Always another hill

I just took delivery of a HUGE parcel this morning! The All Blacks and NZRU have very kindly donated a signed, framed All Blacks World Cup jersey to raffle as an extra fundraiser! It looks awesome! Already I have had people offering to 'host' it in their shops and clubs to help sell tickets so I'm confident that it should be a big hit. I dread to think how many tickets my own sons will buy in their desperate attempts to win it. The sooner I get it out of the house, the better!

I can't believe how kind and supportive people are being already. I was really touched on Friday afternoon when a young girl whose face I vaguely knew from Liam's year came up to me after school. She asked shyly if I was who she thought I was and as soon as I replied her face broke into a huge smile and she announced 'I want to run the marathon with you!' I was really impressed at her compassion and strength of character. Having seen her run on school sports days I have no doubt she could do it too! I didn't have the heart to tell her that the full marathon has already sold out and you have to be 18 or over to do it. Still, if there is anyone else out there who would like to take part, there are still spaces in the Quarter Marathon (10km), the 5km walk and Kids Marathon. For more details, go to http://www.aucklandmarathon.co.nz/

Even my kids are getting the running bug! I had to go for TWO runs yesterday, one with them and another, longer one by myself. For the first time in my training so far, I wasn't really 'in the mood' - due largely to the howling gale outside. However, Liam wasn't having a bar of it! He jumped on his bike and chivvied me along all the way there and back, threatening to whack me on the bum with a spatula if I stopped, like the poor bloke in the movie 'Run, Fat Boy, Run!' Still, it did the trick and got me moving and I was really grateful to him in the end.

I have also received my tailored 12 week training programme from Adidas Endurance Coach, Brendan. It officially starts today and I'm really looking forward to it! There's only one foreseeable problem I can see with it - much of my training is supposed to be on the flat. There's no flat areas around for MILES where I live! I'm surrounded by hills as far as the eye can see. As soon as I set foot out of the door I'm running uphill. I envy people who have nice, flat areas to train on. However training exclusively on hills does have its advantages. I found the Taupo Half Iron Man run a doddle because it was so flat! All around me were grown men, throwing up by the side of the road or collapsed under trees and there was me, breezing past them thinking 'what's your problem? This is easy!' Not that I'm thinking for one moment running this marathon is going to be easy - but it certainly can't be any more hilly than what I'm used to!