Next stop: Boston

I am just back from my latest work trip, this time to South Korea. No more work trips planned for some weeks, which is a real relief. Next stop: Boston - Monday 16 April!

Finally, I have a chance to catch my breath and get excited about the race. My race preparations have continued to be anything but ideal. While traveling last week I came down with the flu and had to take a week off from running. One month out from the race, this was not good. My adductor injury also continues to be a pest. But as always I will focus on the positives. I have a reasonably solid training base behind me and being in Boston will be such a thrill I am sure it will carry me through. I would like to give those Africans a real shake for their money too, but will settle on just surviving the race and enjoying the day I think.

Some 2007 Boston fast facts: (1) total prize money this year - USD$575,000, (2) the field of 23,500 will be the second largest in Boston Marathon history, (3) spectator fleet - 500,000 expected to line the course, and (4) the traditional race starting time of 12 midday has been moved forward two hours to 10.00 am.

I leave for Boston in two weeks on 12 April, flying Qantas to LA and then American Airlines to Boston. Accommodation in Boston is heavily booked and I could only get some place out in the boondocks. But to be there - yo baby!

The Kiwis

I'm at Singapore's Changi airport as I write this on the way home from a short work trip to Vietnam and Singapore. That's a typical Hanoi street scene at left - never seen so many bikes!

There's a logic (which is one way of putting it!) to the traffic flow that defies my ability to describe it. Not a great place for running and I was confined to doing multiple 500 metre circuits of a park near my hotel to get in my run (I thought of Scott in Japan with his 10x3k loops).

My future posts are going to be much more Boston related but first I have to deal with a New Zealand theme. I have been promising Vicky in Auckland that I would do a post on something New Zealand related and here it is. WARNING: mostly non-running content follows.

I first visited in NZ in 1975 for a family holiday and have visited many times since to both islands, nearly all for work. While I find the Kiwi's 'chip-on-the-shoulder' attitude irritating at times I love New Zealand and love New Zealanders.

The beauty of NZ takes my breath away and the New Zealanders themselves have made many enormous contributions to the international community out of proportion to their population and geographic size. I think of famous Kiwis over the years and remember Sir Keith Park, Rutherford, Katherine Mansfield (an absolutely wonderful poet) and of course that great nugget of a man, Sir Edmund Hillary.

When it comes to runners, the Kiwis have made a very distinctive contribution. Names such as Lydiard, Snell, Walker come to mind to name just a few. I have worked and drank a beer or two with many Kiwis both in Australia and abroad and there wouldn't be another national group that is as like-minded to us as your typical Kiwi.

I have heard all the sheep jokes (which work both ways by the way) and received all the barbs over that underarm incident of the early 1980s (still remember the day well!) and had to deal with a Kiwi almost in tears over Australia's defeat of the All Blacks in the 1991 Rugby World Cup (another day I also remember well.)

But the point of my tribute to our breathren across the Tasman is this: I think it is time to look seriously at a trans-Tasman Federation.

Now I know Helen Clarke and 4 million Kiwis will be coughing up their Steinlagers when I said this. But there are many compelling political, economic and social reasons why both countries should consider federation, which I wont go into here. I will just say for now that I am not considering a situation where New Zealand is placed on similar status to an Australian state.

I've got in mind a scenario where New Zealand has a special status superior to an Australian state but still within an Australasian federation. We would have a single defence force and common foreign and defence policies and a range of other unified economic and social policies.

But both countries would retain their own sporting teams for international competition much as England, Wales, and Scotland operate within the United Kingdom. Whether we would have unified Olympic team is a tough one, which I will leave to another time.

There are an enormous range of complex constitutional, political and other considerations that would need to be tackled for Federation to occur. But it is time they were.

The 3% club

I was greatly, greatly touched by all the words of support that came my way after 'that incident' with the bike last weekend (the bike and I still aren't on speaking terms). I am a tad embarrassed both by the incident itself and the attention that came my way later. I had very much wanted the focus of my last entry to be on Maria's wonderful poem and I am very happy that others have appreciated it as much as I do. Stephen that poem of yours, too, is a classic. It blew me away mate and, as I said to you, it will come along for the ride with me to Boston. I can't thank you enough for what you wrote.

I promise to finish this post on a positive note but I have to say that the week since the incident has had its emotional ups and downs. I had a lovely run at the Western Creek Half Marathon today coasting for most of the course and only pushing it a bit over the last few k's for a 1.38 effort. Many of my running buddies set PBs, not least Michelle who finished with a 1.42. She took 13 minutes off her course PB and seven minutes off her own overall half-marathon PB; a tremendous performance.

Unfortunately I could feel my annoying adductor injury through nearly every step of today's half. My right glute also became tight and sore during the run and just for something a little different I had some mysterious knee niggles come and go during the run itself. If that wasn't enough my right foot has started coming down with plantar fasciitis again. Mentally I was also down as last night I received the terrible news that a younger cousin I was close to had died suddenly and tragically in a house fire in Alice Springs.

So my Boston preparations are not ideal. But never, never will I be complaining. One of the most exciting things to ever happen to me will take place in just over a month. I have many blessings with family and friends. On Wednesday night I caught up with the famous Lucky Legs, and fellow bloggers Ewen, Strewth, SpeedyGeoff, Aki, Flashduck and Flashdrake for dinner at Dickson. It was a beaut evening and I enjoyed it a great deal. There is nothing like being in the company of fellow runners. As Strewth said on her blog Lucky Legs looked simply fantastic. Every time I have met LL's her she looks like that. She's a pin up poster girl for our sport if ever there was one. It is dinners like this that make me realise how enormously lucky I am and why I treasure each day.

Just how good I have it was also made clear by my doctor earlier last week when I reported in tired and sore after my bike incident. He did all the usual checks, blood pressure, etc and declared - despite the bruises and abrasions - that I was extremely healthy. He told me I looked ten years younger than my age and had the blood pressure of a young boy. He said I was part of just 3% of the population that didn't smoke, wasn't overweight, and exercised regularly. Wow, does this dude know how to make one feel good or what and I know that I walked out of his surgery walking taller than I went into it. But I thought of you my fellow runners. We all come in different shapes and sizes and different levels of ability. Yet we are actually members of one very elite club - the 3% club!

I am off overseas in South East Asia this week for work. I will try and catch up with my blog reading while I am away as I enjoy blog reading a great deal. As soon as I get the opportunity I will be visiting.

The Inner Child

Thank you so much to everyone for your wonderful words of support for my decision to run the Boston Marathon. I really do appreciate everything you have said.

I've had a scare with my Boston preparations today, but first a little poetry.

I've long had an interest in poetry and find that there is few better ways to describe the joy of running through dabbling in a little of it. Some of you might recall a poem I wrote about running last year.

This time, however, it is my real privilege to share a magnificent poem written by Maria, one of my fellow runners and a member of my Saturday running group.

Maria is an incredibly talented writer and poet and runner to boot. This poem is just so beautiful, capturing as it does the sheer joy of our wonderful sport.


The Inner Child

The morning is still, few yet awake,
The sun lifts its head and gently kisses the lake.
Rays illuminate everything in sight,
As the child’s soul ascends and bids goodbye to the night.

Birds in unison fly together,
Such perfect accord nature un- tethered.
A work of art, hypnotically entranced,
My spirit leaps and joins in the dance.

The trees sparkle with their ‘prism’ like dew,
Eyes seldom see a more glorious view.

So happy to witness this astounding day,
The heart accelerating, pumping away.
Alive with love an untamed heart,
Please stay forever let us not part.

Happiness, ecstasy, bursting with joy,
Like a child reunited with its favourite toy.
Still stars in the sky, the moon and the sun,
YOU’RE ASLEEP! YOUR MISSING IT! WAKE UP EVERYONE!

So grateful to have been here to watch your magic unfold,
You’ve lifted my heart, your beauty untold.

© Maria Brady 2007

This poem has come at a good time for me as my Boston Marathon preparations almost came disastrously unstuck today.

I got through a nice 25k run with my Saturday group earlier this morning and shortly after was riding my bike to Little Athletics. About half way into the ride I was going too fast around a blind corner and collided head-on with another rider.

It was a nasty crash: I couldn't move, was in pain, and went into shock. The other rider got away more or less unscathed. First the Fire Brigade then an Ambulance was called to untangle me from my bike and see what damage had been done. I was in pain in my right wrist and was uncertain if I could feel my back and neck; I still lay motionless on the ground, still in shock, cold, trembling, and wanting to spew. I could see blood dripping from my arm. Morphine was administered and I was taken off to the Canberra Hospital. On arrival at the hospital I can remember the paramedics brief the ER that I had a suspected compound fracture to my wrist with cuts and abrasions to other areas of my body.

To cut a long story short, after x-rays and a full body check I was found not to be suffering from a broken wrist with mostly just some painful bad bruising, several scrapes, bumps, cut, and a badly shaken ego as the only lasting trauma. I am still in pain as I sit here tonight typing this. Hopefully, I might be able to back running in a couple of days. So to my great relief nothing too nasty bit me today, but it could have been worse.

I think I can thank Maria's beautiful Inner Child that my own Inner Child is still with me today.

As Maria said in her wonderful poem:

So happy to witness this astounding day,
The heart accelerating, pumping away.
Alive with love an untamed heart,
Please stay forever let us not part.

I have never, ever, read such beautiful words about running.