Have had a few 'issues' over the last couple of months which have had an impact on training and racing unfortunately. Both injury and work have played a part in preventing both!!!

It all started when I had to change from the shoes I normally run in (Brooks) to another brand (will remain nameless) due to my size not being available in the Brooks anyway in Sydney!!

Chinks in the armour started to show shortly after the change in shoes. An old injury in my ankle was aggravated, an injury I had sustained two days out from this years Ironman; I managed to roll my ankle and ended up having two days intense physio and some heavy duty strapping applied (which we took off the night before the race). Daryl Phillips of Performance Health worked tirelessly with me adjusting my orthotics etc. and, after managing to track down some Brooks, everything came good.

Daryl also put me in contact with Sarah Wilson of Brooks who has told me that they will make sure that I have shoes and are willing to help out with fundraising. Help that is very much appreciated. Good on ya Sarah!!!

Just as we get that problem sorted out, I get more pain in the same leg and the worry I that I have a stress fracture in my tibia. Following x-rays and bone scans, it appears that is not the case and I am "pre-stress fracture". In other words, close but not there yet. A step up from a shin splint apparently. It appears that we have caught the problem before it gets too bad. Good injury management has seen us make good progress but we have lost some good road running time.

I have been spending many hours (mostly very early morning hours at that!) deep water running in Manly Dam. I get some very odd looks from people but it’s a means to an end! That, coupled with swimming, cycling and kayaking have kept me fit but I am stinging to go for a decent run!!

Coach Bernhard, the Champion, has been all support through this and has reassured me when I have panicked about lack of preparation. I am very lucky to have him on my side. I would probably have gone barmy with worry by now if it wasn't for him!

Anyway, I have an appointment with the sports doc on Monday and hopefully I shall be back pounding the tarmac by the weekend.

Equipment has been decided upon. I will be using an Osprey Talon 33 with either a Raidlight Equilibre front pack or the 2 Raidlight shoulder strap bottle holders with 800ml bottles. I have both but have been unable to determine which is the better due to lack of road running time!

Daryl from the Outdoor Shack at Narrabeen has put me in touch with someone who can help with modifications to my pack if need be. I may even see if they can help with gaiters. I do have some on the way but all reviews on the subject are mostly negative. I shall have to try them and see. 

Kira my nutrionist is helping out with the food side of things and has given me some great info to help me on the way. I feel a lot more confident about that side of things because of it too. I had some health issues a few years ago that were never really explained that well to me but due to Kiras research on the subject, I am now a lot more comfortable about things!

Bridie has got onto the media for me and it they are willing to help too. Starting with an article to 'introduce' me and what I am doing and publicity with fundraising. After the race they will run an article, in dairy form, of my week in the desert. Hopefully we shall have some good photos too. Pretty sure I won’t be looking my best so I shall stay behind the camera!

Next week I shall be trying to finally sort out a fundraiser! This has been the biggest stress for me. With the injuries, work and making sure I have quality family time, there doesn't seem to be too much time left for much else. I have help though and will be tapping into it as much as I can over the next couple of weeks!  

I would be adding photos to the blog but for some reason am unable too. Not that there is too many to put on at the moment.

I’m not even going to mention the problems I have had with my flight booking. That’s another blog entry all of it's own!

Updates will be coming thicker (?) and faster now as it's almost time to go!! Not sure if I am feeling excitement or cold stark fear………

On the 23rd September I lined for the Sydney Marathon. I had a plan for the race and was hoping to break 3hrs 30mins. Race nutrition had been laid out for me by Kira and I was feeling really quite good if not a little nervous. I wanted this race to go well considering the few stomach issues I have had in my past few events.

It was quite cold before the start; hanging around Bradfield Park with the wind howling off the Harbour wasn't how I had hoped to start the day! Most competitors were huddled around the Harbour Bridge pylons trying to keep out of the breeze and most of us busied ourselves with stretching which helped keep me warm for a while anyway. I also did battle with one of those automated toilets as the queue for the blue 'tardis' loos was massive. Having now experienced a talking toilet, I know why that queue was so long!

The good thing about the Sydney Marathon is that they provide pace setters in the form of Sydney Striders runners. I found the runner wearing the 3hrs 30mins flag and stood by.........

The gun went and we were off (thanks to Glen McGrath). All went well but I felt the pace was a little high across the bridge but then the first few kilometres are always fast no matter what distance the race. However, on reaching 10kms in 47 minutes, I knew the pace was a little high and backed off a touch.

My fueling was working well at 25g of carb every 20 minutes. My alarm was set to go off when it was time to hit the gels and I was taking enough water at each aid station to wash it down.

I ran with another bloke from the 18km mark who was after the same time as I and we stuck together for the rest of the run. We dropped off the back of the pace setter as the pace seemed a little 'hot' to us. We went through 21kms at 1hr 40mins which was spot on. Unfortunately the early high pace was going to leave its mark later on.

Around 32kms I satrted to feel a little flat and had to back off the gels as they were starting to sit heavy in my stomach. This went on for around 5km and I watched my times drop from 5 mins per km to 5:25 per km. Around the 37km mark I came good again and had a very strong run home.

I remenber looking at my watch at 3hrs and 28mins and feeling quite disappointed. I could see the finish but knew I wasn't going to get there in 2 minutes!!! I crossed the line in 3hrs and 35mins.

The biggest mistake I made on the day was trusting someone elses pace instead of my own. It would be easy to say I could have broken 3hrs 30mins had I gone with my own pace; but I don't know that for sure until I try!!! Even so, I am quite happy with how things went and it has strengthened my faith in the training we are doing.

Today I had a barrage of blood tests done to see if everything in the engine is running correctly! They took that much blood I think they emptied an arm and a leg (I say that as I had wobbly legs when I got off the chair.....I'm not good woth needles). Results should be in soon.

Work may be getting in the way of events over the next few months unfortunately so I am not sure what is on the cards for now. Hopefully the 100km GNW in November but we shall see. In the meantime, training has moved up a notch and running hours have been raised. I think a lot of pairs of running shoes are going to be needed over the next few months!

Things have been  a little disrupted since my last entry due in large to APEC. Training was interupted a lot as so much time was spent working. I did manage a few extra early morning runs (eaving home at 4am!) but soon found myself exhausted by mid-week. As a result, any such training would prove to be counter productive. It was all very frustrating, especially as I have the Sydney Marathon this Sunday, but no point crying over spilt milk!

I am feeling quite good heading towards Sundays race. I know what time I would like to do and have a race plan all worked out but you never really know what is going to happen until the day. I have already thought of best case scenario and worst case scenario so I shall be more than happy with something in between!

My prep for this years marathon has been so much better than last years though. A week prior to the race I had flu and was recovering from an nasty ear infection (perk of the job)! I did little or no running in the three weeks leading into the marathon. Needless to say I am hoping for  a better result this year.

Following my stomach problems from the 100km, I was put onto a nutritionist/natropath by the name of Kira Sutherland. Now I have been to a nutrionist in the past and the experience was more than disappointing. I had my reservations about going but Grant Giles recommended Kira and that was reason enough to at least go and see. I'm glad I did!

Kira understands the needs of endurance athletes because she is one. So is her partner. When she told me that, I knew I was onto a good thing. Anyway, we have a plan for Sunday and fingers are crossed that the stomach problems don't re-appear. Only time will tell.........

There isn't too much other news at the moment due to the busy past few weeks. The flight is booked and paid for (thankyou Ian) so that is one less thing to worry about. I have been trying to put photos from races into the blog entries but for some strange reason I am unable to. Good old computer logic again I imagine!  There is still a lot of work to do though and time is starting to run out. I decided to do this way back in February this year. It all seemed so far away then and already I find myself with just over six months to go........exciting isn't it?!!?

7am on Friday 24th August saw myself and three work mates (Stevie, Chilli and Nixie) standing in the rain at the start line of the Oxfam 100km. An exhausting 19 hours later all four of us ran across the finish line in Brooklyn. And it felt great!

We had a very early start on the Friday due to final preperations and the fact that none of us really slept that well the night before! As a consequence we were at registation nice and early (TOO early!) which gave us plenty of time to sit around and dwell on what lay ahead.

All four of us had completed the event in 2006 in over 20 hours. We all knew that we could best that time but were left a little unsure when over the loud speaker we heard the proud announcement that this was the toughest course ever set in Sydney! 

We weren't too concerned as we knew it was a new course and we couldn't put time constraints on ourselves as the course was untried. We had our plan for the day which was simply to go slow and steady from the start. All we had to do was stick to that and we would be fine.

When then gun finally went off the usual hares took off at break neck speed. I knew we would be catching them before the end of the first stage and we did!

Our support crew for the day was made up of other members of our unit and they did a sterling job. Not only was our every need catered for at the checkpoints (well, almost every need), but they put time constraints on each stopp which (a prevented us seizing up and (b ensured we didn't waste too much time sitting around! They have to take a large amount of credit for our performance during the event. Without them we would have suffered (more!).

We made very good time over the first 70kms with our pace ensuring that at each checkpoint we were heading out with fewer teams ahead of us. The course got progresively harder with the climbs getting steeper and steeper. Unfortunatley for me, I had some issue with my stomach which did slow us down a bit. The consequence being that I was running on no fuel due to most of my food and water vacating my stomach at speed with 27km still to go!

At the start of the final stage I performed what is known as "the cat" on a grass verge not 30 meters from our support vehicle. For those who don't know what that is, I was on all fours on the grass verge involuntarily arching my back looking as though I was coughing up hairballs (I think that should give you an idea of what was happening) This performance did, however, get me a hearty round of applause when I finished and we took off down the road. The applause was very much appreciated by all of us!

That last stage seemed to go on for ever. We knew we had two big climbs in there and two decents; the second of which took us down to the finish line. That final decent just never seemed to arrive. Hacking along firetrail that seemed to move underfoot, we would climb up into the fog and then get our hopes up as we started to descend only to start climbing again in to fog. This seemed to go on for hours.

We could see the lights of Brooklyn for quite some time before the track took us down to the main road. When we got there the marshalls pointed us in the right direction and told us we had but 1.2kms to go. We ran as hard as we physically could(it felt as though we were sprinting but I'm pretty sure it didn't look like it!)!

As we approached the finish, the boys in our  support crew were there cheering us home. That felt great. 

In the wash up we finished 14th which we were quite happy with. We have yet to tally up how much we raised but by the end of the race our online donations had crept over $1000! (Dee sent through text messages during the day so we knew where we were at!).

I have to address the issues with my stomach as I have had them before. It's not an uncommon problem with longer events. I have spoken to both Bernhard and Grant about them and I have been put on to someone who can sort me out.

The recovery has been good with just a few aches in the legs. I have continued to train as per my program as I have the Sydney Marathon in 4 weeks time. That one I want to do well in.

Bright and early on Saturday morning I lined up with a hostof other mad fools for the Go Naturtal Multisport event at Akuna Bay, a 32km road ride (very hilly!), 12km kayak and 12km bush run. The reason I entered this event was to just build on the ednurance training and to have a bit of fun but the run up to the event had not been as smooth as I would have liked........

Due to my being away with work for a large portion of the fortnight leading up to the race, I didn't get to read the final instructions for the event until Friday night. It was then that I saw, to my horror, that aero bars of any shape or form were not permitted on the bike leg. Never mind, I had to resign myself to the fact that I would be riding my mountain bike. I fitted my road bike peddles to my MTB and all was sweet.....or so I thought.

On race morning, after catching up with Cris Ashcroft and assisting each other with numbering (with added smilie faces!!) I took the MTB for a spin around the carpark and my gears seized up. I was now faced with an even longer ride. Fortunaltely I was able to apply much brute force and ignorance to the offending part on my bike and got them working again, athough they did rattle an awful lot now.

Anyway, after my group (open males) started I settled down, put myhead down and went for it. I can't say it was the fastest 32kms I have ever ridden but it was the fastest I could have ridden on that MTB!

After the bike, the paddle took us from Akuna Bay to Apple Tree Bay, a distance of 12kms. The conditions were perfect but I took it at a nice steady pace as I knew that once the race was over I had to paddle back to Akuna Bay (I had no support crew for this one!).  No dramas on the paddle, I just took in the sights and enjoyed it as best I could. I can't say that for the paddle back though....I was quite 'over it' by then.

Out of the kayak and onto the run. the run itself was quite brutal with some particulalry big climbs. The track wasn't to bad, a little narrow in places, but quite dry. It got better as the run progressed, eventually coming out at the top of Bobbin Head onto fire trails which meant I could get into my running rythm and settle down a bit.

Once I had finished I jumped back in the kayak and paddled the 12kms back to Akuna Bay to pick up the car and MTB. In all, not a bad mornings training but I was pretty well wiped out for the rest of the day!

This Friday my three teamates and I take on the Sydney Oxfam 100km. I'm stuffed up with a cold at the moment but don't anticipate being in too bad shape for the start. We are hoping to break the 20 hour mark this year. All of us did last years event and were just over 20 hours. This time we hope to race a lot smarter and get a faster time. Only time will tell if we have learnt anything from last years effort.

After that I have some serious preparation to do for the Sydney Marathon. This is marked down as an 'A' race for me which means that my training has been focused for a good result at the Marathon. Straight after the Oxfam  I have three weeks of high volume running to do.  I'm looking forward to it but fear I have some long days ahead.