How to run a marathon PB

• Do a few training runs
• Acquire every cold and flu virus in your city, preferably in the month leading up to the marathon, just to make sure you don't over-train.
• Give yourself an injury to something vital, like, say your foot, with less than a week to go. Spraining a toe is suitable.
• Run a marathon with perfect conditions: 18C maximum, cool gentle breezes, flat course. It may be a little hard to guarantee those conditions, but you can at least pick one!
• When you get tired and your legs are sore, keep running.

There, easy isn't it? Auckland Marathon was today, and after debating whether I would even start the race because of a cold still hanging around and a rather sore toe, I managed to keep running longer than I have before - I only briefly walked around the 39km mark. By that stage I was not exactly running fast, but I did manage to keep going, and finished in 4h18:47, which just so happens to be 19seconds faster than I managed in 2008 at the Gold Coast.

I'm certainly happy with that.

Cold!

We went on a day trip to Devonport with some friends today. We had closely been watching the forecast all week which had progressed like this:

• Fine with an evening shower possible. Easterlies.
• Morning shower then fine. South-easterlies.
• Morning cloud clearing. South-easterlies.

The weather today actually turned out to be:

• Fine morning with increasing cloud, developing showers by mid-morning with southeasterly breeze, not clearing until mid-afternoon. Then fine sunny afternoon/evening.

Anyway this meant we all dressed and planned activities around the 'Morning cloud clearing' prediction and so had a very cold morning playing in a couple of parks in Devonport; not getting to play at the beach and being home again before the sun had emerged from the clouds.

We did have a good time spending time with friends - the kids got on really well and played heaps (no complaints from them about being cold).

Good news...

Talking about Drs and being to busy etc. I remembered I haven't told you all that I'm finally on a surgery waiting list to get my tonsils out!! After being on a waiting list for over a year in Brisbane to see an ENT before moving to NZ and then waiting until I wasn't pregnant and then waiting foranother 6 months here to see an ENT...I walk in, he listens to my history, looks at my throat and says yep, they need to come out, ENT fills out some forms, I fill out some more forms and now only have to wait another 4-5 (max 6) months to get a surgery spot!

Bad cold

I am suffering from the worst cold that I've had for ages. Currently my nose it totally blocked, so I have no choice but to breath through my mouth. Plus I have a cough which I strongly suspect is caused by a secondary respiratory infection. Am seriously thinking about self medicating with antibiotics and prednisone, as we are in Auckland for the weekend and I'm too busy to get to the Dr (And even if I went to a Dr, they wouldn't actually need to 'do' anything to diagnose me - I'd just be asking for antibiotics and prednisone and be out the door before they have even warmed their seat!)

Up, up, up...

Naomi's ability to pull herself up from a sitting to standing position has improved dramatically over the last week. She now is pulling herself up on nearly anything that is taller than her sitting height - chairs, tables, prams, boxes...

Garden update

I ended up spending a large amount of time in the garden over the weekend (it was a long weekend here). I planted out our chilli plants, planted more seeds (Zucchini, pumpkin, gem squash, basil, tomatoes), and finally got around to mulching the strawberries, garlic and lettuce! Peter also made my 4th raised veggie bed (that I hadn't got around to digging out myself).

The potatoes I planted in my potato planter bags have sprouted through the soil, so hopefully we will have homegrown potatoes for christmas. I've also filled up about 5m of garden bed with more potatoes (red rascal and desiree).

Beetroot and mini carrots have started sprouting too.

Sick kids

Well actually we all seem to be sick at the moment with coughs and colds. Hope we all get over them soon!

Tree House!

I'd been thinking of making a tree house in the big tree out in our yard for a while... it seemed like a good candidate for a house. A couple of months ago I manhandled a palette into the tree, but it wasn't quite the right dimensions to sit nicely in the fork, so last weekend I got around to starting building a platform. Today, I finished off the job (for now, until it needs renovations!). There's one main platform with rails covering the biggest gaps between the branches, and then, because the main platform is still fairly small, I built another small platform, which could either be used as a table or to stand on if the kids feel like it. Next job is to construct a rope ladder so they can actually get into the house without me having to get my big ladder out!

Summer's here! Nearly...

With daylight savings having started, a beautiful warm day and a nice long evening meant we decided to go out to the Gardens for a picnic dinner. It was a beautiful evening, but once the sun was low, there was a decided nip to the air. Still nice to be able to get out for a picnic though!

Another room down...

I spent most of yesterday painting the kids bedroom. Didn't get finished until just after 6pm, so the kids slept on Thermarests on the floor of the playroom last night. That's 2.5 room painted (not including skirting boards, window frames or doors - we'll do all the gloss paint stuff later) - I would kind of like to paint another room tomorrow (Naomi's room), so that then there will only be 2.5 rooms (plus hallway) still to be painted, but I don't know if I have the energy.

Marathon forecast: 7 days out

1st Half: Mostly fine, chance of some pain.

2nd Half: Very heavy pain, walking, significantly longer time than 1st half

PS: No, my running hasn't been going fantastic for the last month or so - holiday stuff, then sickness has meant this morning was my first run in just over 3 weeks.

Chicken pox...not

Don't know if many people in Aussie have had much experience with seeing the actual front line defence of your child's Chicken Pox vaccine working (considering the babies to get it for free are only 5-6 years old now). Living in NZ - where the vaccine is not part of the normal immunisation schedule and hence is not free - I have now had two experiences of the front line defence.

This week is the second time that Ben and Joanna's kindy has reported a number of cases of Chicken Pox among the kids. And this is the second time that Ben and first time for Joanna (now that she is at kindy too), that coinciding with a Chicken Pox outbreak at kindy, they have come down with a headache and temperature for appox. 24hrs, and then been totally fine. And I am concluding this the the outward signs of the immune system in 'attack mode' fighting the Chicken Pox virus they have come into contact with at Kindy.

I am very grateful that because they are vaccinated, I don't have to worry about them getting it whenever it goes around at kindy - no having to stay home for weeks on end (as no doubt they would infect each other) caring for itchy, spotty kids. It has also reminded me that now Naomi has turned 1 - I should go and pay to get her vaccinated against it too!

Happy Birthday to Naomi!

She's one today...the year has gone so quickly! She is still a cruisy, cutey that we all love very much.

More photos on flickr.

MasterChef

Our kids LOVE MasterChef (and Peter can't stand it!). We've been watching the 2nd series of Australian MasterChef. Ben knows George and can recognise and name a number of the contestants! We also have conversations about MasterChef at dinner - Ben and Joanna start discussing whether Peter or My dish that night would make it on MasterChef! It has also increased Ben's interest in getting into the kitchen and helping to cook dinner or bake stuff (he has always liked cooking, but he is now volunteering to help more regularly, plus making suggestions for recipes).

The age of technology

Our washing machine isn't working properly...but it looks like we might be able to save the time/frustration/money of having to deal with an appliance repair man! We bought the machine just under 5 years ago (just before Ben was born), we spent a reasonable bit to buy a machine that would cope with a growing family and so ended-up with a FisherPaykel EcoActive Smart water saving washing machine (one of the ones with the electronic push buttons and LCD display).

This may seem over the top to a lot of you, but the advantage of the LCD display is that instead of us now wondering why it has stopped mid-cycle with water still in the bowl, it has given us an Fault Code - number 37. So we've stuck the this into Google and found out that most likely the problem is just some foreign object (probably out of one of the kids pockets) is blocking the water pump. And to fix it, all we need to do is tip the machine a little, undo 4 screws (on the front right-hand corner) and remove the offending object!

Will let you know what the object is when we get around to taking it apart on the weekend.

Fallen off the face of the earth?

Peter pointed out to me the other day, that we had a all time low of only 2 posts last month. Sorry for the silence. Two major reasons for this were/are:

1. I was on holidays in Oz for a month, so although we had internet access most the time, I was trying to have a bit of a holiday from sitting in front of the computer.

2. I have been crazily busy since we got back (2 weeks ago), trying to get family life in some kind of order - which has been made extra difficult by having Ben at morning kindy and Joanna at afternoon kindy.

I hope to get back into blogging a bit more, but unfortunately there isn't much time for it at the moment.

Spring in the Waikato...

On Sunday I went for a long run and managed to get sunburnt - the sun was really hot and it felt reasonably warm (even if it did only manage to get to 17C for the day). By yesterday morning, we'd got a nasty blast of cold air... it was a decidedly cold 5C and raining on my ride in to work, with snow apparently falling on Mt Pirongia about 20km away. By the afternoon, the sun was out, with more rain in the evening. And sun again this morning.

I think that's spring - if you don't like the weather, wait an hour or two and it will be different!

I guess at least we're not underwater like half of Brisbane seems to be at the moment...

IKEA

We took a trip to IKEA while in Brisbane - I wanted to get some more of their kid's plates - BUT in true IKEA style, we ended up buying a whole house of curtains, some new light fittings, plus a couple of other things (but no snakes!).

Holiday achievements

While we were away, Naomi decided to achieve some of the many milestones that seem so important in the 1st year of life.

First, she started crawling - after a few weeks of skill development, she started fully crawling the day after Peter joined us! (go here to see proof)

Second, she got her first tooth - the day after starting to crawl!

Back...

We're back from our Aussie holiday. Arrived back at 12.30am last night, so today was a bit of a write off (various members of the family only woke up between 8.30am and 10.15am this morning).