Been a bit busy and distant lately, i.e not been writing on here much nor have been reading other runners' blogs, but hopefully I'm back now and ready to catch up on what I've missed and all your stories and holiday posts.

Haven't been running much either, but maybe this is my natural taper before the marathon on Thursday, rather than have just been too busy or travelling around showing my mum China? Nope, it was the latter, but hey-ho, it can surely act as a taper yes?

So, yes, the marathon (the FULL marathon) is only two days away, and I am quite unprepared for it hey. Or so it seems. Also, think we may have eaten some dodgy (but so delicious at the time) sushi on Sunday arvo which we're paying for now. So, fingers crossed am back to good health by Thursday morning.

One thing that will definitely help in my full marathon quest is THIS:

Oh yes, that IS a Garmin/running watch! Courtesy of my excellent brother and sister-in-law (and Husband for putting the idea out there) - sooo chuffed! I will now join the ranks of 'proper' runners, and will no longer be a vague or zen runner (well, sometimes anyway).

In other exciting news: I finally gave my English/Chinese speech about running to the whole school yesterday morning, after weeks of it getting postponed (which was fine by me - I kind of thought they would just forget about it eventually). It wasn't too bad, I think, but I was very tired and had sort of just rolled out of bed, so am sure my well rehearsed speech of a few weeks ago would have been much more coherent. Hey-ho, apparently they could understand it, so all good.

Amazingly I wasn't nervous, maybe this was helped by being forced on stage in front of approximately two thirds of the school a few days prior to this, as part of a 'program' they wanted us 'laowei' teachers to perform as part of the Grade 7 and Grade 8 end of year show.

Last minute as ever, they told us that morning, then we ran around tyring to get some music sorted, but the internet had problems, then when we eventually thought it was all good, and music was in hand on our USB, turns out, oh no, it wasn't there and we had to go out sans-music and perform. Oh joy. Husband was singing, bless him, with me and my mum waving an Australian flag, as he belted out the traditional 'Waltzing Matilda' to the happy, encouraging faces of our students:

And, phew, that other performance or 'program' we were told to prepare for? That has since been cancelled. Good news for us. This on-stage performance malarkey gets a bit exhausting.




I'm off to pack and organise some things for our Xiamen trip tomorrow morning. Happy New Year's Eve everyone!

Off I went, keen as proverbial mustard to give my 'motivational speech', complete in English and Chinese (Chinglish?) this morning. I first stopped by a class of my former students for a practise run-through. That went surprisingly well, and they could understand most of my Chinese. So, there I was expecting to be marched off towards the sportsground, where I was expecting the whole school to assemble for the flag-raising ceremony that I am to give the speech at. However, due to the terrible weather (wow, even the officials have noticed) all the schools have been told to keep their students inside at the moment, until the awful smog clears up So, that gives me an extra week's preparation, and also means my mother will get to come to the ceremony too as she'll have just arrived from England - if she wants to that is; first day in a new town with a 7:30 ceremony might be a bit of a rough start to a holiday?




So, I believe it was this man, Albert Einstein, who said that the definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?

For some reason I woke up thinking about this quote and its ramifications yesterday morning, and it got me thinking. For example, there's a good friend of mine who is constantly trying to lose weight. They go great-guns for a while: they stop drinking, they do more exercise, and hey-presto, they lose a fair bit of weight. Then without fail, they will have a few days on the drink and the weight comes straight back on, every time. I guess we, as people, are strong creatures of habit. But also creatures of HOPE. We really think or hope it will be different this time, hence the repetition of our 'mistakes' from previous attempts.

It got me thinking about doing the same thing over and over again with regards to running, and expecting different results. I think, in running long distances and endurance terms, that actually this is not the case. If you run the same route over and over, and at first (if it is a longer distance you're not used to, it may seem hard or too difficult). Then, over time, as you repeatedly run this route, it gets easier and easier to do, as the route and distance becomes habitual. However, if you are aiming to change your running speed or style or form etc, then yes, I think you must try different things to see different results. So, I am really happy that I actually followed a training plan for once, before this last half marathon, one that included speedwork, tempo runs, slow/recovery pace runs, and trial 10km races as part of the preparation for aiming to get a faster time at the half marathon. This was my first time using a track, and my first time diligently sticking to a program. And it worked! I didn't 'insanely' follow my usual own advice and same tactics for a race - I didn't repeat what I've been doing over and over and expect a different result - I did different things and got a different result. Yay :)




Now, just need to work out how to transform this 'get-faster-for-a-half-marathon' training I've been doing, into 'train-legs-and-stomach-for-long-distances-and-survive-the-full-marathon' training. Hmmm, watch this space. But any advice would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

Woohoo, official results are out! Turns out, we were wrong, and my time was actually 1 hour and 34 minutes (not 1:32). So, 10 minutes faster than last year, not twelve, but still a PB for me, and am still very happy. I am THRILLED that I fulfilled the other part of my goal, which was to get a better position this year. I came 27th this year (was 44th last year). So am pumped about that. Also, now this is not any official placing either, but Husband thought I was maybe the 2nd laowei (foreigner) to finish - he was close: I was the 3rd laowei, with a French chick and American chick beating me by a couple of minutes. Hey-ho. The overall winning female did it in 1 hour and 18, so not too crazy far behind me? Hmm, maybe I'll be there next year? Maybe the year after that? Maybe never, and I'll just have to accept that and that's ok.

Really sore and stiff today, knew it was coming. Off to write a speech that the school wants me to give: a motivational speech re: the race and how running or sport can affect your life and study etc, oh yes, in English AND Chinese! Hmmm, should be interesting as I speak very minimal Chinese. Couldn't really say no though, as they'd set-up another impromptu photo session just as we were dashing off to make our lesson in time yesterday - a quick, come in here, the Principal wants to congratulate you, here have a big, beautiful bouquet of flowers and stand between the Aussie and Chinese flags we've set up, ok 'Smile!', 'ok Louise could you please give a motivational speech to all the students next week? Just 2 or 3 minutes?' Hmmm, better get practising - think they may want more than my standard 'ni hao!' or 'xie xie!'.