Shaken but not stirred...

Thank you all for joining us at last nights James Bond 007 movie night at The Ritz in Randwick. Not only a brilliant movie with a shaken James but also a great outcome with almost 100 people turning up.

We had fun and in the process helped some poor people who needed our support the most. Still today 4 out or 5 blind people could have their sight restored with as little as $25 and a 10 minute procedure. You all have made a difference to over 50 people yesterday. Your support not only restores sight but it will give those people their life and future back, it affects families and their villages and will have a huge impact to their future life's. Thank you for supporting The Fred Hollows Foundation. 

The last 12 months Run4Vision withe the help from all of you was able to raise over $20,000 for The Fred Hollows Foundation - that is over 800 people who can see again! THANKS TO YOU!

Team Run4Vision with the help of Sam, Jo and Denis ran 100km last March from Palm Beach to Coogee Beach wining the Coastrek 2012, Ben and I races in several 1/2 marathon and Ben managed to run for 12 hours covering almost 75km in September during the Centennial Park Ultra raising fund for Achilles Running Club.

We will be back next year! Already signed up for Coastrek 2013 so watch this space for news and updates of our training. Help us raising money for The Fred Hollows Foundation
Ben is keen to out do us next year and he has signed up for the 100km race together with Senator John Faulkner and two female guides still to be found. Denis and I thought one 100km is enough so we will have fun running the 50km night race from Balmoral to Coogee on Friday night! We too are still looking for two keen girls joining us for a great run and raising money for a great cause....so Ladies, don't be shy and contact us if you game - join team Run4Vision or help Ben along the way, thank you.

Wish you and all your families a happy and merry Festive Season and Happy Feet for the New Year. And don't forget to look out for 'Fred' on New Year's Eve in Sydney.

Happy Feet
Markus

Back on the road

After a couple of weeks of battling a bad bronchitis and flu, I finally dared to put my running shoes on again and went for my first 13 km run... managed quite ok and looking forward to getting back into the right rhythm to train for the next big race coming up on Friday 1 March - Coastrek 2013.

After this year's big race and effort, Denis and I decided that we should give the 50km night run from Balmoral to Coogee a go. We are still looking to find two keen female team members to join us  for this race. Who is up to take the challenge and try to win this night race with us? It is not only fun but all for a good cause – to raise money for The Fred Hollows Foundation and to help to eliminate avoidable blindness by 2020.

Talking about helping the over 30 million needlessly blind people. Don't forget the movie night this Friday 23 November. James Bond 007 – Skyfall at the Ritz Cinema in Randwick is selling out quickly. Don't miss out and book your ticket now. $30 for a drink and the movie, and you help restoring sight to a needlessly blind person.

Hope to see you at the movies!

Caught by a sneeze

Or should that be 'bad cold'.... Sadly, my running year ends with an anticlimax. After four great weeks of training hard for the Carcoar Marathon, a bad chest infection put a stop to my trip to the outback. The doctor put me on antibotics and gave me a dispense form saying that I won't be able to run the race next Sunday! I really was looking forward to that event, and hopefully I can forward the race fee for next year's race.

A bit annoyed right now and need to get my act together to prepare the coming challenges for 2013. Of course Team Run 4 Vision has signed up again for The Wild Women on Top Coastrek in March, but due to lack of fast female runners we decided to just participate in the 50km night run. Denis and I are still looking for some wild women happy to join us for the run – fingers crossed we will have a team together soon.

Happy Feet (and no more coughing .....)

Movie of the year to restore sight

Celebrate two special anniversaries and help restore sight to blind people!

This year marks the 20th anniversary of The Fred Hollows Foundation, and the first James Bond was released 50 years ago! To celebrate these two occasions, I invite you to join me to watch Skyfall – the latest James Bond movie, and help raise some much-needed funds to eliminate avoidable blindness by the year 2020.

Please let your friends, family and colleagues know and invite them to this event. Everybody welcome!

Hope to see you at the movie night,
Markus


It is essential to pre-book your tickets to secure a seat

You can pay by credit card using PayPal or make a bank transfer.  Book your tickets now!

Book your tickets by Wednesday 21 November. Tickets will be available for collection in the upstairs bar on the evening. Please note that we must have received payment on this day to ensure you have a seat on the evening.

Date and time
Friday 23 November, 8.30pm for a 9.30pm movie start

Venue
Ritz Cinema – upstairs bar
39–47 St Pauls Street, The Spot, Randwick
Parking available next door for evening flat rate of $10 after 5.30pm.

Costs
$30 per person (includes pre-movie drink and movie ticket). All proceeds of the evening will go to The Fred Hollows Foundation.

12 hours in circles

During my relaxing (and non running time) spent in Tonga swimming with the Humpback Whales, Ben put our training to good use and participated in the Centennial Park Ultra (www.cpultra.com) – 12 hours running the 3.54km loop of Centennial Park! Here is his race report, what a legend!

Well the race has been run, and I'm up early Monday morning writing this because I can't sleep much, I'm in too much pain, and I also wanted to give you the details of the race while they are still fresh in my mind. 

The movie night went well, I attended the gathering at the 2XU shop in Paddington and met a lot of interesting people with good advice. I didn't have a ticket for the movie but managed to get myself a seat anyway. The presentation Ellis had planned didn't work out because the Cinema advised the photos would be too distorted on the screen for anyone to see, but he gave a short speech after the movie and April presented us with a cheque for $2,1000. The movie was all in sub titles so I had no idea what was going on, so I just tried to make up a story in my own mind instead. 

The next morning at 5:45am Ellis and I had an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald in Centennial Park. They made me run up and down the hill to the Bondi Junction gates so that I had a lot of steam coming off me for the photos.

The day before the race I had my cousin's engagement party to attend in the Blue Mountains and didn't get home until *:00pm. On the way home I did a radio interview on the bus, the other passengers were so noisy being a Saturday night along Oxford Street. The other radio interview I had was suppose to be at 10:00pm. I slept from *:00 to 10:00, then woke up to my alarm to quickly do this interview before falling back asleep. Unfortunatly the radio announcer didn't appreciate the fact that I needed my sleep and I was left on hold for more than an hour and a half. I finally got to sleep around midnight. 

Ellis had arranged to pick me up at 5:30am, and told me not to bring a box because he would have one I could put all my stuff in, he also said he would come to my house to collect me. at 5:30am he didn't show up, and I soon got a phone call from him saying that he was down on Moore Park Road and demanded to know where I was. I had to rush around my house looking for a box to shove all my stuff into and run down the street to meet him. He said he would not have time to put up the tent now and we might miss the start. I guess he is getting old and forgets things, this was not my fault. We managed to register in time and went straight to the starting line with a minute to spare, but not enough time to stretch.Ellis had to run the first few laps with his car keys and phone as he didn't have time to leave them anywhere. We were both worried when the race started in an anti clockwise direction, going the opposite way to how we had been training, but we soon learned this was an 800 meter run down and back to make up the extra distance of 100km ending at the finishing line.

The following is a break down of the splits as best I can remember them, everything went pretty much to plan. I was hoping for 24 laps with 20 being the minimum.

Lap 1 with Ellis 24 min
Lap 2 with Ellis 24 min

Lapped by race leader

Lap 3 with Ellis 24 min

Saw Trent, the Marathon Man, on his way to the starting line for his 50km race

Lap 4 with Ellis 24 min

Quick toilet break

Lap 5 with Martin 24 min

Have completed 5 laps in 2 hours, very happy as this was one of my goals

Lap 6 with Martin 30 min

Ellis has now set up the Achilles tent, members from Achilles are running and walking around the outside in the opposite direction yelling encouragement to me

Lap 7 with Martin and Michael 30 min

Took Neurophin, I think Michael is the father of the Paralympic swimmer that won medals in London, Michael showed us his watch that beeps at intervals to let you run for 5 minutes and walk for 1 minute and suggested we try this to last the distance, Ellis loved the idea and made sure every guide used this with me for the rest of the race

Lap 8 with Rael 30 min
Lap 9 with Rael and Peter 30 min

Have completed 9 laps in 4 hours, really happy with the time we are making but starting to feel sore and thinking the day will never end, needed some treatment for blisters

Lap 10 with Ellis 30 min
Lap 11 with Ellis 30 min

Have now completed 11 laps in 5 hours, needed a change of clothes, this took some time for Ellis to pin the signs onto the other singlet, but was a welcomed break with a quick toilet stop and standing without a shirt in the breeze to cool down, we probably lost the time of 1 lap at this break

Lap 12 with Zoe 30 min

Have now completed 12 laps in 6 hours, still on target for 24 laps but knew it was unrealistic as laps were getting slower and legs were painful, Ellis had prepared a bowl of boiling hot 2 minute noodles for me, they were very tasty though, but every time I ate he kept me at the start line instead of walking with the food, we probably lost the time of 1 lap here as well

Lap 13 with Zoe 30 min
Lap 14 with Zoe 30 min

Have completed 14 laps in 8 hours, that the 50km mark, I was relieved to get to 50km, anything from here would be a bonus, was feeling terrible and very sore, but noticed I had 6 laps to run in 5 hours if I was to make it to 20 laps, this was a goal, but I knew a little out of my reach, we would be cutting it very fine with the time

Lap 15 with Nicolet 35 min
 
Was so tempted to walk the remaining 4 hours but decided to go for the 20 lap goal instead

Lap 16 with Nicolet 35 min

Took Neurophin, pushing things very hard now, having to stop for 5 minute breaks at the starting line to take in food and fluids and to rest body as it had taken a huge beating from the uneven surface especially on ankles and knees

Lap 17 with Nicolet 35 min

Have completed 17 laps in 10 hours, only 3 laps to run in 2 hours, possible but going to be very hard, time to grit teeth and push through the pain

Lap 18 with Ellis 30 min

Could barely stand up at the 5 minute break

Lap 19 with Ellis and Collin 25 min

Running as hard as I possibly could, wanted an hour up my sleeve to finish the final lap, was thrilled to learn that my timing was right, we came into the finish with an hour to spare, was hoping this would be my reward lap to just walk the entire way but no Ellis made me run it!

Lap 20 with Ellis and Collin and Shella 40 min

Finished with about 20 minutes to spare, could have gone maybe 1 more painfully if I thought it would get me to 75km but the distance wouldn't be enough according to our calculations, by this stage my mind had gone to mush and I couldn't do math so I took their word for it

April awarded me with a medal and prize of a $200 voucher at the Sydney Running Clinic, I wasn't expecting either of these as I technically should be disqualified for not completing the race, but April was very kind to me. I was really happy to have finished 20 laps, would have been disappointed to finish any less. I was pleased with the amounts I drank and ate at different times, this worked perfectly. The track never really got boring, it just seemed to get longer and longer with each lap. I never thought I would ever be able to run that far, and even though I'm in pain today, I'm pretty happy that I've done it, although it would have been more fun running it with you.

If you get a chance it's worth checking out the Sydney Morning Herald website for the news story on us, you got a mention in it as well. Rael told me after the race that it has been the hottest September day in Sydney ever on record. It was extremely hot out there at times, particularly in the middle of the day with no shade. I don't know what it is with me and running in extreme heat like the Marathon last year.

I believe that I could finish 24 laps in the future, 26 with 6 months of hard training and the right conditions on the day, and 28 is a slight chance if everything went perfectly, which rarely happens. I doubt on that track I could get the 28 laps in 12 hours, on a flat running track probably, but on that rough ground it really takes a toll on my body. But you need to dream big, and when you set your mind to it, dreams can come true.

Ben and the windy (or winding) City 2 Surf 2012

It was that time of the year again – City 2 Surf! After a couple of cold and wet months of training we were hoping for a dry Sunday (especially I was looking forward to some more sunshine, having just returned from a hot and sunny Darwin the night before). 

Well, I got told I missed some really bad weather and should be grateful that there is no rain. This year Ben ended up with an orange bib, meaning we had to start at the very end of the race in the 'Back of the Pack'. Not an ideal situation and quite different to the un-obstructed start we enjoyed last year following the first red group. The only great thing about an orange bib was the late start. Ben and I could sleep in and watch the start of our race on TV at home – how cool was that!

The City 2 Surf in Sydney is now the biggest run in the world with over 85,000 runners and walkers registered. To get such a huge number safely to Bondi, the start is staggered between 8am and 9.30am and yes, you guessed it – Ben and I started at 9.30am this year. So long after the winner (41 minutes for 14km) was back home, showered and dressed, we left our home and took a bus to the start line. We managed to get into the very front of the orange group, which allowed us to have a clear run for the first few hundred meters before hitting the back of the yellow group which started 30 minutes ahead of us!

It was a hard run, especially for Ben. Not only was the strong and cold wind quite uncomfortable at the beginning, the mass of slower runners and walkers in front of us were a real challenge, as we had to navigate around them for the entire 14km all the way to the finish. Sometimes I had to push Ben to the right and dart around the left to meet up with him again after overtaking slow people. Sometimes I took his hand and had to pull him with me to the left to avoid dripping over runners in front of us. We did stumble a few times into other people, mostly runners with headphones who could not hear us coming.  

We probably ran more like 15km or 16km to Bondi weaving from left to right and right to left along the entire course. I am sure Ben must have felt seasick at the end of it. 

The drink stations were another challenge for us simply getting to the tables staying together and not loosing each other in the process but also not slipping on those wet discarded cups along the way. Paper cups are far more ‘dangerous’ for people like Ben than the previously used plastic cups.

Last year Ben and I finished the race in 87 minutes starting right after the red group and having a fairly clear run to Bondi. We got overtaken by 20,000 faster runners in the process and finished 27,000 out of 68,000 participants.

This year Ben and I arrived in Bondi after 89 minutes having started behind 60,000 people and having overtaken at least 30,000 slower runners along the way, and we finished in almost the same position, ranking 30,600 out of 65,000 finishers.

Congratulations to Ben for an extremely good run under quite difficult and odd circumstances.

Happy feet!

Markus

Fireworks for Fred

Some great news: The Fred Hollows Foundation was announced today as the charity partner for the Sydney New Year's Eve celebrations.

According to the City of Sydney, the Sydney New Year’s Eve is the biggest event in Australia and is watched by 1.5 million people at the Harbour Foreshore, 2.6 million people across the country and 1.1 billion people worldwide.

This is a wonderful opportunity to tell the people of Sydney, Australia and the world about the work and life of Fred Hollows.

You can read more about it here on The Foundation's website

Park Life vs Park Run

Sadly for Ben and me, the 30 September 12 hours race in Centennial Park has been cancelled due to an open air concert. Race  has been re-scheduled for 23 September which is a weekend I will not be able to guide Ben. At this stage we are sourcing some other guides and Ben will decide this week what he wants to do. In the meantime we are training hard in the cold weather for the City to Surf in 4 weeks time. 
Happy Feet

Back on the road

1st July meant for Ben and myself the time has come to get back on the road for our next challenge and that's what we just did today. Our first couple of rounds in Centennial Park in the freezing cold was not the ideal start but we are ready for what's to come. In August we need to better our City 2 Surf time from last year, Ben also wants to run the Half-marathon over the Harbour Bridge and than end of September we have a new challenge to tackle - 12 hours non-stop running during the CPultra in Sydney. 12 hours running for Fred and raising money for The Fred Hollows Foundation and Sydney Achilles Club. Watch this space for more details.
Happy Feet

Not guiding

Last Sunday I took a friends big scooter and zoomed up to the Blue Mountain for a race without Ben. The Woodford to Glenbrook Classic is a 25km trail race. Considering that the start is at 600+m above sea level and the finish around 200m above sea level I should not have been wrong of expecting a nice down hill run. Well it would have helped to study the race map - the first 15 km seems to go more up hill then down hill. I tried to keep up with Denis and Sam but after a few uphills I had to give in and started to power walk the hills to keep some energy in the tank for the second half - which, thanks God was down hill. I enjoyed the cool air and shady parts in the forest and considering that I more enjoyed good wine and cheeses the last couple of weeks then muesli bars and power gels, my finish of 2.18 for the 25 km seems respectable. At least I was happy with that Sunday morning exercise. I also felt that comes July my approach has to change and since Ben and I have just signed up for the CPultra (www.cpultra.com) in September - the training regime will start in serious comes Monday, 2nd July
Happy Feet

Sydney Half Marathon

When I heard the rain at 4am in the morning I though - oh bugger! But lucky for all of us it stopped in time and only started raining again after the last walker crossed the finish line. I picked-up Ben on the scooter and we were lucky enough to get a parking almost next to the starting line near St. Mary's Cathedral. The cool temperature and no sun was good for us to run and Ben could keep his smile almost all the way to the finishing line. We both liked the new course better and having started on the back of the pack gave us needed space at the begin of the race and allowed us to slowly overtake slower runners along the way - always a good feeling and helping Ben to keep going when it got though. Ben did very well in this race and we never stopped running (apart from one forced pit stop - we both must have drank a bit too much prior the start). A strong finish the last couple of km on our home run along Macquarie's Chair, the Domain and pass the NSW Art Gallery allowed Ben to almost reach his last year time of 2hrs08min. So, now it is back to a rest and then start to train and shed a few more kilos to get ready for the City to Surf.
Happy Feet

Ben and running on hot sand

Only 7 weeks after the 50km Coastrek, Ben and team Tigers finished the 100km Melbourne Trailwalker an incredible 8 hours faster then last year in 28:59! Great effort Ben and team, well done! Here some info about Ben and the Tigers http://trailwalker.oxfam.org.au/2012/04/21/bens-trailwalker-story/

I, in the meantime, enjoyed some nice runa along the beach near Byron Bay. A 6km stretch of sand next to your bungalow at the beach was too inviting not be run on. However found out that running barefoot is tricky on warm sand even with cooling the feet by running through the water from time to time. I ended up with a nasty blister on the sole of my toes…lesson learned - tomorrow it will be with shoes again.

Ben and I have another 4 weeks to prepare for the Sydney Half Marathon. I am sure this year’s new route will please Ben, as there is no two loops anymore to run but a single A – B race, which is nicer for both of us.

I hope to have another few days of warm weather in Byron Bay before heading back to Sydney and start training with Ben again. He can take the next few days off and recover from his Trailwalker adventure.

Happy Feet (and Toes)

Back on the road

After a nice relaxing month and a bit more off I am looking forward to get back on the road and start training with my blind friend Ben for the Sydney 1/2 marathon in May. Ben is flying to Melbourne today to start the Oxfam 100 km Trailwalker tomorrow. Go Ben!
Our dream for this year is still to get into New York Marathon, but that depends the draw next week for my entry and Achilles Running Club to put up Ben for the race. Fingers crossed we can make it to the big apple in November.
Happy Feet and dry weather for the weekend
Markus

Sri Chinmoy Half Marathon

I promised Ben, my blind running friend, that we are going to check his fitness since he is getting ready for the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker next month. So off we went for a half-marathon in Centennial Park last Sunday. Was perfect weather and the course inside the park over 3 loops of 7km offered some nice variations. Ben obviously showed after the 2nd round that he had some lack of training but he worked hard to keep it up to the finish. We crossed the line in 2hours 24 minutes which, I have to admit, was faster then I expected, considering the rough terrain. Ben was only 9 minutes slower then on our last road race in May 2011. I am sure he won't have too much trouble to finish the walk as long as he stays focused along the way. My buddies Denis and Trent did a good race and both finished in excellent times.
Looking forward to the next challenge - need a race on my own soon.
Happy Feet

$1,000,000 to restore sight to 40,000 people

Coastrek 2012 was a huge success. We trained hard to cross that line as first team but we also worked to raise money for a great cause - ending up best fundraiser team as well as best individual fundraiser with Denis. This of course was only possible thanks to your generous support - we raised over $15,000 towards a staggering $1 million, which will help restore sight to 40,000 needlessly blind people. To you all who believed in Run4Vision to pull it off and supported us all the way a BIG THANK YOU! We could not have done this without you.

The awards night was good fun and we were lucky enough to catch up with Ben and his team as well as Gabi Hollows from The Fred Hollows Foundation. We celebrated great achievements such as 18 hours of walk for the 50 km by the 4 visually impaired Achilles athletes, the fastest all women team finishing in just over 6 hours for the same distance and the fact that 1,300 fit people were able to not only train for this event but also raise over $1,060,000 dollars for The Fred Hollows Foundation.   Happy Feet!

Ben and his Achilles Athletes Team
Di (Coastrek) Ben, Bart, Nicole (missing Fraya) and guide Diane and Katy (missing guides John and Peter) 










Happy Run 4 Vision Family

- Overall winner of 100 km race in 14hrs28min
- Best fundraising team
- Best individual fundraiser - Denis

Run 4 Vision with Gabi Hollows

Run 4 Vision - Winner of the Sydney Coastrek 2012

A long day - 100km Coastrek 2012 in 14hrs 28min 55sec

Getting up at 4.30am is never a nice feeling, but getting up in the middle of the night in pouring rain seems just wrong. But we had no choice with the start looming at 6am in Palm Beach. A quick shower, some food, and after a short drive from our B&B we parked right next to the start line. Denis waited in the car while I picked up the race bibs and caught up with Sam and Jo. We all squeezed into the small car just trying to keep warm and dry as long as possible. Uli hired the car to help us with food, drinks and anything else we may need along the way. We waited for 6am and just kept out of the rain – what a miserable morning.

Suddenly the beach became alive with headlights and it was time for us to leave our warm cover and head down to the front of the starting line. Our plan was to sprint ahead of the field and get to the narrow steps at end of Palm Beach as the first team to avoid the congestion which would follow ... 4, 3, 2, 1, GO! 

Denis, Jo, Sam, Markus (left to right next to yellow walkers)

Off we went, across the sand and up to the esplanade. Funny enough we still tried to avoid the wet puddles, something Denis managed to keep going for the longest of us four, but we managed to get his shoes and socks soaked pretty soon too.

The first 2km were rather steep uphills and initially we were hoping that with daylight near we would no longer need rain jackets, headlights and reflective vests, so we had our first catch up with Uli to get rid of that stuff. However, the weather made us think twice, and we kept our vests to protect us from the nasty wind and rain until the next meet-up. We soon got into a steady pace and realised that no other team was up to our speed or following us.

We had such a great rhythm that we completely forgot about Uli at km 16, where she was desperately waiting for us, and when I realised at km 22 that we should have met Uli to stock up with food, we were again already too far gone ahead for the following meet-up. A quick scramble of phone calls and SMS got that sorted, and we made sure that after Curl Curl Beach we made rendez-vous to get new socks and necessary food. Running on the beaches was though and only by taking off our shoes and socks and running on the hard sand we moved steadyly forward. At Narrabeen Beach we suddenly had two other runners behind us – we realized that they were taking the easier part running on the road, but it kind of freaked us that we suddenly had competition breathing down our neck.

 

When that team got close to us they kindly let us know that they were running the 50km race and with a sight of relive we took our much needed break to change socks and refuel with necessary calories.

We tried to keep our stops as short as possible, and Sam was quick in reminding us that it is time to move, move, move ... up the next headland, down to the next beach towards Manly and North Head. The longer we ran the more we got used to the wet, and I especially was happy we did not have a 30 degrees sunny day for this race.

Near Manly Aquarium we caught up again with Duncan (Jo's husband), baby Leah and Uli for our next pit-stop at km 38. Poor Uli, after having the stress of us missing her earlier, also had to battle with a flat tyre on the way to Manly. Luckyly Duncan was the man on hand and helped to get our support mobile back on the road in time for our meet-up.

The next section was Manly to Spit Bridge through a beautiful, muddy, wet and ful-of-leeches National Park – not my favourite part of the race, but with Sam putting on a hard pace, there was no time to relax or complai.

After a nice dry spell the rain started again and my fluffy clean socks did of course not stay dry for long. Up and down and out to the headlands for one of the next of 22 check-points, we made our way to the Spit Bridge, where we caught up with Uli for a quick stop before heading up another hill towards Balmoral Beach.

Finally the beach opened up in front of us coming down another rainforest trek. Jogging towards the southern end for the halfway mark knowing some goodies will be waiting for us.

Cheers went up as we arrived – after two 50-km teams before us, we were the first team of the 100-km event to arrive. A quick interview from Denis and a mouthfull of chocolate cake, we were off attacking those never-ending stairs towards Chowder Bay.

After another checkpoint out at Bradely’s Head  and the semi loop around the zoo we ended up at Sirius Cove Park, where the long awaited chicken soup stop was at km 58. Uli swapped crew work with Suzi there, and we had a delicious homemade soup and bread rolls (thanks Suzi!)

Sam reminded us that there was still a marathon to run, so off we went again, nicely warmed up and ready to getting over the Harbour Bridge and homewards bound.

Crossing that bridge kind of was a mile stone as Denis and I now felt like being on home turf, and even though the distance still seemed long we knew we were on the way to the finish.

 

A quick stop at km 72 in Rushcutters Bay for some pain killers and food and we headed up a steep hill only to get down on the other side to Double Bay, and up again before finally arriving at Rose Bay – km 75 and the last maned checkpoint before the finish.

On the way to Rose Bay I was walking up a hill a bit ahead of the team when a car stopped beside me and the lady driver offering me cash for our cause! So some women out there new there was a race on, which was kind of nice, as most of the time people along the way looked at us wide-eyed but not knowing what we were up to being all miserably soaked and running in the rain.

Rose Bay was a quick stop to pick up new food supplies, a nice hot tea and some encouragement from family and friends. 

A few kilometres into the trek towards Nielsen's Bay and Watson's Bay two mates of Denis, Nick and Dave, joined us for a few kilometres and that certainly helped taking our thought off the pain we all felt now everywhere. We were chatting along and before we realised it we were out on South Head, around the lighthouse and jogging towards the Gap for one last stop of chicken soup and some more painkillers.

Saying good-bye to the guys we headed off along the cliffs towards Bondi and the finish. Sometimes when you know the trek too well it seems endlessly long when you try to race against the clock and the fading daylight. Thanks to Sam and Jo's powerful torches we found our way along Bondi Beach, Tamarama, Bronte and finally the bright flashing beam of the finish  was in view on the other side of Coogee Bay.

One last effort heading up that hill towards Grant Reserve and we could see the finishing line. Arms in the air, smile on the face, we finally we crossed the line – as the first team to finish the 100-km Coastrek 2012 between Palm Beach and Coogee Beach in 14hrs 28min 55sec. It was a hard, long, wet day and after a few photos and hugs we only dreamt of was one thing: a hot bath, some food and a bed! I was comatose within an hour of crossing that finish line not realising that the poor volunteers in the finish tent had to wait over 4 hours for the second team to arrive at 1am in the morning.

There will always be a first and last over the line but that night and next morning there were only winners crossing that line. Overall 1200 ‘crazy’ but dedicated joggers and walkers battled the elements for a great cause and with the support of all our friends, families and strangers we will be raising the much-needed $1,000,000 for The Fred Hollows Foundation by 20 March.

A special mention goes to the Achilles Athletes – Ben’s team of four visually impaired walkers who, with their dedicated four guides, walked for over 17 hours from Palm Beach to Balmoral battling slippery rocks, muddy tracks and pouring rain – all for making a difference to some needlessly blind person in raising money for The Fred Hollows Foundation. They probably are the real winners of Coastrek 2012.

And a big thank you to our support crew, Uli, Suzi, Duncan and Adam, for being there for us when we needed them most and for their patience in the last couple of months.

Happy feet!

Jo, Sam, Denis and Markus

Two more sleeps

After 4 months, 1200km and 150 hours of training spending many weekend mornings on the road instead of the bed or in a cafe, I and hopefully the rest of the team are as ready as we can be for Friday morning. Palm Beach, 6am start for 100 kilometres of sand, trail, road and grass to Coogee Beach along the beautiful coastline of Sydney.

I spent the last 48 hours eating pasta dish after pasta dish, and with tomorrow still looming as another pasta day, I will probably end up with a few extra kilos at the start ready to burn them along the way to Coogee. The weather is a bit unstable at best and it looks like a wet run awaits us. Not too much of a worry as I prefer this to a too hot and humid day, which are typical for this time of the year here in Sydney.

I packed a few extra pairs of socks, shoes and shirts to swap along the way. Nothing feels better than a new set of clothes after 50-odd kilomtres of running in the rain.

I need to get my sleep now, a bit of a bugger as it is our wedding anniversary, which only comes around every four years! I promised Uli to take her for a good night out next week ;-)

Happy feet and don't forget to follow us on twitter @run4vision.

Markus

Trivia night helps restore sight to another 296 needlessly blind people

Last night over 200 people packed the big function room of the Randwick Labour Club and enjoyed a great trivia night organised by Team Run 4 Vision. After a short presentation by myself about the event Sydney Coastrek and the reason of running 100 km next Friday, Colin, our trivia master, opened the 'show' and started testing those brains.


We had some heavy competition going on and the 50-odd prizes donated generously by our sponsors all found a deserving winner at the end.

My blind friend Ben attended with friends from his team. Team Achilles will be participating in the 50-km day trek from Palm Beach to Balmoral Beach. An all visually impaired team together with four designated guides on a world-first attempt to finish a 50km team event!

Ben kindly helped us to draw the winners of the raffle competition. 

Thanks to a great effort of all participants we raised almost $7500 on the night, an incredible amount that will allow The Fred Hollows Foundation to restore sight for another 296 needlessly blind people in the developing world.

Thank you to everyone! There are five days to go before our team will be at the start to the 100-km Sydney Coastrek. It is still time to support our team to reach our goal of raising $10,000 and save 400 needlessly blind people's sight.

Thank you!

Palm Beach to Manly

It was another beautiful Sunday morning for our last training run on the trek. Getting up at 4.45am is not really what I am good at and after a short scooter ride with Denis to the train station I was ready to fall asleep again....
After 30 min on the train and bus, we caught up with Jo, Sam and Adam, who was kind enough to drive us 4 from Pymble all the way to Palm Beach for our start.

It is February but the morning was cool like in autumn,  something which however changed very quickly once we started off and had to climb the first steep hill up from Palm Beach to get to Whale Beach.

As soon as we reached some covered area the humidity also became apparent and the going was relatively slow at beginning

After about 6 km into to run the tail started following the cliffs and the views we enjoyed were spectacular!

Glad we had time and cameras with us to take some great shots along the way. Don't think we will spend too much time during our race taking photos.

Some steep ups followed by some steeper downs....

At Avalon we hit our first beach and running in the sand changed our pace quite a lot....have not been running with backpack on the sand since Morocco - some great flashback of hard going across sand dunes and desert.

I am not the best with heights but Denis was even more chicken when Jo took this photo of us on the edge of the cliff looking back to Palm Beach and the Entrance of Pittwater.

 

Checking the map and planning the next crossing of a lagoon 

At each beach where we had to cross water I decided to take off my shoes and socks and run the length of the beach barefoot - a quicker way to cover those nasty beaches....

 

The heat, getting up soo early in the morning and carrying the backpack eventually got to me and I slowed down more then I liked at the end.

With all the photo stops, getting shoes off and on at each beach and some quick breaks to put our heads under the shower to cool down along the way, we managed to reach Manly in just under 5 hours.

I was so happy to get into that refreshing water to cool down and loved the fish and chips lunch even more afterwards.

It was a long day from getting out of bed, running 5 hours and getting back to Maroubra just before the thunder storm but a worthwhile exercise as we now know all the little turns and twists of this trail and should no longer get lost on race day.....

18 days to go

Trivia Night next get together on Friday, 24 February in Randwick

Happy Feet

Missing Denis

Denis had all the intention to catch up with us on Sunday but somehow he missed us along the track...here is the photo how it should have looked in Coogee after our 4 hours training run.

This Sunday we will all be running from Palm Beach down to Manly so we will have covered the whole trek in training and should know all the little tricky bits along the way.

Nothing new in regards of weather forecast - still overcast and rain...but that will make for a cooler running day.

Don't forget to book your seat or table for our all important trivia evening on 24th February in Randwick

http://www.run4vision.com/coastrek_trivia_night.php

Listen to your body

After the last crappy weekend, when I had a hard time to get my feet off the ground and hated every km of the two runs, I decided to take a few days off to recover. I guess those 3 weeks skiing and eating Swiss chocolate caught up with me. So, after 3 days of doing nothing, a great massage and only a 1-hour jog on Thursday, I was ready to join the team for the weekend training – covering two sections of the Coastrek.

On Saturday morning I ran from Maroubra to the Opera House were I joined up with Jo, our new team member and Sam. Denis, the slacko, stayed in bed pretending to suffer from jet lag (he flew back from Perth the night before).

From left: the invisible Denis, Sam, me and Jo at Coogee Beach

We enjoyed a great run along the coast to Watsons Bay and then down to Coogee. The first 3 hours were blissfully cool, and only during the last 10km the sun came out – and with it the humidity. Denis tried to catch up with us, but missed us running into our direction. He called from Vaucluse when we just arrived in Bronte! After a great 5 hours run it was bliss to jump into the pool to cool down before enjoying a great breakfast with the whole team at Coogee Beach (Denis made it back in time for brekkie).

On Sunday we drove to the Opera House to park the scooters and toke the ferry to Manly. Denis and I started towards the Spit Bridge and Sam and a couple of her friends ran towards us from North Sydney. Halfway we met and continued all together back to the Harbour Bridge. It started to get very hot and I felt yesterday's long run in my legs. Sam's friends were setting a fast pace and kept chatting casually all the way back to North Sydney. I am glad that they did not sign up for the Coastrek, as they would have left us in their wake big time.

We found out later from Sam that one of them runs marathons in just over 3 hours, and the other is a champion in orienteering... no wonder I struggled to keep up with them. Now looking forward to another relaxing week before attempting the last (first) section of the trek  that we'll be running from Palm Beach to Manly next Sunday.

Waiting for a new team member

As you could see in the last photo of our Manly to City training run, Kate was missing. Sadly Kate got injured due to training (too hard) for our event. Having been used to shorter sessions running half-marathons, her body was not up to the increased distances we started to run before the festive season. To avoid more injury and give Kate time to recover for her main goal – the Berlin Marathon later in the year, we decided to look for a new member. Sam was lucky enough to literally run into some ultra runner a couple of weeks ago, and she convinced Jo that our 'crazy' adventure is worth joining. We're looking forward to meeting Jo next Saturday for our upcoming training run along the Coastrek, and we're happy to have a complete team again to take up the challenge ahead!

Long training weekend

Today I took advantage of Australia Day and went out for a 2-hour run. I almost made it back home before the rain, but for 1km – then I got drenched.

Saturday I went out again, a bit late in the morning, and suffered in the heat and humidity, but still managed 20km in just over 2 hours.

Sunday Denis and I went along the last third of the trek, again running from Randwick through Centennial Park and down to Double Bay. This time we managed to find the turn-off along Old South Head Road and enjoyed the jog along the Hermitage Walk to Watson's Bay and then back to Bondi and Coogee. My legs were heavy and felt like lead, I had a hard time keeping up, and was very happy to jump into the pool at Denis's after 35km and long 4 hours... All in all a good week with 80+ kilometres. Only 4 weeks to go so, the next two weeks are important to build up a bit more endurance and fitness. Guess have to stop eating those Swiss chocolates now for a while.

Coastrek Training Part 2 - Manly to Opera House

Today we ran the second 33km (which ended up to be 35km) from Manly across the Spit Bridge all the way to the Opera House.

Some stunning views along the way compensated for the many hundreds of stairs and ups and downs along the way.

Sam and Denis put on a blistering pace, which I with difficulty, and Andrew with ease, could follow, but after about 15km Katy and Trent unfortunately fell behind.

The long dinner and wine the night before had not helped – the longer and hotter the day became the slower I got, and at the end I had to walk more then I would have liked to.

It was good we did this part of the course, as we got off the track twice and had to backtrack. Something to avoid on race day for sure.

And the other thing is to check and time for the opening times of the Spit Bridge. Would be a tough wait if the bridge is open when you come around the corner, and you'd have to kill (or lose) about 10–15 minutes before you can continue your run!

Denis and Sam had enough of my navigation skills and are ready to head over a cliff ...

I was exhausted at the end, and have to make sure I take more gels and food with me at next run to avoid slowing down.


Denis and Sam having a rest – still 10km to go.


We arrived at the Opera House after 4.5 hours and with 35km under the belt.

Fun Night - Trivia Night for Coastrek 100km

Please join us for the Run 4 Vision Trivia Night on Friday 24 February from 18.30pm, in support of my 100 km Coastrek adventure raising funds for The Fred Hollows Foundation.

Please bring your friends and family along for a great night of fun. You can find details about the event and info on how to book seats on the Run 4 Vision website.

If you are unable to join us for the night you can still help and make a difference to someone in need. Donate for our good cause on the Coastrek website.

I’m looking forward to see you soon in Randwick!

Happy Feet

Markus

PS: And if you are on Facebook make sure to ‘like’ my new Run 4 Vision page.

How much is too much

Wonder if those cheese fondues in the Swiss Alps were too much as it seems they have slowed me down a bit....I struggled big time to keep up with Denis on our Saturday morning training run around the Eastern Suburbs of Sydney. Eventually I managed to crawl back home after 25km in 2 1/2 hours. Some work to be done quickly in the next couple of weeks to get back on track. Sam is running the Narrow Neck night run in the Blue Mountains tonight. I hope the weather is holding up. No fun to run in the rain and dark.
So, off to some pasta dinner - have another run tomorrow morning
Happy Feet

Winter Training in Switzerland – done

Well, the 3 weeks in the snow went quick, and I am on my way home to sunshine and warmer temperatures. Have to say so that running in the cool winter weather was quite pleasant, and the few long runs over the hills and mountains around my home town St. Gallen were very nice – great, fresh air and views over the alps and all the way to Germany. But to be honest I am glad to put my gloves, beanie, long Skins and wind jacket away for my next run. I was good with food and drink and did not put on too much weight, so keeping up with the guys back in Sydney should not be too hard.

Counting the 7 days skiing in the alps plus the few 25+km runs I did here, I am happy to have kept up an almost uninterrupted training schedule over the last 3 weeks. The skiing was actually quite hard on my knees.  Racing down those steep hills at 60km/hrs was lots of fun but also lots of pressure on the knees and legs.

Off to the airport now. I hope it is open again after yesterday's big snowstorm and wind. I have never seen a snowstorm with lightening and thunder – quite spooky.