Interviews galore

Ok, so they aren't all job interviews, although I have had a couple and live in hope that something will come soon (it has to be soon I only have a couple of weeks left in this job). The other interviews I've been doing is media/advertising. Before I start let me say it's awesome and I will post more articles as they are published but to say it's draining at a time I really need to keep positive is only the half of it.

There is no way I wouldn't do the interviews - if I can touch one person and get them behind the cause, how can it not be worth it? Emotionally though it's killing me. I've been in tears so many times at work, the emotions of losing Mum, losing my career in the Navy, losing my general health and losing my family don't need to be made all raw again but they are. On a positive, I guess I am getting better at handling them which can only make me stronger.

One of the things I needed to do for one article was to dig out the most recent picture of Mum and I - keep in mind she died in 1997, so it's not really "recent" per say. This is the picture and while it is pretty cute (as a few people have told me) it is double edged. I can see in my Mum's face how much pain she is in from her cancer (the smile on my face isn't half as bright as the one that use to eminate from hers) and the other sad element is that we didn't know it then, but the reason I was so sick and in hospital is that I had a tumor too. That was taken the day after my 20th birthday. I miss her horribly so.

On brighter news, my training is going well - loads of aches from lazy old muscles, so I must be getting fitter! I was able to run a full lap of bridge to bridge last week (around 5km) which I haven't been able to do for a couple of years and just as pleasing is that I can get up Mt Ainslie with a pack on without stopping (great given a couple of months ago with no pack I was stopping 2-3 times at least). 10 days from now I'll be doing the Canberra Times Fun Run - I hope to be able to get under 1hr10min, but I'll be happy to complete the course and more so if i can jog more than half of it.

So, if you haven't been to my fundraising page lately too, please check in - I've updated it and although it's still slow going to my target, it's still climbing!

Fit to train again!

So the rule with training now is back to "you can do anything that doesn't hurt"....lemme think about this! Ha ha ha. The team at Clinic 88 have been awesome - I'm getting the least amount of pain through my lower back than I've had during/post training since I hurt it in 97. Huge thanks to Steve (aka the Spatula) and Nicole (aka Knickers according to Spatula).

Today my not-so-athletic frame was published in "Inside Finance" - the internal newsletter for our agency. It's brought on some new supporters which is fantastic - despite knowing 1 in 2 people will get cancer and knowing that for each of those people there are 3 or more people directly affected by that person's diagnosis, I'm only just finding people who share my pain of losing my Mum.

Yesterday Jenn who is doing the same trip as me got in contact (I'm organising some trek training for the people travelling) and when I read her profile it was as if she was talking about my Mum: "I am running this race in memory of Great Aunt Mary, who passed away from pancreatic cancer 19 years ago. It's been 19 years and still we do not have a cure for this and other horrific forms of cancer! Aunt Mary was a strong, kind, caring, loud, funny but all-round loving woman and she inspired me greatly to be the same."...

It's been 13 years since my Mum of the same character died from pancreatic cancer and I think close to 35 years since my grandfather died (he died before I was born and my Mum died before seeing any of her grandchildren). I live how I think my Mum would be most proud of me which includes doing challenges like the one I am treating myself to - I've always wanted to go to Vietnam and what a way to do it!!

Anyway I best get off to the gym. I will try and get a bunch of pics up tonight when I get home from the gym.

Fi

Half way!

Well, another immensley busy week down. It's now 83 days since I started this blog and at the end of my very first post I had a tongue twister I was going to master (master criteria being able to say it three times reasonably quickly) during my training walks....I still can't spit it out! In case you're just joining me on my journey, here it is again:
A skunk sat on a stump. The stump thought the skunk stunk, the skunk thought the stump stunk. So which one stunk, the stump or the skunk?
Funny enough, I couldn't even type it just then, no wonder I can't say it yet!

So back to it being 83 days since I started, it's also 84 days till I fly out....I'm half way! Positives are that I made the August fundraising target, my iron has increased and I'm getting stronger. Negatives are that I'm only at 11% of my goal fundraising total, but I do have my two major initiatives to go. First up is the Degustation at the Green Herring on September 10th with wines matched and donated by Granitevale Estate (bookings at dego.fundraiser@mail.com, tickets are $100) - it's set to be a huge night and bookings are rolling in. Then, I have this Monday as an annual leave day to drum up the vouchers for the 100 Club and then I can register it with the ACT Government as a raffle (disappointed it's going to cost $111 for the registration, but I wanted to give blow out prizes). Tickets for that are $50 and limited to 100 tickets, so even if I have to buy all the prizes it will still be a huge boost to my fundraising.

Wednesday night I finally got to use the Gym at work - I got access a little while ago but couldn't find it! Turns out it's in the sub-basement not the basement.....Anyway, my friend Alex kindly held my hand navigating the corridors and we had a good little work out while it rained and blew a gale outside. My hip is settling so I gave it a little work out and focussed on my upper body instead. My Biceps are still killing but when I tried flexing them to see what the looked like, nothing seemed to happen! Although it was flexed, I had to use the fingers of my other hand to feel out the muscle they are so tiny!! Steve at Clinic 88 just laughed when I showed him, but as a boxer he has well defined arms anyway so I he was always going to giggle himself silly.

So that's it for today! I'm working all weekend this weekend so training will be light again, but the cash all goes to paying for my trip so that is important too. Next mission on that front is to seek out a corporate sponsor - running out of time to get a new job before I go and desperately worried I might have to borrow the money to pay for my travel & have a bit of spare cash!

Crazy times!

Wow...I have been so flat out I didn't realise 2 weeks have passed since I blogged!

So, my magic list...erm...well hasn't progressed much unfortunately but it's time to update it anyway:
1. Dego - booked for 10 Sept, advertising underway and 20 out of 74 seats look to be gone already. Please send me an email at coachmcfi at yahoo in Aus and I will send the invite out to you.
2. 100 Club - I am taking next Monday off to traipse around and sort the vouchers out. Need to design the tickets.
3. Race Partner - still solo...someone must be interested!
4. New job - still job hunting :(
5. Fund raising tins - Cure Cancer have some fundraising tins on order which they are happy to send me down. Need to organise to fundraise at DFO and maybe one of the Duathlons.

Injuries and illness have grabbed hold of me again in the form of a strained hip and a head cold. Still not as bad as cancer and so I march on to November 6 :)

Rollin', rollin', rollin'....

That's the song ringing through my head at the moment although all I can remember beyond that bit as far as words go is "keep them...la la lala....something something something Rawhide!"

I don't have a rawhide, but I did make it to the $1000 target late yesterday which is a huge relief! My interview yesterday was ok, but I let my nerves get me a little and in a moment of babbling told them how I'd run out of tasks in my job and in a moment of boredom had stolen my boss' orange and held it for ransom till he gave me some more to do.....funny ha ha - yes, funny peculiar and not appropriate for an interview - definitely. They had asked how long until I finished working here - hope they see the funny ha ha side of my answer!

Yesterday I started writing to businesses asking for help with fundraising. I also wrote to the social club at work asking for their assistance and was surprised and giddy with prospective excitement when I got a call from the Vice Pres who just wanted to know when I was travelling - fingers crossed they might be able to help me do some fundraising!

Tonight I have an appointment with one of the PTs at the AIS to get a program but it also dawned on me today that once I've rebuilt some fitness I can start training with Sarah (another triathlon coach who has a great group of long distance/HIM/IronMan athletes which is where I'd like to get to and where I have sent a few people I used to coach). Looking forward to one day getting up to the level needed to train with that group!

Slowly coming together

So looking back at my list the other day of things to do:

1. Casino Royale - it was a brill night as you would've read in my last post.
2. Dego - tentative date is Friday 10 Sept. Will be confirmed on Monday
3. 100 Club - time to start writing letters...had hoped to get a local radio station involved in the advertising but they are doing another person's trek the next two months :P
4. Race partner - had a sniff from a friend but I think they are just too snowed under at the moment.
5. New Job - I have an interview this afternoon which is very promising.

Other good news is that my fundraising is finally starting to get some traction. I need to hit the $1000 mark by the start of August and I am only $80 off :) Yay :)

So here's hoping my next up date will include me saying I made the $1000 mark and that I have a new job and that the 100 club is underway with prizes coming in!

"My sides hurt!"

That was the most accurate call of Saturday night's Casino Royale antics. Pussy Galore was laughing so hard at one stage she gasped between giggles "My sides hurt from laughing!"

We started the evening with a potent cocktail that would render anyone incapable of driving and so you can imagine how our poker skills progressed from there. Thankfully our host come bar tender come croupier was on hand to make sure the game flowed.

All guests we assembled and advised that Mr Bond would not be joining us as he had been murdered and the assassin was someone within the room. Everyone was issued their clues to who wasn't the murderer and what wasn't the weapon and then it was all down to who was the best sluth. Detectives perused all the possible weapons in the eveidence room while some others settled at the poker table for a battle of wits. Those not playing poker assembled in the bar (around the kitchen bench) regaling each other with hilarity while carefully scoping out the opposition. In the end, there was a bit of a rush to guess the right answer with Xenia Onatopp (aka Tia) taking out the coveted prize of Detective Extraordinairre. Camille Montes (Peta) was not only the murderer but also won the Poker Challenge and Jaws (Paul) took out best actor for both his acting and his efforts to look the part. Most entertaining award though would have had to go to Solitaire (Sophia) who had us all in fits of laughter with her breezy enjoyment of all aspects of the evening (especially betting on the craps table).

All in all it was a great night. We raised $230 to go towards the research undertaken by those sponsored by Cure Cancer Australia which is a good effort.

Words can't encapsulate my gratitude to Steve and Dee not only for coming up with the idea, but all of the artwork, the food and the willingness for them to open up their house for the evening. It was amazing from having Bond movies theme music playing in the "bar" and Casino Royale being projected on the wall in the lounge near by the poker table to their efforts to accommodate the non-vegetarian guests (the fake ham in the cheese and ham triangles had everyone fooled as did the fake sausages in the mini sausage rolls). The evidence room was brilliant with 13 weapons ranging from nerve gas (in a scuba tank) to a voodoo doll and a sexual torture chair equipped with handcuffs and a whip. There were hand painted pictures of playing cards on the walls, helium balloons and everyone had their own name badge (with the funniest being Nick's which read as "Mr Big - Nick" for which many of us had to look twice on reading it. All details were covered with guests getting a character brief, chips and a packet of cards they could take home to practice their poker skills. There was nothing our fine hosts didn't cover and I just can't thank them enough.

We took a couple of shots which I will get on here shortly so you can all have a giggle.