The End of my Aussie Sweep at Melbourne Marathon this weekend

Yes this Sunday I will be running onto the MCG to finish my 4th Melbourne Marathon, but more importantly, it will mark the final race in my Australian Sweep of marathons for the year!

I'm hoping to see as many of you fellow runners, tweeps, friends and family either in the days prior, on the course on race day, or afterwards to share in the experience of one of my biggest achievements in running to date - hopefully capped off with a new PB!

I've spluttered around on Twitter and Facebook about various meet-ups so as promised I'm posting my plans up here to see who can make it wherever possible - happy to catch with anyone just drop me a line if you have other plans, so we can link up!

So here's my schedule for the weekend...

Friday Dinner - Lygon Street  - I won't be getting into Melbourne until late, but if you are interested in doing the proper Carb-loading session on a Friday night, you should join my old mate Digger - he'll likely be organising dinner somewhere in Lygon Street with a group  of awesome runners - I went last year and it was an easygoing evening where I got to make some new friends whilst stuffing my face with pasta! If you want to know more, check out this post in the Melbourne Marathon Facebook Group

Saturday Lunch - Richmond Hill Cafe - I plan to be in the City in the afternoon and will head to the expo first then I'll be meeting some runners for coffee and cake at the Richmond Hill Cafe & Larder on Bridge Road in Richmond at 2pm. It's only a relatively short walk from the expo and all are welcome - I'll probably end up there for a few hours so hit me up on Twitter or Facebook if you want to catch up and you can't find me.

Saturday Dinner - Mt View Hotel - I will join Digger and his crew for the ritual Steak and chips at Mt View Hotel again on Bridge Road in Richmond which should be anything from 5pm onwards to cater for everyone looking for an early night. It's a great chance to meet some seasoned runners and shake off (or possibly worsen) those pre-race nerves. Post up on the Melbourne Marathon Facebook group if you want any more info on this, or again, hit me up directly on Twitter or Facebook.

Sunday after the race - Transport Bar - I'll get cleaned up and then head to the Transport Bar in fed square for a light feed and some heavy drinks. This is a popular post-race location with runners as you can (hopefully) sit in the sun enjoying a few refreshing beverages as you watch the battlers still finishing their marathon. I'll probably get there about noon and hang around for a few hours with my fellow Aussie Sweepers Simon and Dilwyn as we will all be celebrating in a big way, so make sure and congratulate them too!

Sunday Afternoon - Mt View Hotel - I'll be joining Digger and hopefully a large group of awesome Facebook peeps at the Diggers after Melbourne Marathon get together - back at the Mt View Hotel in Richmond, from about 3pm onwards. This will be held in a function room and a small fee will be required to cover snacks for all, see the Facebook event for details.

After that I'll probably head somewhere in search of my usual Post-Marathon-Curry-Feast but I have no idea what condition I will be in, no doubt I'll be tweeting drunken gibberish, so you have that to look forward to! :)

Anyways that is MY plan for the weekend, I can't wait to run this race and I'm super keen to hear everyone's own tales afterwards!

Blackmores Sydney Running Festival

So it's actually been four weeks since my last marathon. I have managed to slip back into my Melbourne Marathon training program from last year with some improved targets. As a result I've hit quite a few speed sessions, long runs, and even gym work during this "break". I was feeling confident and was planning to take Blackmores Sydney Running Festival Marathon on as an aggressive training day. Work has been, as usual, a bit too hectic but I've also had Little Miss J in my care the past few weeks leading up to the marathon so sleep has been a little lacking, otherwise everything has been going well!

On the Saturday before the race I flew into Sydney nice and early, found my Hotel which was closed and unable to check in or even dump my bags until 2pm - but no complaints, you get what you pay for, and this place was cheap!

Redoak, Awesome!

So I headed off to a nearby boutique brewery called "Redoak", where I sampled several of their beverages and enjoyed an epic pulled pork pizza. This place was fantastic, the service was great and both the beer and food were delicious and they even let me charge my phone whilst I sat at the bar, so I highly recommend you check them out if you are in the city!
Next up was a quick trip to the expo to collect both mine and Simon's race kits. I thought I would have some time to kill there, being an expo, but it was nowhere near as big and glorious as the Perth expo (City to Surf), so I was out of there as soon as I snapped my picture for instagram to enter into the Asics competition!


After finally getting checked into my Hotel, next up was a quick meet up with @EwenThompson and @FionaABennett for afternoon tea near Hyde park, we had a great old chat about race strategies and general running business, before wandering off through the park to check out where they had this wondrous scaffold bridge setup for the marathon the next day!

checking out the fun part of the course ;)

Then I just had to go for a run, the weather was fantastic, I had time to kill and I was curious about the time it might take to get to the start line from our hotel, so I headed off on my own little 8km scenic tour of Sydney!

After my run, Simon finally arrived in Sydney so we went to a place called Hotel CBD where we had, probably the worst pre-race meal we've been served to date, half cooked hamburgers :)

Course

The Blackmores Sydney Running Festival Marathon course is superb - from a tourists perspective. Lots of switchbacks, but no laps! The course takes in a heap of the wonderful sights of Sydney crossing the iconic Harbour Bridge, running through places such as Centennial Park and Hyde Park, and passing by other icons like the SCG and Circular Quay with the finish line right at the Opera House.

Very concise maps for the Blackmores Marathon

City to Surf, Perth Marathon, my new favourite race!

Well, City to Surf is a whole race series with events all over the state climaxing with the marathon in Perth! It appears to have only been running a few years, but its well backed by the community and state. I absolutely loved this race, so many aspects of it just made me so happy to be a part of this, hopefully in the coming blocks of text I can convey everything that I enjoyed about it.

It's only been a week since my last race,  and I've only managed a few short runs this week. At the tail end of the week I got really sick despite feeling invincible at the start of the week! Glands were swollen and I had a fever, but no way in hell was this going to stop me working, let alone running in Perth!
I flew on the earliest (and cheapest) flight I could get to Perth, 7:15am, so again, I slept in my car at the same rest area the night before my flight. I learnt my lesson from last time and booked ahead for my car parking, checked in via the web, and started my car as soon as I woke up to defrost the windscreen! Everything went to plan this time and I was at the airport nice and early, stress free!

Hotel SUCCESS! 

Once I got into Perth, I made my way into the city and checked into my hotel. Speaking of which - the Pensione Hotel in Perth was amazing, super accommodating, good value, great service... it was a most enjoyable stay.. they let me check-in super early and then also let me have a late checkout for after the marathon at no extra charge!

This is all I could capture of @michloise lol

I met with my friend from twitterdom @michloise for a 1 hour jog along the river followed by an epic mission to find lunch on the Saturday, hunting for pasta. It was great meeting yet another tweep and we had a blast running and chatting!

Fellow sweeper Simon was splitting accommodation with me again so we met up after lunch and then went off to check out the expo. We were pretty late, but the expo was fantastic! Amazingly well setup, catering for all sorts of running related things and had all your pre-race needs covered. Signups, Helpdesk, warm clothing drop off, race kit collection... So much stuff, I was in awe! Let's just say, if you head along to this race, make some time to really check out the expo!


As I tweeted, the forecast was very dire, with thunderstorms and rain predicted. It looked like this was going to be a rough one weather-wise... Low of 10 high of 21 sounded great except for the 90% chance of 10mm rain!
As it turned out, it did rain, but only a casual light rainfall that peppered the course for the first 20km, enough to make it greasy, but not bad enough to really soak us. The rest of the thunder and lightning stayed away and I doubt we came near that promised 10mm of rain :)

As you can see the course profile gets interesting in the second half!

I didn't research the course prior to the race, so we got our first glimpse of the map when we saw it at the expo. The course is designed to take in the sights in and around Perth before sending you off to City Beach to find the finish line. It consists of an initial 21km loop through Perth and along the river, which is all pretty flat and easy. It then goes back through the start line and heads straight up the first of a few hills. It weaves around Kings Park and through the course of several switchbacks before it trundles on towards City Beach for the finish area.

You Yangs 50km Ultra Marathon

So I think I covered my lack of preparation in the post preceding my race effort at the You Yangs... If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook you are probably well aware of the result too! In summary, I haven't been getting as much training in of late, mainly due to work commitments and partly getting the mechanics of my body under control.
Going into the race I have missed my usual rituals of pre race sleep, drinking lots and loading up on Berocca! Combine that with the lack of decent training lately and I felt very worried about this race!
This is Race number 7 in my #13in2013 races for the year, not only that, it's my 4th Ultra for the year!

The weather was a bit of a concern, a week out from the race they were predicting perfect conditions then as it came closer we had rain and thunderstorms on the way! Suffice to say, as it turned out the conditions were ideal. It was chilly up on the mountain (is it just a 'hill' really..?) at the start of the race but after that it was cool and clear for most of the day, a few light rain drops was about all we copped.

The course at You Yangs designed by the evil Brett Saxon, is very cleverly mapped out to include multiple legs (loops) of the park to cater for each race distance. The map, although complex in appearance, was rather simple to follow on race day as things were marked out superbly and there were well informed marshals at any point where confusion could sneak in. As long as you knew how far you had been, it was simple!

on your way up to Flinders Peak

The feature of this course is the 'Flinders Peak' trail which climbs straight up to the highest point for a gorgeous 360 panorama of the whole park area. I believe we gain about 200m elevation in 2km on this Flinders Peak trail!! The best part is for the suckers who signup for the 80km (50 mile) event, they get to run this peak three times! I'll have to admit though, coming back down that particular trail was the absolute highlight of my time at this event :)

One side of the fantastic maps provided by Trails+

The course covers a range of terrain, from gravel walking tracks, to rocky narrow paths around the mountain to the gently rolling smooth trails set up for cyclists. The aid stations are gloriously well stocked with all sorts of lollies, chips, cakes, gels, water and electrolytes. Granted there aren't that many aid stations compared to your typical bigger events, it was still regular enough to allow most participants to travel fairly lightly.

Warrnambool Crater 2 Coast 50km Ultra Marathon 2013

The Koroit to Warrnambool Half Marathon has a long history (20-plus years?) and was one of the first events that I ran beyond 10km. Being a local event, and a standard part of my local Warrnambool Athletics Club race calendar, I couldn't miss it! The Ultra distance was added last year which I ran as well only a week after the 2012 Adelaide Marathon! The Race used to run regularly on the 3rd Sunday in August, however as the course changed to incorporate the Port Fairy to Warrnambool Rail Trail, flooding became an issue on sections of the trail and as a result it was brought forward to June.

The Crater 2 Coast Ultra was something I was super excited to revisit, planning to smash my time from the year prior on the theory that I was much better prepared especially since I haven't killed my legs by running Comrades and Adelaide Marathon prior!
Although things had been busy at work, being a local race I was feeling really well prepared and in the days leading up, I had a few runs and fuelled up properly, I was feeling ready to tackle this beast!

Race Director (center) John Keats gives runners the pre-race briefing in the early hours...

I know it seems to be a regular occurrence, but I've been super lucky with weather and this one was no different. There is no real solid race start time here, only when the RD John Keats feels like sending us all off. There were about 20 of us stupid runners who had assembled in the football club change-rooms to take on this wondrous event! It was warm in the rooms, but cold, wet and dark outside. Even though we stood at the start line in puddles as the rain was drizzling away in the darkness at the Port Fairy football oval, it was almost perfect running conditions all day. The weather fluctuated constantly during the race but for the most part it was cool and calm with minimal rainfall.

The course for the Crater 2 Coast Ultra Marathon (or Warrnambool Ultra as I know it) is essentially the rail trail walking track from Port Fairy to Warrnambool. We start off running a small loop though the streets of Port Fairy up by the beach before heading back through the town and onto the trail which travels through farmland (for the most part) onto Koroit. It is a constant gentle climb into Koroit until the old Koroit Train Station where it effectively descends the rest of the way into Warrnambool, passed the smelly abattoirs and finishing at the Warrnambool Athletics Club rooms near the Warrnambool Beach and waterfront. Many local runners describe this course as boring - which I generally agree with - although I actually enjoy the course for that reason, its calm, quiet, and simple. Although, Fiona Aulsebrook (1st Female, 4th overall) still managed to get lost, taking a wrong turn during the race and running an extra kilometer unnecessarily!

Half-Marathon runners come down the trail from Koroit in 2012
source: Facebook

Barossa Marathon 2013 - so many grapes!

So this is my fifth race for the year already! The third state in my Aussie Sweep. The Jacobs Creek Barossa Marathon is run by the SA Road Runners Club which started as a 17km race in 1981. It was changed to a Half-Marathon in 1984, 5km and 10km events were added in 1995 with the Marathon distance added in 2012.

Obviously I was running this on the back of having ran Great Ocean Road Marathon only the weekend prior, so my race preparation was simply, recovery massage from my man, the great Greg Logan. This man has magic hands and a good knowledge of sports related massage. I tell him I've ran a marathon and he gets to work. I only turned the legs over a couple of times in the week prior to this race. I wanted my legs to get maximum recovery during the week.

The weather forecast for Barossa was pretty much perfect, low chance of rain, cloudy and mild! There was a slight drizzle of rain at about 5-6am. Enough to damp the ground, but that was it for the day!

the gorgeous scenery encountered mid-run

The Barossa Marathon course is amazing. The town of Tanunda where the course starts from, is a picturesque little town, "quaint" is the best word to describe this place. Think gorgeous little cottages with rose gardens ;)

It was a nice change to run another marathon that isn't a multiple loop course. The race takes you right out of town and around the surrounding vineyards, overlooking the rolling hills and various wineries.

The course continues on a few out and back sections including one walking track that is maybe 5km long and runs straight through the middle of several vineyards.

Comrades - The Ultimate Human Race

If you've ever ran with me, you know I love the Comrades Race. I can't shut up about it. It is truly the greatest race I've ever taken part in....twice!

Me at the tail end of my 2012 Comrades Race

I have many friends that are right now descending upon the great city of Durban, South Africa in preparation for their own Ultimate Human Race at the 88th running of Comrades Race this weekend (2nd June 2013), so I thought it timely to at least honour their trip with a (relatively) short post about Comrades Race on my blog.

This race has a long history, far too much for me to disrespect here by trying to write it all in a short post! You can read all about it on the Comrades website here.
Ask ANY South African about Comrades, they will know exactly what you are talking about. The entire country gets behind this event, seriously, the course is lined constantly with supporters from start to finish. It is like the South African equivalent of our Aussie AFL Grand Final or the Super Bowl in the states.

Running through the Green Mile where Nedbank girls were suspended from the trees overhead, cheering us onward!

Great Ocean Road Marathon 2013, 45km of gorgeous undulating roadrunning!

The Great Ocean Road Marathon ( aka GORM or GOR Marathon) is a 45km road race that runs from Lorne to Apollo Bay on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria Australia. It's only two hours for me to drive from home to the start line for this, so it made sense that I entered it this year, finally!
It's a little too close to Comrades Race so I simply couldn't enter GORM any year prior.

source: visitvictoria

My race prep for GORM has been pretty relaxed, on the back of my run at Canberra (which I've finally blogged here) I took some easy weeks and have hit the gym a few times per week to do strength and flex work. Not many km's were in the legs since Canberra (as you can tell from my Endomondo profile!) but I have had a focus on quality workouts lately. Work has been hectic in the past few weeks/months and as a result my running and social media interaction have both dropped off significantly ;-)


Most of my fellow runners I've been training long with are all now deep in their taper program ready for comrades next month and my long standing training partner has been out of action with some serious ankle damage from Roller Coaster Run. As a result my training has been very much a solo affair. Add to that the fact I had a bucks party to attend on Saturday prior to the marathon - which involved a paint ball skirmish and a late night of drunken antics - you could think my preparation was terrible for this race! Thankfully the guys kept my marathon in mind and I was supplied with a slab of water so I was still able to partake in the bucks festivities!

The race day forecast was for 14c with 13kph head winds and a 25% chance of rain. Knowing what the weather could turn out like, I prepped for the cooler climate with a thick long sleeve shirt, gloves and a beanie! I had also planned to carry a light raincoat on my fuel belt, but as race start time neared I decided to gamble on the 25% and instead carried my phone and thus I was able to take some photos and even make a few phone calls along the way! Sorry I wasn't live tweeting but my data services were crap on the day :D

The course is awesome, enough said! Taking in the breathtaking views all along the waters edge whilst you run the 45km of sealed tourist roads as they repeatedly rise and fall all the way from Lorne to Apollo Bay.

visit the official page for more course info

My race

So I met a billion people at the start line again, always good to see them!

hanging out at the start line, mostly parkrunners, from left to right: Kai, Me, John, Crystal, Ruby and Phil

 My typical start line conversation often involves talking to someone about comrades, and this race was no different. I met a South African man named Alex with an English chap named Mark. We were talking (reminiscing) about last year's Comrades Race and Alex said he had "such a bad race" and only managed 7 hours..! Suffice to say when I said it took me 11.5 hours I felt like I was way out of my league!

Other runner-bloggers might call him, Mr Red Shirt, but I knew him as Alex the South African!

My race plan, knowing the undulation of the GOR, was to aim for approximately 5:45/km on the downhill and under 6:45/km on the uphill, hoping to average out to something under 6:15/km for the entire run.
I started the race off running with Kai yet again (we ran together at roller coaster earlier this year ) and we ran the first 10km in an hour exactly. When he realised we were on track for a 4h30m time for the whole race he was keen to hit that target!

Kylie taking in the views of the GOR Marathon

It wasn't long after that where we met some new friends on the course, in Kylie and Claire and at the same time my buddies from the start line had caught up (Alex and Mark). So we formed a pseudo 4h30m pace group. Around 20km into the race we were joined by the great Julia Thorn (author of 'Passion for Distance') who was running her 181st lifetime marathon/ultra!!

It's blurry but its cool, the 4:30 group!

She treated us to a few nuggets of wisdom and we discussed some of the races we had both completed previously whilst the rest of group just kept laughing at our craziness! We ran together until the drink stop at 30km when some of us walked through, Julia and Kylie just powered straight through and up the hill leaving us behind the pace by a minute or three.


So for the next 8km or so, Claire, Kai, and I started to count the kilometers more closely. Keep in mind this is Claire's first ever (ultra) marathon; her longest training run prior to this was only 34km. In some ways she was lucky to have me there, talking so much to distract her from the distance she had covered. ;-)
Unfortunately I also pointed out that this was the furthest she had run :-D

Some of the stuff we discussed was about focusing on how far there is left to the finish instead of looking at what's behind you. We had such a consistent pace, I reminded her that in the last 10km we will be passing many people as they fade while we kept the legs turning!

Apollo Bay is in sight for Claire and Kai

Kai was popping up next to us then dropping away, each time appeared to be calculated to make it into the frame with us for the next official photographer.

The three of us cruised our way to the marathon marker, ecstatic with her marathon time of around 4:21 Claire almost broke into a sprint! Most of the field around us at this point started to walk. Still feeling fine, coupled with a burst of adrenaline at the thought of being so close to the finish, I'm pretty sure we picked up the pace by almost 30 seconds per kilometre and started passing heaps of people!

Into the finishing straight, I spotted Julie and Phil (who finished an hour earlier) cheering us on, dished out a few quick hi fives, as we kept moving to the finish.

just a lovely run along the coast, all smiles :-D

Then two very loud and vocal supporters got my attention. Screaming my name and jumping all over the place, it was awesome to see the energetic and bubbly Tanya (@tanya_fed_marie) and Mel (@marathonmel78) who had travelled down from Melbourne just to cheer us runners on! So I stopped briefly and dealt out some salty sweaty hugs and kisses before taking off towards the finish line!

Annoyingly my right calf started cramping, so even though I really wanted to catch up with Kai and Claire, I didn't want to ruin my calf for this weekend at Barossa! So I cantered to the finish, done and dusted!

Kylie, Claire and myself with our finisher medals!

I assume the cramps were just a result of breaking my rhythm for some early hugs and celebrations, nothing more sinister, will see what happens at barossa this weekend!

Race Details
Website: http://www.greatoceanroadmarathon.com.au
Location: Lorne / Apollo Bay, VIC, Australia
Date: 18th-19th May 2013
Distances: 45km, 23km, 14km, 6km

General Race Stats
Total Runners in field: 981
Winning time: 2h 27m 50s

My Race Stats
Overall place: 624
Gun time: 4h 35m 28s
Net time: n/a
GPS details: 44.42km in 4h 33m 39s (link: Endomondo Stats)

Canberra Marathon 2013

This was my second ever Canberra Marathon, second in my Aussie Sweep Marathons for the year, and the third race in my #13in2013 series. I was looking forward to the event since late last year when I convinced a good friend of mine to run it as his first marathon. Sadly he bailed on that plan and turned up to support me instead! NEXT YEAR mate!

I just realised I didn't actually take ANY photos during our tweetups, so here I am looking stupid at the start line for Canberra Marathon instead. Check out Jenelle's blog post for a few pics from our tweetup!

I flew in to Canberra Saturday morning which gave me time to get some shopping in, find my friend's house, and get a short nap in before my social networking plans kicked into gear.
We had organised a runner tweetup lunch/afternoon tea at the War Memorial Cafe (aka The Terrace) and there I got to meet Ruth, Ewen, Jenelle (Blog: MummyLovesToRun Canberra Marathon), and Andy for late lunch. It was fantastic catching up with these people, putting some faces to the names and having a chance to ramble on about the many different aspects of running that would otherwise bore my usual friends!

The next thing on my agenda was another meet up with FB friends at Brodburger, which is a fantastic "little" burger caravan in Canberra. Simon, Dilwyn, Neil and his Wife (whose name escapes me) joined us for dinner in the chaos of shared tables and 'every man for himself' style seating arrangements. Simon is running the ANZAC sweep this year which is basically the same as me but includes the NZ north and south islands. Dilwyn is also doing the same thing, but at the Half-Marathon distance. So dinner was basically a case of the three of us comparing calendars, flight bookings and accommodation plans! Of course we enjoyed a good carb loading as well. The food, although it took quite a while to come out, was fantastic and well worth the wait! (that's a backwards recommendation)
After that I made my way home to load up on Berocca and get some sleep.

Running Naked into First Place!

On the weekend I ran my first ever race as a member of the local Warrnambool Athletics Club!
I've been meaning to join the club for a few years but it wasn't until recently, with all the interaction I've had with the online running community, that I realised how much I could enjoy such a surrounding. Yes, that's right Kate, social media is good for my running!

Warrnambool Beach baby! (source: dantaylor @ flickr)

So I fronted up for the 6km race which started on the beautiful Warrnambool Beach (be jealous my American friends, Winter sucks! ahahaha!) - a nominated handicap race - which means you actually state the time you plan to run and the winner is the person who finishes closest to their nominated time!

Simplest rule was that you couldn't have anything that could be used for timing (watches, mp3 players, phones, metronomes, police helicopters etc). OH MY GOD, RUN NAKED? I'm pretty sure this idea of not having your splits, heart rate, and mp3 playlist all recorded in detail would surely panic quite a few of my blogging and twitter friends :P Yes I mean you @PaulRunsLong and @MummyLovesToRun!

My first marathon of 2013, Tasmania!

Cadbury marathon, Hobart, Tasmania; the first of my many marathons in 2013!

I travelled over to Tasmania and well, my preparation was far from ideal. I took the opportunity to holiday with my gorgeous 4 year old daughter (hence forth I shall refer to her as Little Miss J!) for the week after doing the race. As a result, we sailed on the Spirit of Tasmania, taking my car over for the trip! We went out for dinner in Melbourne with a great group of runners I've met through Twitter the Thursday prior to sailing, which although fun meant a rather late night. Early to rise Friday morning for a 6am boarding of the Spirit of Tasmania only to find the boat was 2 hours behind schedule!

Little Miss J watching the boat FINALLY arrive!

9 hours sailing, with Little Miss J wide awake, made for very little rest at all for me! We arrived in Devonport at 8.30pm it was 9.30 pm before we were off the boat and within 5 minutes Little Miss J was fast asleep, then we had the long drive south to Hobart, it was after 2am before we got to bed!
Don't forget that I also completely missed my typical Friday pre-race pasta load up, since the boat didn't serve dinner and well the only places to eat in Devonport were fast food!
Saturday was a busy day too and even though we had a relatively early dinner, I still managed to stuff around until late in the night getting my race gear organized and the usual gear layout ritual.

Surf'T'Surf 2013 Race Report

I don't feel like doing a traditional race report, this is more a course review with my stats thrown in!
Basically this is a local 10k race on a course that is far from flat that has been run annually since 1982. The course record held by Brian Lewry is 30m30s and has stood for quite a few years now. This year a Mizuno sponsored runner came from Geelong and ran it in 30m49s for first place!

From SurfTSurf 2012 Gallery

Virtually Racing a Half Marathon

So I noticed the chatter on Twitter recently around the hashtag #VirtualHalfMary and curiosity got the better of me!

Now aside from the fact these wacky internet people have shortened marathon to mary (come on its mara, just because your iphone autocorrects doesn't mean its right), it did sound like a fun thing to be a part of!

It's not virtual running, it's a virtual event!

Organised by @marathongrl71 and @runnermommy2008 for the 22nd Dec 2012 with the simplest rule. Run 21.1km (they keep saying 13.1 miles, wacky imperial system) sometime on the 22nd Dec and tweet your time to participate!