Monday 24th October - the last little bit of training, preparation, packing, last sessions at work, getting the kids sorted, getting the animals sorted...

Asics are promoting their supports page, and any messages posted will be played on the big screens in New York to inspire the runners at a few different stages.  If you'd like to send a message, follow the link, and I am not sure if you need my name (Victoria Toogood!!) or my number (802133) to link it all up..  I'll also put a link up on facebook (both pages).

The kids were driving me absolutely bonkers this afternoon, so as soon as Charlie came home, I was out the door to blow off some of the energy.  I broke my cardinal rule of not running 2 days in a row, and did my tempo run - 2 mile warm up, 3 mile at 10k pace and 1 mile cool down.  It felt good.  And I was actually able to achieve the right sort of pace overall and the right sort of HR overall - hallelujah!!!  Very good for the spirit, a session like that.

So I am feeling back on track.  I guess I finally have some of the weight training out of my legs, and I was calculating my PMP  (planned marathon pace) based on my 21 km yesterday.  I can do numbers fairly well.  Anyway, 1.48 for the 21km yesterday, with no breakfast, and no water stops.  That's 12 minutes shy of the 2 hrs, makes for 24 minutes shy of the 4 hours.  So it starts to make my 3 hrs 45 for the full distance look achievable for me - I was beginning to wonder that my sights were set too high. 

Then again,  I am not likely to do New York again - it may be a one off experience for me.  No regrets.

Tuesday -  a crazy day of running around - work, into town for a photo shoot for the advertiser, podiatrist (Philip did say that if there is a 'best marathoners' feet' competition, I should enter.  My feet are great despite the black toe nail and the blood blister next to it!), pick up kids from school, petrol, library book drop off, deliver kids to gymnastics, massage, chiro, then home.  Packing.  Feeding kids, hearing readers, signing notes.  Thank you to Charlie for keeping it all running smoothly. 

All ready to go now!

Wednesday - After getting the kids to school and getting the last minute things including money changed, I was off to the airport.  The Adelaide Qantas CLub lounge is very shiny with a fleet of computers that I used to update this blog.  But then the internet connection timed out and it wasn't saved in tim.  Grr.

I arrived in Brisbane and went for a hot windy run along the river, doing my 5 x 1000m sprints.  As ever, I hate starting the session, I hate doing the session, but I like having done the session.  Brisbane is all in bloom - Jacaranda purple everywhere, so much star jasmine it is suffocating and brilliant bouganvillea.  Very pretty.

Thursday - First day of the Australian Physiotherapy Conference.  Some really good sessions on physical activity (public health, inactivity, the need to get people to actually move), including running training for late stage neurological rehab and Prof Daniel Leiberman from Harvard talking about barefoot running.  He did several session today, so I will look into it more when I get home - it is a big movement, with some sound biological principles, but requires a terrifically different style to how I run.  No changes now for me.

Friday - more conferencing, mainly continence and women's health.  Lovely to hear and see Kari Bo from Norway in the flesh.  An early run this morning - just 14 km along the river.  My last running session in Australia!!

Saturday - Conferencing, and then the bombshell from Qantas.  Thank goodness Charlie arrived in Brisbane just as they grounded the fleet in response to strike action by several of the service unions.  Our Sunday flight was cancelled, which they notified us of at 11pm.  The best information I could get made it clear that I would not be able to fly Qantas to NY before late in the week, with the speediest of resolutions to the grounding.   I spent 2 hours on hold to Qantas, and gave up at that point, having still not spoken to a person.  After an hour or so on hold, I asked Charlie to get started booking on Virgin Australia.  The only flight available for Sunday morning had one way economy seats for $3000 each, and one way tickets were over $2000 for the rest of the week.  I really didn't want to miss out on my time in NY, so bit the bullet and booked the expensive tickets.  According to the Qantas website, refunds and reimbursements will happen, so I am fairly likely to get my money back.  Between Qantas, my Credit card insurance and travel insurance, it should be ok.  I hope.  Very scary deciding to pay $6000 at 10pm on saturday for sunday mornings trip, when you already paid for a flight 5 months earlier that was now cancelled.

Oh -and the weather forecast is showing that it is snowing in NY thanks to a unexpectedly cold front.  Snow in October!  By the time we get there on Sunday evening, it will have gone, probably, and the forecast is for 12- 14 degrees all week.  But 4 degree as a maximum now - wow.

Sunday - The good news is, we are on our way.  We will get there as expected, with another airline.  Thank goodness.  It was a very stressful few hours last night, and I was worried in the early hours, but things are flowing along.  The upside of crazy expensive tickets is that we were able to book exit row seats, so that is a bonus.  And we'll still get home again in a fortnight, one way or another.  Brisbane's international Qantas club lounge isn't a patch on Adelaide's.  I wonder if I'll ever use it again?

Next stop - Los Angeles Airport for an hour or two, then New York!!!