roomie Charlotte walked for at least 30mins somehow in the opposite direction to the hotel, ending up in a creepy, dark construction site with mac trucks all around we waved down a police car and the kind sheriff gave us a ride back in this here paddy wagon.

Post race in Palo Alto

After a sleepless night due to a combination of caffeine, adrenaline and skype, I happily walked around Palo Alto- the home of Facebook headquarters. I window shopped at Tiffany's, Burberry, Jimmy Choo's and Victoria's Secret but my only purchase was this amazing chocolate sundae. What can I say, I'm easy to please.